Federal inspectors found documentation or vetting failures in 40% of Afghan asylum applications from the Biden administration's Operation Allies Welcome, a rate critics call alarming.

Fox News Digital reported that a Sept. 23 Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General review examined a sample of 678 asylum applications filed by Afghan nationals admitted under the program launched after the 2021 withdrawal from Afghanistan.

Inspectors identified one or more documentation or vetting errors in roughly two of every five files. Those gaps raised the risk that U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services could miss information that may have made some applicants ineligible for asylum.

The findings put fresh weight on long-running questions about how thoroughly the Biden administration screened people rushed out of Kabul and into the United States.

Hundreds of missing aliases and skipped security checks

The inspector general's sample turned up 303 missing aliases, 23 missing security checks, and more than 150 additional documentation deficiencies. Two cases involved applicants who may have been inadmissible on terrorism-related grounds.

In one of those terrorism-concern files, required paperwork documenting the government's review was missing entirely. In the other, supervisors started the approval process but never finished the final step, leaving no clear record that the review had been completed.

One applicant alone carried 124 known aliases. Missed FBI name checks made up nearly 60% of the absent security checks the report flagged.

That kind of gap in federal name-check work lands in a period when the Justice Department itself has seen sharp personnel shifts on sensitive probes, including when Kurt Olsen resigns from DOJ role tied to Florida investigations.

USCIS agreed with all five recommendations the inspector general issued. Those steps called for better documentation of applicant aliases, proper recording of required security checks, and stronger oversight of adjudication files.

Speed order collided with security basics

DHS answered the report with a press release arguing that the Biden administration "dangerously mismanaged" Operation Allies Welcome. The department pointed to a lawsuit settlement that required USCIS to adjudicate 90% of asylum applications within 150 days, forcing speed ahead of thorough review.

Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, told Fox News Digital the numbers match what critics warned about during the airlift.

Krikorian said:

"The fact that 40% of these applications have errors is alarming,"

He added:

"This IG report just underlines how superficial and even frivolous the vetting that we were assured was going on was."

Many evacuees first went through temporary processing hubs in third countries, sometimes called "lily pads," before entering the United States. Krikorian stressed the permanent consequence once planes left the ground.

He put it this way:

"As soon as that cargo bay door closed, we're stuck with those people,"

Those accountability fights over federal power echo other Justice Department battles, such as when an appeals court weighs DOJ push to revive criminal cases against former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James.

Arrests keep the pressure on old screening claims

The inspector general findings arrive amid renewed scrutiny after several high-profile arrests of Afghan nationals, including people admitted through Operation Allies Welcome. Prior cases referenced in the coverage include an alleged ISIS-K supporter, an Afghan national charged with making terroristic threats, and another admitted under the program who was later arrested after a conviction for indecent exposure to a minor.

Separate video analysis tied to the same reporting described the Justice Department's first-ever use of the Alien Terrorist Removal Court to deport a national security threat, along with a foiled Election Day terror plot linked to Afghan national Nasir Ahmad Tawhedi.

Election integrity enforcement has moved on a parallel track, with the DOJ charges 16 individuals across seven states for illegal voting and election fraud in other recent actions.

The 2021 scenes at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul set the stage. Crowds pressed toward U.S. aircraft in mid-August as the withdrawal collapsed into chaos, and Operation Allies Welcome became the vehicle for large-scale admissions that followed.

Years later, the paper trail on those asylum files still shows missing aliases, unfinished terrorism reviews, and skipped FBI checks. USCIS has accepted the inspector general's fixes on paper. The people already admitted remain here.

Internal DOJ turmoil has marked other national-security and investigative fights as well, including when Joseph diGenova abruptly resigns from a probe into Trump-Russia investigators.

A government that promises rigorous screening, then races cases under a 150-day settlement clock, owns the errors that follow. Taxpayers and lawful residents live with the risk long after the cargo doors close.