the ones getting shot at and they re not the soldiers. what are some of the complications we re still facing on the ground? there are many complications. obviously the fact that we have withdrawn so far and are really only at the airport, you re basically asking the military when senator sasse makes these really strong words from behind a desk, he s basically asking the military to do a reinvasion of new parts of the country and to do so without any bloodshed or loss of american life. that s incredibly complicated. and the most frustrating thing, i think, is that where were these courses, where were these calls weeks, months and years ago? the special immigrant visa process has been in place for years, since 2008, i believe. we could have been getting these evacuees, these special immigrant visa applicants out so much longer ago while we still had an incredible footprint in the country and certainly while we still had control of more than the kabul airport. it s great that people are
how do you possibly vet all of those people in a timely fwhags it s clearly the the customs and border patrol and relevant officials must be completely overloaded. they are, and i will say this is a reflection of the fact that we have hundreds of employees, of our intelligence community working 24 hours a day to to do the vetting necessary and reviews necessary to move people into the united states. now, i would remind you that there are a number of people, tens of thousands of people who are departing afghanistan who are going to third countries, lily pads as we ve been calling them where additional vet considering take place because they only completed certain steps of the immigrant visa process or because the vetting process has not yet been completed. i can give you more detail on the vetting process if that is helpful. so the screening and security vetting is conducted by a
people who are in these special immigrant visa process, so these are people who have worked for the state department or the military during these two decades. they are in the process but they haven t yet been approved and they may not be very far along in it. they seem tonight ones most vulnerable and have the most difficult time getting through, the taliban checkpoints getting into the gate at the airport and getting on the evacuation flights and there are potentially thousand of them and that doesn t even speak to the ones that ama is mentioning, the ones who may be at risk because what have they have been doing, because of the efforts and the work they have been doing over the last 20 years that will make them a target for the taliban going forward. they may not have any real place, like a diplomatic place with the united states that they would have a reason for the u.s. to be taking them out. so that s one of the questions and i think, again, this all comes in the backdrop of the u
0 it does not. lprs also been qucontacted? yep. what about siv applicants? can we get numbers? it s okay. since this whole thing began there s been a lot of criticism of the administration over how it s handled. there s been a lot of push back about the hand that you were dealt by the previous administration in terms of the deal with the taliban and terms of the siv program and the broader refugee program. you have been in office for almost eight months. it s been five months since the president s decision was made. is there anything about the shortcomings that have been so readily identified by all sorts of people that you re willing to take spresponsibility for yourselves? regard to numbers in these different categories. as you ve seen by how i ve laid out how we get to the numbers of americans, this is both incredibly complicated and incredibly fluid. we will have numbers for all those different categories in the days ahead and after this initial phase of efforts to br
0 these are known passport holders. okay. but have have lprs also been contacted? yes. and what about siv applicants, people who are we re in contact will we get i m sorry. i don t expect you to have all of it, but then, you know, since this whole thing began there s been a lot of criticism of the administration over how it handled it and there s been a lot of pushback from people within the administration about the hand that you were basically dealt or what you say you were dealt by the previous to deal with the taliban in terms of the siv program in terms of the broader refugee program. you guys have been in office for eight months. it s been five months since the president s decision was made. is there anything about the shortcomings have about been so readily identified by all sorts of people that you are actually willing to take responsibility for yourselves? thanks, matt. let me say two things. with regards to numbers in these different categories, as you ve