'Why Are We Doing This?': Julie Johnson Grills Top Trump Official Over Afghan Deportations

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During a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing on Wednesday, Rep. Julie Johnson (D-TX) asked Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Allison Hooker about

Transcript

00:00Thank you sir. Thank you Chair now recognizes Representative Johnson. Thank

00:12you so much Mr. Chairman. Madam Under Secretary thank you so much for joining

00:17us today. I was glad to hear Deputy Secretary Regas in his testimony last

00:23week affirm the importance of keeping our commitment to our Afghan allies.

00:28These are family members of Afghan American US military personnel, children

00:33cleared to reunite with their parents, relatives of Afghans have already admitted

00:37and tens of thousands of Afghans who have worked for the United States

00:41government during the 20-year war who were promised the pathway and fully vetted

00:46but now are stranded and waiting. But the department's fiscal year 2026 budget did

00:52not include funding to continue operation enduring welcome. The whole of government

00:57relocation effort and the State Department reorganization abolishes the

01:01offices that were going to do this work and the administration has ended temporary

01:06protected status for Afghans putting these brave individuals at risk of being sent

01:11back as sitting ducks for the Taliban to target. They face retribution for believing

01:16in America's promise and something better but many of the Afghan allies who were

01:21able to make it here to the United States still cannot feel safe. In fact I have a

01:26constituent who was an Afghan ally now detained by ICE with no given reason and

01:31sent to another state. So my question ma'am is what is the State Department doing to

01:36work with the Department of Homeland Security to make sure that DHS does not

01:40swoop in and steal our Afghan allies who are here legally?

01:45Thank you Congresswoman for that question and I will defer you to DHS for those

01:50specific cases and how they're how they're working on those issues. What I can

01:56tell you is that the administration cares very deeply about our Afghan our Afghan

02:05former colleagues and those who were committed to helping the United States in

02:09Afghanistan. As you noted there have been quite a number of Afghanistans who have

02:16been resettled Afghans who have been resettled in the United States. There

02:20were there have been a 400,000 who have been resettled in the US since 2021. We're

02:27continuing. But but the State Department is revoking their protective status and so

02:32you know what are we going to do to help those folks? That's my question is why are we doing this and has the

02:39department the State Department assessed whether Afghans who were connected to the

02:43US mission or the former Afghan government are a greater risk of

02:47retaliation once they return to Afghanistan? Thank you Congresswoman for

02:52that question. The vetting process for bringing Afghans here to the United States

02:58is we take that as a very serious issue. Every visa that we have that we have

03:04provided it's a national security decision. So just you raised earlier the vetting

03:10process and so we're we're taking that into we're very serious about about that

03:17process. We've seen failures of our vetting process produce almost catastrophic

03:23results. There was a situation last fall where someone who had admitted admitted to

03:29the United States had been planning a terrorist attack and in Oklahoma City

03:34fortunately that was thwarted but it just highlights just how serious that each

03:39of these visa conferences. I understand that ma'am but that doesn't imply that one

03:43bad apple spoils the bunch. You know there's always criminal threats from every

03:49sector of every society and every country every race every everything and it's we

03:53have the best law enforcement in the world to be able to assess out those threats

03:57but that doesn't mean that you retaliate and punish all those who are here who

04:02are doing good who put their lives on the line. I'm also concerned that you know

04:09now that administration has terminated all of our assistance to Afghanistan our

04:13remaining leverage comes from the world standing united against recognizing the

04:18Taliban as a legitimate government but on July 3rd Russia became the first

04:22country to full fully diplomatically recognize the Taliban. Did the

04:26administration take any action to press punish Russia for this outrageous move?

04:32Thank you Congresswoman. I do have to say that the United States has not

04:37terminated all of its assistance to Afghanistan. Our the office formerly known

04:43as care all of those functions continue as we've talked about today under the

04:49oversight and direction of our regional bureau responsible which is the South and

04:53Central Asia bureau in the Department of State. So all those functions with regard

05:00to assistance to Afghanistan and to to Afghans that remain in the region all of

05:08that continues. I just want to be be clear on that point. Thank you ma'am.

05:12Unfortunately I'm out of time. I yield back. Thank you Mr. Chairman.

05:15Representative yields back. Representative Huizenga is recognized.

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