Mr. Ludeking was a recent recipient of the Secretary’s Award for Team excellence.  To receive any award from Mayorkas suggests Mr. Ludeking is “on the team” and, thus, is likely to be a thorn in the side of a future conservative administration.  In this case, however, it’s especially troubling because it’s related to Mr. Ludeking’s work resettling Afghan refugees.

While thousands of Afghans have received their asylum decision, for the nearly 20,000 who are still waiting, the next few months will be crucial. When they began arriving after August 2021, Afghans who evacuated to the United States received a two-year humanitarian parole permit. It allows them to work but offers no path to permanent residency in the U.S.

Those two-year permits will begin to expire in the coming weeks, and while USCIS announced that it will renew the permits, it will do so on a case-by-case basis. That means it is up to each Afghan parolee without an asylum decision to file their renewal application or risk losing their legal status in the country.

“The U.S. government rightly promised that people who worked to support human rights and build democracy in Afghanistan could resettle in the United States. The settlement ensures that the government will fulfill that promise to tens of thousands of our allies,” said Richard Caldarone, co-counsel in the case and senior litigation attorney for the National Immigrant Justice Center.

In addition to the upcoming October deadline, the settlement agreement set up additional deadlines with incremental markers on the number of asylum adjudications. By Dec. 31, USCIS must process 65% of all applications filed by Afghans before Aug. 3.

By April 2024, USCIS must process 90% of all asylum applications filed by Afghans before Dec. 2. And by June 2024, USCIS must process all applications filed by Afghans before Feb. 1, 2024.

Issues with beneficiaries of “Operation Allies Welcome” are not just theoretical. In early October 2024, 27-year-old Nasir Ahmad Tawhedi of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma was arrested on allegations he planned to commit a terrorist attack on election day. Americans have no way to know how many more similarly situated Afghans were allowed into the country under this program.

For Mr. Ludeking to not only work on resettling Afghan refugees, but to receive an award for his participation in the effort, suggest she is deeply invested in this issue and calls into question his ability to faithfully execute a more conservative set of policy priorities.

 (Source) (Source) (Source)

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As a student at Gonzaga University in the mid 2000’s, Mark Ludeking wrote several op-eds for the student newspaper (“The Gonzaga Bulletin”) that reveal left-wing views. While not directly relevant to his responsibilities at the Department of Homeland Security, they are illustrative of a long-standing left of center worldview that is out of step with a conservative administration.

Examples include:

·       Immorality of Abortion necessary to Modern Society

·       Abortion opponents should be ready to provide for children

·       Obama initiatives embody spirit of Gonzaga Mission

… If you desire to go somewhere in the world to help with social justice or maybe provide foreigners a positive view of Americans, then you can be sure that Obama's background of living in Indonesia and having a father from Kenya will aid you in attaining that aspiration…

.... Obama has called for the doubling of the Peace Corps by 2011,an organization started by deceased President Kennedy. I have said it before and I will say it again: Barack Obama is our generation's John Kennedy. Not only do the huge youth voter turnouts demonstrate that, but students are beginning to notice that apathy will leave us paying into a bankrupt Social Security system, without health care and limited opportunities even with a college education....

(Source)

…Instead of just wearing pro-life T-shirts and standing out in front of Planned Parenthood and being a visible annoyance…

…but please refrain from going to pray at Planned Parenthood…

(Source)

... It's difficult for our government to help fund programs like education and healthcare because of the large amount money spent by the Department of Defense. This is a very crucial department, but includes some unnecessary programs like the billion-dollar Strategic Defense Initiative or, more commonly, "Star Wars," a program whose aim is to disable an incoming nuclear ballistic missile with another missile or laser from space before it can hit....

.... Those of you who waste your time at Planned Parenthood, I urge you to make use of your gifts and generosity by helping out or putting your money where your prayers are at a foster home where many of these children end up and wait hopelessly for parents to adopt them...

(Source)

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