Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) slammed Democrat President Joe Biden on Friday over a report from The Associated Press that alleged some Afghan men had forced girls to marry them so they could escape Afghanistan during the Biden administration’s chaotic withdraw from the country.
“U.S. officials at intake centers in the United Arab Emirates and in Wisconsin have identified numerous incidents in which Afghan girls have been presented to authorities as the ‘wives’ of much older men,” the AP reported. “One internal document seen by The Associated Press says the State Department has sought ‘urgent guidance’ from other agencies after purported child brides were brought to Fort McCoy in Wisconsin. Another document, described to the AP by officials familiar with it, says Afghan girls at a transit site in Abu Dhabi have alleged they have been raped by older men they were forced to marry in order to escape Afghanistan.”
Cruz responded to the “credible and horrifying” report by blasting the Biden administration, saying that they had “no plan for a secure, orderly, and responsible withdrawal from Afghanistan.”
“Instead, the President and Biden-Harris officials imposed arbitrary deadlines for political purposes. They rushed the evacuation to expedite moving tens of thousands of Afghans into the United States without thoroughly vetting them for security, health, and humanitarian concerns,” Cruz said in a statement. “I had called for refugees to remain in safe third countries while they were vetted, but instead, President Biden rushed to bring them to the United States. It was already clear his reckless decision threatened the security and health of Americans, from concerns over terrorism to evacuees testing positive for COVID-19. Today we learned that President Biden has also imported an acute human rights crisis into the United States.”
“There have been multiple cases of child brides and polygamous families from Afghanistan arriving at military bases here in America as part of their botched evacuation,” the statement concluded. “Reports even suggest that some of the exploitation was a direct result of the Biden administration’s chaotic evacuation process, a process that has enabled and incentivized coercion and abuse to the point where Biden Administration officials may well be complicit in child trafficking. Every Biden-Harris official linked to this disgrace should and must be held accountable.”
The report said that State Department officials have sought “urgent guidance” from other federal government agencies about how to handle the situation. The report also said that some of the Afghan men that have been brought to Fort McCoy claim to have more than one wife.
Cruz’s national security adviser, Omri Ceren, highlighted other troubling news stories that have surfaced in recent hours stemming from Biden’s chaotic pullout, including numerous Afghan nationals flagged for potential ties to terrorism and cases involving individuals who are infected with the coronavirus.
News from just the last few hours about Biden Afghan airlift & vetting failures –
1) 100 flagged for terror links, 10k need more security checks.
2) Not tested for COVID until they get here, positive cases in bases.
3) Sex trafficking and abuse, including child marriage. pic.twitter.com/lnBZgWhz4d
— Omri Ceren (@omriceren) September 3, 2021
This article has been expanded after publication to include additional information.