Daily Sabah logo

Politics
Diplomacy Legislation War On Terror EU Affairs Elections News Analysis
TÜRKİYE
Istanbul Education Investigations Minorities Expat Corner Diaspora
World
Mid-East Europe Americas Asia Pacific Africa Syrian Crisis Islamophobia
Business
Automotive Economy Energy Finance Tourism Tech Defense Transportation News Analysis
Lifestyle
Health Environment Travel Food Fashion Science Religion History Feature Expat Corner
Arts
Cinema Music Events Portrait Reviews Performing Arts
Sports
Football Basketball Motorsports Tennis
Opinion
Columns Op-Ed Reader's Corner Editorial
PHOTO GALLERY
JOBS ABOUT US RSS PRIVACY CONTACT US
© Turkuvaz Haberleşme ve Yayıncılık 2023

Daily Sabah logo

عربي
  • Politics
    • Diplomacy
    • Legislation
    • War On Terror
    • EU Affairs
    • Elections
    • News Analysis
  • TÜRKİYE
    • Istanbul
    • Education
    • Investigations
    • Minorities
    • Expat Corner
    • Diaspora
  • World
    • Mid-East
    • Europe
    • Americas
    • Asia Pacific
    • Africa
    • Syrian Crisis
    • Islamophobia
  • Business
    • Automotive
    • Economy
    • Energy
    • Finance
    • Tourism
    • Tech
    • Defense
    • Transportation
    • News Analysis
  • Lifestyle
    • Health
    • Environment
    • Travel
    • Food
    • Fashion
    • Science
    • Religion
    • History
    • Feature
    • Expat Corner
  • Arts
    • Cinema
    • Music
    • Events
    • Portrait
    • Reviews
    • Performing Arts
  • Sports
    • Football
    • Basketball
    • Motorsports
    • Tennis
  • Gallery
  • Opinion
    • Columns
    • Op-Ed
    • Reader's Corner
    • Editorial
  • TV
  • World
  • Mid-East
  • Europe
  • Americas
  • Asia Pacific
  • Africa
  • Syrian Crisis
  • Islamophobia

Trump aides push discriminative policies toward Afghan refugees

by ASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON, D.C. Sep 15, 2021 - 12:01 pm GMT+3
Then-President Donald Trump's White House senior adviser Stephen Miller walks on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., Oct. 30, 2020. (AP Photo)
Then-President Donald Trump's White House senior adviser Stephen Miller walks on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., Oct. 30, 2020. (AP Photo)
by ASSOCIATED PRESS Sep 15, 2021 12:01 pm
RECOMMENDED
Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) departs a news conference marking the 6th anniversary of the Trump administration's Executive Order 13769, also known as the Muslim ban, outside the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 26, 2023. (AFP File Photo)

US House removes Muslim lawmaker Ilhan Omar from major committee

United-States

As tens of thousands of Afghan refugees fleeing the Taliban arrive in the U.S., a handful of former Trump administration officials are working to turn Republicans against them.

The former officials are writing position papers, appearing on conservative television outlets and meeting privately with GOP lawmakers – all in an effort to turn the collapse of Afghanistan into another opportunity to push a hard-line immigration agenda.

"It is a collaboration based on mutual conviction,” said Stephen Miller, the architect of former President Donald Trump’s most conservative immigration policies and among those most engaged on the issue. "My emphasis has been in talking to members of Congress to build support for opposing the Biden administration's overall refugee plans."

The approach isn’t embraced by all Republican leaders, with some calling it mean-spirited and at odds with Christian teachings that are important to the white evangelicals who play a critical role in the party’s base. The strategy relies on tactics that were commonplace during Trump’s tenure and that turned off many voters, including racist tropes, fear-mongering and false allegations.

And the hard-liners pay little heed to the human reality unfolding in Afghanistan, where those who worked with Americans during the war are desperate to flee for fear they could be killed by the new Taliban regime. But the Republicans pushing the issue are betting they can open a new front in the culture wars they have been fighting since President Joe Biden's election by combining the anti-immigrant sentiment that helped fuel Trump’s political rise with widespread dissatisfaction with the Afghan withdrawal. That, they hope, could keep GOP voters motivated heading into next year’s midterms, when control of Congress is at stake.

"From a political standpoint, cultural issues are the most important issues that are on the mind of the American people,” said Russ Vought, Trump’s former budget chief and president of the Center for Renewing America, a nonprofit group that has been working on building opposition to Afghan refugee settlement in the U.S. along with other hot-button issues, like critical race theory, which considers American history through the lens of racism.

His group is working, he said, to "kind of punch through this unanimity that has existed” that the withdrawal was chaotic, but that Afghan refugees deserve to come to the U.S. Officials insist that every Afghan headed for the country is subject to extensive vetting that includes thorough biometric and biographic screenings conducted by intelligence, law enforcement and counterterrorism personnel.

At a pair of hearings this week, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said those "rigorous security checks” begin in transit countries before refugees arrive in the U.S. and continue at U.S. military bases before anyone is resettled. Checks then continue as refugees await further processing. But Trump and his allies, who worked to sharply curtail refugee admissions while they were in office, insist the refugees pose a threat.

"Who are all of the people coming into our Country?” Trump asked in a recent statement. "How many terrorists are among them?”

With the U.S. confronting a host of challenges, it's unclear whether voters will consider immigration a leading priority next year. It was a key motivator for voters in the 2018 midterm elections, with 4 in 10 Republicans identifying it as the top issue facing the country, according to AP VoteCast data.

But it became far less salient two years later, when only 3% of 2020 voters – including 5% of Republicans – named it as the No. 1 issue facing the country amid the COVID-19 pandemic and related economic woes. When it comes to refugees, 68% of Americans say they support the U.S. taking in those fleeing Afghanistan after security screening, according to a Washington Post/ABC News poll in late August and early September.

That includes a majority – 56% – of Republicans. The party's leaders are far from united. Dozens of Republican lawmakers and their offices have been working tirelessly to try to help Afghans flee the country. And some, like Republican Sen. Thom Tillis from North Carolina, have admonished those in his party who have suggested the Afghans pose a security risk. Some of the skepticism voiced by the right has been exacerbated by the Biden administration's refusal to date to provide an accounting of who was able to leave Afghanistan during the chaotic evacuation campaign from Kabul Hamid Karzai International Airport.

The State Department has said that more than 23,800 Afghans arrived in the U.S. between Aug. 17-31. Thousands more remain at U.S. military sites overseas for screening and other processing. But officials have said they are still working to compile the breakdown of how many are applicants to the Special Immigrant Visa program designed to help Afghan interpreters and others who served side-by-side with Americans, how many are considered other "Afghans at risk,” like journalists and human rights workers, and how many fall into other categories.

The organization War Time Allies estimates as many as 20,000 special visa applicants remain in the country, not counting their families and others eligible to come to the U.S. Ken Cuccinelli, who served as Trump's acting deputy secretary of the Department of Homeland Security and is now a senior fellow at the Center for Renewing America, says he doesn't believe the refugees have faced sufficient review.

"It’s unachievable as a simple administrative matter,” he said of the process.

While Cuccinelli, like Miller, believes that SIVs should be allowed to come to the U.S., he argues that the other refugees should be resettled in the region, closer to home. The "mass importation of potentially hundreds of thousands of people who do not share American cultural, political, or ideological commonalities poses serious risks to both national security and broader social cohesion," he wrote in a recent position paper on the group’s website that cites Pew Research Center polling on beliefs about Sharia law and suicide bombings.

Other former administration officials strongly disagree with such inflammatory language.

"Some of the people who’ve always been immigration hard-liners are seeing this wrongly as an opportunity ahead of the midterms to, for lack of a better term, stoke fear of, ‘I don’t want these people in my country,’” said Alyssa Farah, a former Pentagon press secretary who also served as White House communications director under Trump.

Farah said she has been working to "politely shift Republican sentiment” away from arguments that she sees as both factually false and politically questionable. The Republican Party, she noted, includes a majority of veterans – many of whom worked closely alongside Afghans on the ground and have led the push to help their former colleagues escape – as well as evangelical Christians, who have historically welcomed refugees with open arms.

"It's totally misreading public sentiment to think that Republicans should not be for relocating Afghan refugees who served along side the U.S.," she said. "The Christian community is there. The veterans community is for it.”

RECOMMENDED
Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) departs a news conference marking the 6th anniversary of the Trump administration's Executive Order 13769, also known as the Muslim ban, outside the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 26, 2023. (AFP File Photo)

US House removes Muslim lawmaker Ilhan Omar from major committee

United-States
  • shortlink copied
  • Last Update: Sep 15, 2021 1:01 pm
    RELATED TOPICS
    fight-against-terrorism DEUTSCHE-BANK US-LIBYA-RELATIONS
    KEYWORDS
    afghan crisis afghanistan united states republican party donald trump anti-immigration
    The Daily Sabah Newsletter
    Keep up to date with what’s happening in Turkey, it’s region and the world.
    You can unsubscribe at any time. By signing up you are agreeing to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
    President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson (L) hold a press conference following their meeting at the Presidential Palace in the capital Ankara, Türkiye, Nov. 8, 2022. (AFP File Photo)

    Türkiye-Sweden row hints at deeper concerns within NATO

    türkiye-sweden-relations
    Greek naval forces conducted routine patrol missions around the Mediterranean island of Kastellorizo, one of the easternmost islands in Greece, which is just 3 kilometers (1.8 miles) from the southern coast of Kaş, Türkiye, Dec. 30, 2022. (Reuters Photo)

    Türkiye will not stand by as Greece threatens security: Erdoğan

    türkiye-greece-relations

    Norway cancels Quran burning after reaction from Türkiye

    QURAN-BURNING

    Türkiye summons envoys of 9 countries to express dismay over closure

    TURKIYE-EUROPE-RELATIONS
    No Image
    In photos: Tunisia Revolution victims plea for recognition
    PHOTOGALLERY
    • POLITICS
    • Diplomacy
    • Legislation
    • War On Terror
    • EU Affairs
    • News Analysis
    • TÜRKİYE
    • Istanbul
    • Education
    • Investigations
    • Minorities
    • Diaspora
    • World
    • Mid-East
    • Europe
    • Americas
    • Asia Pacific
    • Africa
    • Syrian Crisis
    • İslamophobia
    • Business
    • Automotive
    • Economy
    • Energy
    • Finance
    • Tourism
    • Tech
    • Defense
    • Transportation
    • News Analysis
    • Lifestyle
    • Health
    • Environment
    • Travel
    • Food
    • Fashion
    • Science
    • Religion
    • History
    • Feature
    • Expat Corner
    • Arts
    • Cinema
    • Music
    • Events
    • Portrait
    • Performing Arts
    • Reviews
    • Sports
    • Football
    • Basketball
    • Motorsports
    • Tennis
    • Opinion
    • Columns
    • Op-Ed
    • Reader's Corner
    • Editorial
    • Photo gallery
    • Jobs
    • privacy
    • about us
    • contact us
    • RSS
    © Turkuvaz Haberleşme ve Yayıncılık 2021