They said the Homeland Security Department reported that fewer than 600 walked away without the shots in the early weeks of the evacuation, but dodgy records made it impossible for the inspector general to evaluate that claim.
Others walked out of military base camps before final clearance — a process that was supposed to ensure they were vaccinated, as well as acclimated to their new homes.“The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has already provided and will continue to provide counseling for Afghan nationals regarding the conditions of their parole,” the department said in a statement.Even at those camps, the evacuees were treated as “guests” and could walk away at any time, the inspector general said.Indeed, investigators said Homeland Security couldn’t even say when some of them walked away.The inspector general said 8,600 evacuees never made it to the camps set up to process them at eight military bases in the U.S.Homeland Security created a task force to try to track down the evacuees who never made it through processing, but even there, the government bungled, the inspector general said.Homeland Security insisted the task force was fulfilling the exact mission it was given, but the inspector general said the administration’s documents showed that the task force was supposed to be tracking down everyone.Courts have blocked enforcement of some of those mandates, including the one for the federal workforce that applied to Border Patrol and other Homeland Security employees