The U.S. Border Patrol is asking agents about volunteering to deploy to Afghanistan and nearby countries to process Afghan citizens seeking admission to the United States, three agents told the Washington Examiner.
The move is in direct response to the worsening situation in Afghanistan, where President Joe Biden’s recent decision to withdraw U.S. troops was met with chaos as the Taliban took control of the country. Thousands of Americans remain inside, as well as tens of thousands of Afghans who helped the U.S. during the war.
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Three agents, including some assigned to the southern border, told the Washington Examiner that Border Patrol supervisors began inquiring with agents this week about going overseas for 30 to 90 days. Some agents were sent emails while others were asked during daily meetings that take place before shifts commence.
“Supervisors are getting a feel for agents willingness to go to Afghanistan by asking around but no official solicitation yet,” one agent wrote in a text message.
A senior agent said Customs and Border Protection, the Border Patrol’s parent agency, has not submitted a request for agents to go but is “getting a list of agents with experience.” The same solicitation was made following the assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moise in July, but the agency did not end up sending personnel to Haiti.
The deployment would be to Afghanistan, as well as countries surrounding it. The CBP said following the publication of this article that it already has personnel in Doha, Qatar, screening and vetting applicants.
“[The Department of Homeland Security] is working with interagency partners across the U.S. Government and with international partners to enable the safe passage of these individuals, while ensuring the Department is fulfilling its critical mission of protecting the American people and safeguarding our Homeland,” a CBP spokeswoman said in a statement. “The Department, including CBP and USCIS, has dedicated personnel expeditiously supporting the screening, vetting and processing of Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) applications and other eligible Afghans who are seeking refuge.”
The inquiry for volunteers was made as U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, another agency within the DHS, asked some of its 19,000 officers nationwide to volunteer to work processing the applications, though no overseas travel would be required for USCIS personnel, CNN’s Geneva Sands reported . USCIS oversees asylum and refugee admissions, as well as visas and other legal immigration programs.
Border Patrol agents sent to the Middle East would work to relocate Afghan citizens who assisted the U.S. during the War on Terror. Agents would process refugees seeking admission, as well as Afghans who are eligible for Special Immigrant Visas. In July, the Biden administration launched Operation Allies Refuge with the intention of resettling up to 30,000 people at Fort Bliss in Texas and Fort McCoy in Wisconsin.
However, the deployment could negatively affect the Border Patrol’s ability to respond to illegal migration at the southern border, which is at its highest point in 21 years. In July, more than 210,000 people were encountered attempting to enter the U.S. from Mexico illegally. That monthly number has increased significantly since Biden took office in January, when fewer than 80,000 people were encountered. Over the past decade, an average of 30,000 to 50,000 people were seen each month.
Agents from the northern border were deployed south in early spring to help guard the nation’s southern border. Recently retired Border Patrol Chief Rodney Scott said suspected terrorists are crossing the southern border at a level never seen before, while up to half of all agents in the hardest-hit border state, Texas, have been pulled from the line and are indoors processing people taken into custody.
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Border Patrol agents process immigrants who illegally cross the land border with Canada or Mexico and screen them against criminal databases. Agents are not responsible for deciding migrant asylum claims. In 2019, the Trump administration began to train a small number of agents to decide whether to admit those fleeing violence, but the move was criticized by Democrats, who said it was USCIS’s job.
The Border Patrol has previously sent agents on temporary missions to Afghanistan and Iraq. Those agents would be given preference on this deployment, the first agent said.
