Major General Hank Taylor at the Pentagon told journalists on August 21 that “Intelligence, law enforcement, and counterterrorism professionals are conducting screening and security vetting for all SIV applicants and other vulnerable Afghans before they are allowed into the U.S.”
U.S. officials say that Heydari’s arrest shows the system is working, but they have not answered questions about why Heydari wasn’t flagged while he was still in Afghanistan or why his background wasn’t discovered while he was at the transit point in Germany.
“Our policy is not to board flights to the United States until they are cleared,” Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said.
Afghan convicted of rape in U.S. was able to catch evacuation flight from Afghanistan
By Nicole Sganga September 7, 2021 / 1:47 PM / CBS News
One of the tens of thousands of Afghan nationals who managed to make it out of Afghanistan in the airlift carried out by the U.S. and its allies was a 47-year-old man named Ghader Heydari, a convicted felon who had previously been deported from the U.S.
Heydari was arrested on August 27 soon after he arrived, via Germany, at Washington’s Dulles International Airport after catching an evacuation flight out of Kabul, according to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesperson. The Washington Times first reported his detention.
In 2010, Heydari was found guilty of felony rape in Idaho and sentenced to 18 years in prison. He was first deported from the U.S. to Afghanistan in 2017, where he remained until last month.
Thousands of Afghan Refugees Arrive in Idaho, Wisconsin …
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