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FIRST ON FOX: Senate Republicans are teeing up an investigation into former President Joe Biden’s immigration parole programs, which they argue are what allowed the alleged D.C. National Guard shooter into the country.
Sens. John Cornyn, R-Texas, and Josh Hawley, R-Mo., are set to lead a hearing looking into the Biden administration’s parole policies later this month, Fox News Digital has learned.
The announcement of the hearing, slated for Dec. 16, comes on the heels of the shooting of two National Guard members — U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe, 24, who was wounded, and U.S. Army Spc. Sarah Beckstrom, 20, who was killed — allegedly by Rahmanullah Lakanwal, an Afghan man that entered the country under Biden’s Operation Allies Welcome in 2021.
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Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas., plans to hold a hearing to investigate former President Joe Biden's immigration parole policies and their connection to the shooting of two National Guard members by an Afghan national in Washington, D.C. (Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
Operation Allies Welcome was launched in the midst of Biden’s botched withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan, which led to the eventual Taliban takeover of the country after U.S. forces exited.
Biden at the time directed the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to coordinate the resettlement of "vulnerable Afghans, including those who worked alongside us in Afghanistan for the past two decades, as they safely resettle in the United States," according to an archived explainer from the Biden-led DHS.
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) questions acting U.S. Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe Jr. and Deputy Federal Bureau of Investigation Director Paul Abbate during a joint hearing of the Senate Judiciary and Homeland Security and Government Affairs committees in the Dirksen Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill on July 30, 2024 in Washington, DC. (Chip Somodevilla)
Cornyn, who chairs the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Border Security and Immigration, said in a statement to Fox News Digital that he had been warning of repercussions that the policy would have, and that "now those concerns have become reality, with deadly consequences."
"There will be no greater stain on Joe Biden’s legacy than that of his failed immigration parole programs, which he abused time after time to welcome into the U.S. hundreds of thousands of unvetted illegal aliens and potential terrorists who hate our country and want to kill Americans," Cornyn said.
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Sen. Joni Ernst said the Biden administration tripled the government's 8(a) contracting goals from an original aim of awarding 5% of federal contracts to 8(a) companies, up to 15% under his tenure. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
Hawley, who chairs the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Counterterrorism, said in a statement to Fox News Digital that he had been sounding the alarm on "the Biden Administration’s refusal to vet evacuees," since 2021.
The lawmaker noted in a post on X at the time that an email shared with him by a U.S. official present during the evacuation in Afghanistan that he was ordered by Biden to "fill up the planes — even without vetting."
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"And now their recklessness has opened the door to terrorism within our borders, including the deadly attack on our national Guardsman two weeks ago," Hawley said. "There needs to be accountability."
Their hearing also follows demands from several Senate Republicans in a letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, which Cornyn also signed on to, that vetting standards for Afghan nationals be revisited and beefed up in the wake of the shooting in Washington, D.C.
Alex Miller is a writer for Fox News Digital covering the U.S. Senate.
