However the US took them to navy bases in Persian Gulf nations and Europe for scrutiny. At these transit zones, often called “lily pads,” groups drawn from Customs and Border Safety, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Nationwide Counterterrorism Middle and intelligence companies interviewed the Afghans and took their biometric and biographical info.
A whole bunch of analysts and brokers have been dispatched to work on the transit websites, officers mentioned. Others contributed from the US, working by way of the weekends and sharing info in safe videoconference calls.
A number of the evacuees had already utilized for particular immigrant visas, whereas others have been newly enrolled for processing after they landed on the abroad bases. The screeners took their fingerprints, pictures, names, dates of start, earlier addresses, and any cellphone or passport numbers, and ran them by way of legislation enforcement, navy and intelligence databases.
Some circumstances that originally raised crimson flags have been cleared inside hours, officers mentioned. They included evacuees whose names have been in a database of recognized or suspected terrorists however who turned out to be completely different individuals.
More durable circumstances are mentioned to have included situations through which database queries confirmed that somebody utilizing a cellphone quantity related to an evacuee had referred to as suspicious individuals, or that the evacuee had as soon as been denied entry to an American set up. Such database hits might not at all times present context, requiring additional digging and dialogue.
Formally, it’s the Homeland Safety Division that decides whether or not to permit specific evacuees into the US as a result of the legal authority to grant somebody “humanitarian parole” resides with its secretary, Alejandro Mayorkas. However as a matter of casual observe, the officers mentioned, suggestions have required interagency consensus.
The chief department and its sprawling safety forms wield sweeping energy to determine whether or not to confess a foreigner into the nation. Below American legislation, noncitizens overseas have little recourse if officers reject them.
