Two Afghan men who were brought to the U.S. in the Biden administration’s airlift have been indicted on assault and sexual assault charges.
One, Mohammad Haroon Imaad, 32, choked and hit his wife, an FBI agent said in a charging document. The wife also told personnel at Fort McCoy, where the family was being held, that her husband beat her “many times” in Afghanistan, to the point that she “lost vision in both eyes.”
The other man, Bahrullah Noori, 20, is accused of sexually assaulting one juvenile who was 12 to 15 years of age, and three other instances of fondling the genitals of another juvenile, also 12 to 15 years old.
The men are among 13,000 Afghan refugees at the Wisconsin fort, and among some 60,000 people airlifted out of Afghanistan who have reached the U.S. Another 60,000 evacuees are still being held overseas while they are vetted and processed.
Mr. Imaad and Mr. Noori cleared that vetting in order to reach Fort McCoy.
It’s not clear what status they had, though it’s likely they were admitted by Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas under his power of humanitarian parole.
In the case of Mr. Imaad, his wife told soldiers at the base he had raped her at Fort McCoy, and he told her he would send her back to Afghanistan “where the Taliban could deal with her,” the FBI agent wrote.
The wife, identified only by initials B.I., also said Mr. Imaad struck their children.
Security experts have complained about the massive numbers involved in the airlift, warning that there’s little chance to do significant vetting.
Biden administration officials have acknowledged that forced child brides were brought to the U.S. by men in the airlift.
The Washington Times has also reported on a convicted rapist and a convicted aggravated robber who made it through overseas vetting and reached the U.S. Both were flagged by a Customs and Border Protection officer at Washington Dulles International Airport.
The airlift was sold to the public as a chance to evacuate Afghans who assisted the two-decade U.S. war effort, though Biden officials now say they brought out people who don’t qualify under that category, but who still needed evacuation.
The administration has been unable to detail numbers of people who did assist the U.S. effort, versus those who were airlifted out for other reasons.
