Security scare

Almost five years after the Biden administration’s chaotic pullout from Afghanistan, experts and advocates disagree over whether the federal government properly vetted the Afghans who fled their homeland for the United States. At the end of January, the Heritage Founda­tion released a report claiming the federal government did not adequately screen potential immigrants for terrorism connections or past crimes due to the tumultuous political climate and rampant document fraud during the evacuation and the months following.

Senior research fellow Simon Hankinson, the report’s author, noted that thousands of applicants listed their birthday as Jan. 1 or used multiple names. Hankinson, who is also a former consular officer, questioned the use of the term “Afghan allies” to describe the more than 200,000 Afghans who resettled in the United States. Not all of these individuals worked directly alongside the U.S. military, he pointed out. Many of them did odd jobs for subcontractors and worked with nongovernmental organizations or foreign media groups. “They have stretched the definition so much, it doesn’t make sense anymore,” Nayla Rush, a senior researcher for the Center for Immigra­tion Studies who is quoted in the report, told WORLD.

The Biden administration also loosened requirements for special immigrant visas and refugees—statuses that put recipients on a pathway to U.S. citizenship—the Heritage analysis argued, and unlawfully admitted others under a temporary status called humanitarian parole. Hankinson urged the U.S. government to reexamine Afghans who entered after 2021 and focus on protecting individuals in surrounding safe third countries instead of admitting more Afghans into the country.

But resettlement advocates like Shawn VanDiver, founder and president of AfghanEvac, say the report mischaracterized the evacuation operation and conflated distinct immigration programs. His group issued a rebuttal statement, arguing Hankinson’s critiques compare the vetting process with an unrealistic standard that doesn’t account for the reality of a collapsed state with few available records. “It wasn’t perfect,” VanDiver told WORLD. However, the Biden administration “identified all these issues and placed national security at the forefront,” he argued.

A historic decline

For the first time in half a century, more immigrants left the United States in 2025 than entered, Brookings Institute estimates show. Researchers examined Immigration and Customs Enforcement data, which show deportations within the interior of the United States—away from the border—jumped by a factor of 4.6 during President Donald Trump’s first nine months in office. ICE arrests quadrupled as a whole, including a sevenfold surge in arrests of immigrants with no criminal convictions. ICE conducted more than 675,000 deportations last year, according to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. That included almost 300,000 from within the interior of the country—a record for this century. As the Trump administration continues its immigration crackdown, net migration will likely continue to decline.