Overview
- Late September 2026 the Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General released a final audit showing errors in about 40% of a sampled set of Afghan asylum applications from Operation Allies Welcome.
- The OIG examined a statistical sample of 678 applications drawn from 13,682 adjudicated OAW files and found 303 missed aliases, 23 missing security checks, 45 unresolved records, and 115 other documentation problems.
- Two cases in the review involved missed aliases or incomplete paperwork that the OIG said may have rendered those individuals inadmissible on terrorism-related grounds, though the audit did not link the errors to any confirmed security breaches.
- U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services agreed to all five OIG recommendations and said existing, multi-layered screening and security systems limit practical risk from administrative mistakes.
- The findings have renewed congressional scrutiny and partisan debate and could prompt further oversight, corrective steps in USCIS file handling, and follow-up reviews of how rapid 2021 resettlement affected vetting.