House Homeland Security Chair Mark Green has issued a subpoena to the Department of Homeland Security after what he said was an inadequate production of documents related to the vetting and screening of Afghan evacuees following the U.S. withdrawal in 2021.
“While the produced documents provide some basic information regarding Afghan evacuees, they fall well short of what was requested by the Committee,” Green (R-Tenn.) wrote in a cover letter, calling the productions to date “wholly inadequate.”
The request, made in a letter to Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, calls for all documents in “complete and unredacted form” since April 14, 2021 related to the “screening, vetting, or inspection” of Afghan evacuees. The subpoena calls for the production of the requested documents by Nov. 7 at noon.
A spokesperson for the department pushed back strongly on the move, saying it provided the committee nearly 7,000 pages of documents in recent weeks and criticizing an “unprecedented and inordinate volume of requests” and “unrealistic and arbitrary timelines.”
“The House Homeland Security Committee continues to misuse its authority and pursue media attention instead of conducting actual oversight for any legislative purpose,” the spokesperson said. “This conduct undermines the Department’s ability to respond effectively, not only to [the committee], but to all of Congress.”
Another DHS official called the subpoena “completely unnecessary” and that “thousands of more documents are currently under review for rolling productions over the next several weeks.”
