Afghan Refugees to Be Given Free Homes, Cash Handouts to Settle in America
America to take in thousands of refugees
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The Biden administration is poised to create sponsorship circles of veterans to provide money for refugees to have housing and other expenses covered so they can settle in America.
Currently, there are 55,600 Afghan refugees on military bases in the U.S.
The Biden administration also wants to place refugees beyond the former 100-mile limit from the resettlement office, CNN reported.
Former Democratic Delaware Gov. Jack Markell praised the plan.
“This is just an amazing opportunity to, frankly, do what our veterans have been asking us to do, which is provide a safe and dignified welcome to Afghans who served by our side in Afghanistan and who now want to build their own lives here,” he said.
But Republican Rep. Yvette Herrell of New Mexico said thorough vetting is essential.
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Herrell claimed she was stonewalled after she sought t information in an assault involving a refugee accused of assaulting a female soldier.
The incident prompted her to call for more stringent vetting before Afghan evacuees were resettled.
“The data and the vetting is only as good as what you can compare it to. So were they truly able to compare criminal backgrounds, security backgrounds?” she said.
“What’s really sad is we already know Afghans made it to the nation who had been deported by Department of Homeland Security earlier on.”
“I think it behooves us to at least leave these Afghan nationals in other nations until we can do a complete analysis and vetting process on each and every one of them, guaranteeing the American people that we do know their criminal background, that they can pass security background checks, that they are actually Special Immigrant Passport Holders,” she continued.
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“[W]e just don’t know who’s coming in, and we really don’t have faith in this vetting process because we know that they have already made mistakes,” Herrell said.
Refugee agencies argue they do not have the funds for such vetting.
“We just didn’t have the capacity after the beating we took under the Trump administration,” said Mark Hetfield, president, and CEO of HIAS, a refugee resettlement agency, according to CNN.
“Necessity is the mother of invention. This is the outcome of that.”
Community Sponsorship Hub, part of Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, Inc., is trying to find a place to put refugees.
“It’s providing this opportunity for communities that said they want to stand up, to stand up. That’s the point. It’s to maximize this outpouring of desire to welcome,” said Danielle Grigsby, co-founder, and director of external affairs at Community Sponsorship Hub.
