Senator Josh Hawley, R-Mo., during a Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee confirmation hearing in Washington, D.C., on Jul. 16, 2025. (Valerie Plesch/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
"We've got to figure out how many people are here with national security concerns. And I can tell you, I think we're going to hear testimony tomorrow that there are over 50 folks known in the country with terrorist ties who had hits on terrorist databases and were allowed to come into the country. I mean, over 50," Hawley said.
The Senate hearing is titled, "Biden’s Afghan parolee program — a Trojan Horse with flawed vetting and deadly consequences."
The hearing comes after an Afghan national shot a pair of National Guard members in Washington, D.C., in November, killing one and leaving the other in critical condition. The attack, which the FBI labeled an act of terrorism, raised questions among Republicans like Hawley about whether the administration had done enough to ensure the United States had screened the people it was attempting to help.
According to reporting from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the U.S. welcomed 76,000 evacuees during its Operation Allies Welcome in 2021, a directive from Biden to resettle vulnerable Afghans.
But other experts believe the number of total refugees goes much higher.
The Biden administration allowed more than 200,000 Afghan nationals into the country as the U.S. wound down nearly 20 years of military presence in Afghanistan, according to the conservative think tank Center for Immigration Studies. The failed attempt to prevent the Taliban from returning to power left many key American allies in the country worried that they could suffer retribution from a new government hostile to the U.S.
SEN TOM COTTON: ALLEGED AFGHAN ATTACK ON GUARDSMEN WAS PREVENTABLE. WE MUST DO BETTER NEXT TIME
Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., speaks during Senate Judiciary and Homeland Security and Government Affairs committees in the Dirksen Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill in Washington, July 30, 2024. (Chip Somodevilla)
In addition to Rush, the committee will entertain testimony from several other immigration experts, including Craig Adelman, the deputy inspector general at the DHS office of audits, and Arne Baker, deputy inspector general for evaluations at the Department of War.
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The committee is slated to begin its hearing at 2:00 p.m. EST.
Fox News' Dan Scully contributed to this report.
Leo Briceno is a politics reporter for the congressional team at Fox News Digital. He was previously a reporter with World Magazine.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/hawley-expects-trojan-horse-hearing-reveal-dozens-terror-linked-afghan-parolees-us