A federal watchdog found that nearly half of the files for Afghan migrants had mistakes. The Department of Homeland Security Inspector General revealed that 40 percent of the vetting applications contained errors. This report covers the massive effort to move people out of Afghanistan quickly. The watchdog, Joseph Cuffari, looked at the files after the Biden administration pulled troops out in 2021. That program, called Operation Allies Welcome, brought in about 75,000 people in just a few months. Some of these folks were never even interviewed in person before they arrived. Per Breitbart, the final report dated September 23, 2026, detailed exactly what went wrong in the paperwork.
The audit checked a random group of 678 applications from the total 13,682 cases. Inside those files, the team found 303 missed aliases and 23 missing security checks. There were also 45 unresolved records and 115 other documentation issues. New York Post noted that the errors ranged from simple spelling mistakes to big gaps in safety checks. One person’s file was missing extra paperwork that could have stopped them from entering the country. In another case, the paperwork was there, but the official box to approve it was left blank. The New York Post reported that these mistakes happened because officers missed name variations or forgot to add documents to the main file.
The report warns that these errors could hurt national security. The watchdog wrote, “The prevalence and type of errors suggest U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services may have missed opportunities to potentially link names provided by applicants to derogatory information.” This means they might have missed bad info on people who should have been stopped. The report continues, “which in turn would compromise the integrity of alien registration file (A-File) contents that future users rely upon for immigration administration and enforcement activities.” RedState confirmed the audit found 303 missed aliases and 23 missing security checks in the sample group. Two specific cases involved people who might have been inadmissible on “terrorism-related grounds.”
NEW: The DHS Inspector General just dropped a new, heavily redacted report that found a 40% failure rate in the vetting of asylum claims for Afghan nationals brought to the US by the Biden administration in 2021 after the Afghanistan withdrawal, including two cases that involved… pic.twitter.com/ahCoImq3oL
— Bill Melugin (@BillMelugin_) September 29, 2026
In one instance, a higher-up authority did not approve the analysis because the paperwork was missing. In the other case, the paperwork was signed, but the box indicating approval was left unchecked. The report noted that some errors are just annoying, while others are dangerous. The watchdog stated that some mistakes are “inconsequential beyond inconvenience because the information is generally available in another location.” However, if supervisors do not review the files, the risks to safety go up. The New York Post highlighted that these issues were found during a random audit of the asylum cases.
The sheer number of errors is hard to ignore. Out of the 678 files checked, 303 had missed aliases. That is almost half of the sample group just for names that did not match. There were also 23 cases where security checks were never run. This means the FBI or other agencies were not asked to look up the person’s background. The report found 45 records that were left hanging without a decision. Another 115 files had other documentation problems that needed fixing. These are not small clerical errors that happen once in a while. They happened in 4 out of every 10 files checked.
The timeline shows how fast the process moved. The administration created Operation Allies Welcome in 2021 right after the troops left. They resettled 75,000 Afghans in mere months. The speed likely caused the rush that led to these 303 missed names. The watchdog’s review covered the period when the government was trying to get everyone settled quickly. Per RedState, the audit focused on the 13,682 cases adjudicated by USCIS during this time. The report date of September 23, 2026, marks when these findings were officially released. The New York Post reported that the watchdog’s review of the sample found more than 150 other documentation issues alongside the missing security checks.
The report points out that some of these errors could have stopped people with bad backgrounds. The watchdog wrote that the errors suggest missed chances to link names to bad info. This could mean that people who were not supposed to be here got in. The report states that the integrity of the files is now compromised for future use. This means other agencies cannot trust the records they see. The New York Post noted that the errors vary from being just a nuisance to a real threat. The watchdog said some issues are “inconsequential beyond inconvenience.” But the two cases involving terrorism grounds show that the risk is real. The report does not say how many of the 75,000 people were affected overall, only the rate in the sample. The audit found 303 missed aliases in just the 678 files checked. That is the number that matters most right now.
