I recall when, during the Syrian refugee crisis, I wrote something unfavorably comparing America with Germany. My daughter — working in the Middle East on refugee matters — chided me that America still had the world’s best record overall in welcoming refugees. Indeed, one of things I so deeply loved about this country.
That was then.
Meantime we were terrible when it came to resettling Iraqis who’d helped us during that war — which put them at mortal risk from Islamic State forces and suchlike. (Read about this here.) Betraying them was a moral disgrace.
Now it’s Afghans.
I was a Biden supporter, but gee, his Afghan pullout was another travesty. (Though it had actually been negotiated by Trump.) Compounded by a reprise of that Iraq story, failing to extricate many Afghans who’d assisted us in the conflict (worked with us as translators, etc., or even fought alongside us), consequently targeted for death by the Taliban.
We did still have a basic refugee program. Under both international and U.S. law, refugees arriving here have a right to apply for asylum if having a genuine fear of harm in their home countries. Such claims adjudicated by a whole system of immigration judges. Many now fired by the Trump regime, deemed too sympathetic, replaced with hardliners (many inexperienced and unqualified), tellingly rebranded “deportation judges.”
Still there was (in theory) a special refugee program for our former Afghan allies. But when one such guy committed a shooting, Trump jumped on that as a pretext to shut the entire Afghan refugee pipeline.
Indeed, as of now, America has pretty much slammed the door on all refugees (except for white South Africans, with nonsensical persecution claims). While making all regular immigration much harder as well.
And it gets worse.
There are about 1100 former Afghan allies who’d managed to escape that country after the Taliban takeover, and were qualified for U.S. resettlement. For several years they’ve been held in the limbo of a U.S. military facility in Qatar. Shameful enough. But now the Trump regime wants to wash its hands of them altogether. Giving them a choice — be sent back to Afghanistan — a death sentence — or to the Democratic Republic of Congo.
A rare country with which the Trump regime could make such a deal. Also one in the throes of civil war and anarchy, with a rotten human rights record. One the U.S. State Department warns is too dangerous for Americans to visit.
That’s where Afghan people, who were loyal to us, will be thrown.
How sick, cruel, inhuman can you be? It’s morally depraved. Trump’s whole policy toward migrants destroys lives for no good reason. In fact, it makes America poorer and worse off. A triumph of hate over love.