Paroled in 2021 Under Operation Allies Welcome, He Is Now Sentenced to 35 Years for Child Sex Crimes in Texas
Badshah Sahi, a 21-year-old Afghan national, was sentenced to 35 years in federal prison in the Northern District of Texas, Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced on October 5, 2026. He pleaded guilty on April 1, 2026; ICE describes the offenses as including producing and possessing child sexual abuse material, sexually assaulting a child, and coercing minors online to produce sexually explicit videos.
According to ICE, Sahi was paroled into the United States on September 5, 2021 under Operation Allies Welcome, the Biden administration’s evacuation program after the Afghanistan withdrawal. ICE’s own headline calls him “recklessly released.” He was arrested on February 28, 2025 for sexual assault of a child.
- 35 years federal prison sentence, announced Oct. 5, 2026 (the Epoch Times reports it as 420 months) — ICE / The Epoch Times
- 3 victims a 14-year-old girl in the Arlington area, a 10-year-old in Indiana contacted online, and a 15-year-old girl in San Marcos — ICE
- 40% of 678 sampled Afghan asylum applications had documentation or vetting deficiencies, per a Sept. 23, 2026 DHS Inspector General report — a program-wide figure, not a finding about Sahi — Fox News / DHS OIG
- Sept. 5, 2021 date ICE says Sahi was paroled into the U.S. under Operation Allies Welcome — ICE
The conduct ICE describes spans two states and three children. A 14-year-old girl was assaulted in the Arlington and Forney area of North Texas. A 10-year-old in Indiana was coerced online into producing explicit videos. A 15-year-old girl in San Marcos was also victimized. Homeland Security Investigations Dallas led the case with Arlington police, Forney police, and county sheriff’s offices. Assistant U.S. Attorney Allyson Monte of the Fort Worth Division prosecuted it, under U.S. Attorney Ryan Raybould of the Trump administration.
Sahi is 21 now, by ICE’s account. He was arrested on February 28, 2025, pleaded guilty 13 months later, and was sentenced this month. Because he pleaded guilty, there is no pending-case caveat here: the conviction is the record.
“This dangerous child sex offender was recklessly released into the United States without proper vetting during the withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021.”
Antwoine Jones · HSI Dallas Acting Special Agent in Charge · ICE release, Oct. 5, 2026
It is worth being precise about what is and is not established. The public record we reviewed does not show what screening Sahi personally received. What it does show is a program with documented gaps. A September 2022 DHS Inspector General report found Customs and Border Protection “did not always have critical data” when vetting evacuees, of whom roughly 72,550 of 79,000-plus were paroled. DHS disputed parts of that report at the time.
The newest audit is blunter. On September 23, 2026, DHS’s Inspector General reported that of 678 Afghan asylum applications sampled from Operation Allies Welcome arrivals, 40% carried at least one documentation or vetting deficiency: 303 missing aliases, 23 missing security checks, and more than 150 other gaps, including two applicants who may have been inadmissible on terrorism grounds. Mark Krikorian of the Center for Immigration Studies called the rate “alarming.” That is a statement about the program’s paperwork, not about anyone’s criminal record.
President at the 2021 evacuation: Joseph R. Biden (D)— Operation Allies Welcome was his administration’s resettlement program.
DHS Secretary: Alejandro Mayorkas (D) — DHS ran the parole, vetting and resettlement pipeline the 2022 and 2026 Inspector General reports examine.
Investigating agency: ICE Homeland Security Investigations, Dallas, with Arlington and Forney police.
Prosecuting office: U.S. Attorney’s Office, Northern District of Texas, Fort Worth Division.
Not every review reached the same verdict. A June 2025 Justice Department Inspector General report found “no systemic breakdowns,” according to ABC affiliate reporting, and DHS contested pieces of the 2022 findings. The tension is real: the earlier reviews were mixed, and the 2026 sample is worse. Readers can weigh both.
The Sahi sentence lands in a year of renewed scrutiny. After an Afghan evacuee was charged with shooting two National Guard members in Washington, D.C. in November 2025, USCIS Director Joseph Edlow of the Trump administration halted all asylum decisions “until we can ensure that every alien is vetted and screened to the maximum degree possible.” In December, DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said, “When Biden let 190,000 Afghan nationals in, they didn’t do criminal background checks, vet social media, someone just vouched for them.” Totals vary by outlet; the 2022 Inspector General counted roughly 79,000 evacuees, while DHS now cites nearly 190,000 Afghan arrivals.
UNVETTED AFGHAN PEDOPHILE ARRESTED. Basir Ahmad Safi, an Afghan national, was arrested by DHS on March 11.
Zabihullah Mohmand, an Afghan national who was resettled in Montana by the Biden administration, was charged with the rape of a teenage girl in a Missoula motel room.
Separate cases, shown as context. Mohmand is charged, not convicted, and is presumed innocent.
Sahi will serve his sentence in the Bureau of Prisons. The open questions are institutional: what the original parole file for each OAW arrival contained, whether the Inspector General’s 40% deficiency rate holds across the full population rather than a sample, and what the paused asylum reviews now find.
A man ICE says was paroled into the country in 2021 under Biden’s Operation Allies Welcome has been sentenced to 35 years for crimes against three children. The sentence has been imposed; the vetting question has not been settled. DHS’s Inspector General has now twice documented gaps in how the program screened evacuees, and what Sahi himself was or was not asked in 2021 is something the public record has yet to show.
