(2 Sep 2021) Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas was briefed in person by officials as some of the Afghan refugees fleeing the Taliban arrived at Dulles International Airport Thursday.
The Associated Press was the only news agency at the airport when Mayorkas was there for his briefing.
The U.S. and its coalition partners have evacuated more than 100,000 people since the airlift began Aug. 14, including Afghans who helped the U.S. during the 20-year war.
Non-citizens arriving from Afghanistan are taken to the Dulles Expo Center in Chantilly, Virginia after being processed at the airport and then to one of several military bases.
Three of those bases are in Virginia - Quantico Marine Corps Base, Fort Pickett and Fort Lee.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency has opened a mass COVID-19 vaccination site for arriving Afghans at Dulles Expo Center, where many of the arriving evacuees are receiving medical screenings and being temporarily housed before being transferred to military bases in New Jersey, Virginia, Wisconsin and Texas.
The U.S. government is intent on making sure that medically eligible evacuees are vaccinated as soon as possible after arriving in the U.S.
Refugee admissions dropped annually under former President Donald Trump and ultimately reached a record low.
Now resettlement agencies are scrambling to expand capacity and rebuild infrastructure so they can handle the arrivals from Afghanistan.
The Pentagon said it takes evacuees several days to arrive in America, because evacuees are first taken to other nations, including Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, Spain, Germany and Bulgaria, so many thousands more are still on their way to the U.S.
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