Biden Afghanistan bug out left 14,000 US legal residents behind

 Foreign Policy:

The State Department believes as many as 14,000 U.S. legal permanent residents remain in Afghanistan, Foreign Policy has learned, as the agency faces increasing scrutiny from Congress about the status of U.S. citizens and green card holders that are still stranded in the Taliban-controlled country. 

The finding, disclosed by a congressional aide familiar with the matter, has been transmitted by the State Department to aides on Capitol Hill in private, but officials demurred on revealing the figure when questioned by Republican lawmakers on Wednesday, insisting the agency doesn’t track the figure. 

“Isn’t the operating assumption about 14,000?” Republican Rep. Chris Smith asked Brian McKeon, deputy secretary of state for management and resources, at a hearing on Wednesday, referring to the figure briefed in private. 

“We don’t track [legal permanent residents],” McKeon responded. “It’s a good question why we don’t,” he added, suggesting the lack of clarity might be because the State Department does not require Americans and legal permanent residents traveling abroad to report their whereabouts. 

The new number sheds light on the extent to which the United States’ chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan left U.S. citizens, residents, and important Afghan allies in the lurch as a lightning-fast Taliban offensive swept across the country. McKeon revealed 289 U.S. citizens remain in Afghanistan as of Tuesday and a further 81 Americans are ready to depart. McKeon added that 140 Americans have departed in the last week.

The U.S. State Department also has to confirm that people still in Afghanistan want to leave and have the right travel documents, McKeon said. The agency has prioritized the evacuation of U.S. citizens ahead of legal permanent residents and green card holders, which Foreign Policy reported last month. The State Department did not clarify the numbers of legal permanent residents who wanted to leave, the congressional aide said.

...

Getting a straight answer out of this incompetent administration is still difficult.   It also looks like the military was not truthful in its estimates of those left behind by the Biden bug out.

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