On Wednesday, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley released a letter that he wrote to Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson, pointing out that Ohio State University attacker Abdul Razak Ali Artan was granted asylum in the United States even though the government knew he was a possible recruitment target of Islamic terrorists.
Grassley pointed out that tips had been found that the refugee background checks for Artan and his family may have been incomplete. The Judiciary Committee obtained documents showing that after Artan, his mother, and six sibling arrived in the United States from Somalia in 2013, Artan’s mother stated during the vetting process that she was seeking refugee status, in part, because she feared the terrorist group “Al-Shabbah” would kidnap and recruit her children.
Grassley posited:
This information should have caused the asylum officer to conduct additional questioning of the older children to better understand ties to a group that the United States designated as a foreign terrorist organization in 2008. Further questioning could have eliminated the possibility that the asylees had dubious ties to the terrorist group and could have allowed for more robust vetting and data collection. However, although common practice in these cases, no additional questioning was conducted.
He added:
Moreover, it appears several of the forms obtained by my office still bear the Department’s previous name, the Immigration and Naturalization Service, which was replaced in 2002 by the Homeland Security Act. I am interested in understanding whether the substance of the form completed in 2013 is outdated, or if the form simply bears the incorrect name. It is imperative that these important forms are up to date to ensure proper records are obtained, and information documented.
“This information should have caused the asylum officer to conduct additional questioning of the older children to better understand ties to a group that the United States designated as a foreign terrorist organization in 2008.”
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley
As Grassley’s website points out, “Federal investigators reportedly believe Artan was inspired by ISIS and the radical cleric Anwar al-Awlaki.”
Grassley had written to Johnson asking for information on Artan on December 3.