A grand jury in Wisconsin charged one Afghan refugee with sexual assault of a child while another is accused of strangling his wife.
The two unrelated charges were unveiled Wednesday. Both men are accused of perpetrating their crimes at Fort McCoy in western Wisconsin where 12,500 refugees from Afghanistan are presently housed.
Bahrullah Noori, 20, is charged with three counts of engaging in sexual acts with a minor under the age of 16. One of these charges alleges a use of force. He is also accused of another count of “attempting to engage in a sexual act with a minor using force against that person.” If convicted, he faces a mandatory minimum penalty of 30 years but could spend the rest of his life in federal prison.
Mohammad Haroon Imaad, 32, allegedly assaulted his wife “by strangling and suffocating her.” At most, he will receive 10 years in prison.
Both men were moved from Fort McCoy to the Dane County Jail and made their first court appearances Thursday morning.
Meanwhile, over 60,000 other refugees have arrived in the U.S. from Afghanistan, according to CNN. Critics of this refugee influx like Arizona’s U.S. Rep. Andy Biggs and Tennessee’s U.S. Rep. Mark Green have commented on Noori and Imaad’s charges, suggesting they represent a failure of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to properly vet and monitor evacuees. So far, the DHS has been coy about revealing how many evacuees have been turned away for security reasons, per the New York Post, as Wisconsin U.S. Senator Ron Johnson sounds the alarm about a potential lack of vetting procedures.
Most of the people arriving in Wisconsin are “not the special immigrant visa [SIV] holders,” Johnson says. “The question is: who are they?”
He is not alone in this concern.
“The United States must make every effort to evacuate Afghans who have already been vetted and cleared for resettlement as SIVs. But, as is often the case, advocates for mass immigration are attempting to use the Biden-created chaos in Afghanistan to vastly expand a well-intended program,” warns Dan Stein, president of the Federation for American Immigration Reform.
Minnesota is slated to welcome 275 Afghan refugees. Gov. Tim Walz is excited about this prospect, noting that his state already has “a strong tradition of welcoming those who seek refuge.” Presently, Minnesota has the most refugees per capita of any state, due largely to its mass acceptance of Somalis.
Kyle Hooten
Kyle Hooten is Managing Editor of Alpha News. His coverage of Minneapolis has been featured on television shows like Tucker Carlson Tonight and in print media outlets like the Wall Street Journal.
