U.S. Representative Peter Meijer (R-MI), a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, today questioned Secretary of State Antony Blinken about the Biden Administration’s botched withdrawal from Afghanistan and the ongoing crisis in the country.
The full text of Rep. Meijer’s remarks as delivered is below:
“Thank you, Mr. Secretary, for coming before us today. I just wanted two quick clarifications about some of the questions that my colleagues asked. Number one: Congressman Green asked whether or not the Taliban was a terrorist organization. You said yes, and I'm assuming you're referring to their listing as a specially designated global terrorist group?
“Congresswoman Houlahan asked earlier – and you answered part of this question, but you didn't get to one component of it – she was asking about why the deadline had been changed from September 11th, which it appears the Taliban had consented to and acknowledged, to August 31st. I didn't hear a response from you on that front.
“Secretary, I certainly understand the risks of pushing that August 31st deadline. I had initially believed that pushing was necessary and then understood the new position we are in would not allow for that.
“I want to also get at something that we discussed earlier. It was mentioned several times these emails that the State Department sent to Americans who were in Afghanistan warning them to leave. As somebody who was a civilian in Afghanistan, I remember getting alarmist emails from the State Department, so I can also understand if they had a little bit of fatigue about being told the sky was falling again. I'm also sure there's maybe some changes to verbiage that perhaps didn't come across as much. But I guess I'm a little bit challenged to square that with the delay that we saw.
“As a member of the Honoring Our Promises Working Group, on Special Immigrant Visa applications, we reached out to the Administration on April 21st imploring, urging them to clear the backlog. I understand some logistical hurdles there. We worked to expedite and streamline the processes, but still, if we were so concerned that we sent these grim emails saying Americans should leave the country immediately, how come we weren't moving more quickly? Why did it take 99 days before the first charter flight took special grant visa applicants out?
“My deep regret is that it took so long, as obviously we had that concern expressing it to citizens. Talking with folks behind the scenes and still understanding some of the procedural logistical impediments, I just I wish we would have had that task force appointee earlier.
“I also want to touch upon something you mentioned multiple times: some of the folks who were left behind or dual nationals - do you make a prioritization between native born American citizens by birth and those who are naturalized citizens?
“Mr. Secretary, in some of those cases, those individuals have maybe not a direct defendant, maybe not a wife or husband, maybe not a son or daughter, but they might have a brother or sister who is SIV eligible or has had it that approved, and those flights are delayed. Please work to free the planes at Mazar-i-Sharif airport.”
Original source can be found here.
