The chorus calling for the importation of untold thousands of Afghan refugees into the United States is growing. We reported on August 20 about the U.S. governors, most of them Republicans, who are asking for Afghanis to be resettled in their states. Since then the sanctimonious choir has expanded.
Note the following:
- Republican Senators Lisa Murkowski (R-AL), Jim Inhofe (R-OK), and Bill Cassidy (R-LA) signed onto a letter of 46 senators calling for a humanitarian parole category to qualify more Afghans for resettlement.
- Utah Governor Spencer Cox (R-UT) wrote to Biden saying his state is “eager” to assist with the resettlement of Afghan refugees
- Georgia Governor Brian Kemp (R-GA) said his state was open to accepting refugees, declaring that it was “vitally important” to do so. The state’s Republican Speaker of the House and other GOP legislators agreed. As did all of the Democrats, of course.
- U.S. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell chimed in about the refugees, saying, “We need to care for them.”
- Senator Joni Ernst (R-IA) said, “We have always been very welcoming to those that needed to immigrate and those refugees that were running away from disaster in their own country.”
- Former Republican presidential nominee and now senator Mitt Romney (R-Utah) declared, bombastically, “America must not stand idly by as our Afghan friends are brutalized by the Taliban. For honor, for meaning of lives lost, and for simple humanity, the President must urgently rush to defend, rescue, and give and expand asylum. There is no time to spare.”
- The original Compassionate Conservative himself, George W. Bush, reliably intoned that our government “has the legal authority to cut the red tape for refugees during urgent humanitarian crises. And we have the responsibility and the resources to secure safe passage for them now, without bureaucratic delay.”
Meanwhile, thankfully, there have been a few nay-sayers:
- Former White House adviser Stephen Miller suggested resettling refugees in other countries in the region, such as Pakistan, telling Laura Ingraham, “Those who are advocating mass Afghan resettlement are doing so for political, not humanitarian reasons.”
- Representative Matt Rosendale (R-MT), said, “The chaos we’re seeing is not an excuse to flood our country with refugees from Afghanistan.”
- Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), tweeted that “all Afghan refugees should be held elsewhere and vetted right now, NOT given direct entry into the U.S.”
- Representative Tom Tiffany (R-WI), expressed concern about the plan to bring refugees to his state, tweeting, “@POTUS has already allowed one catastrophe to unfold overseas and Americans cannot afford for a similar catastrophe to unfold here.”
- Fox News host Ingraham asked rhetorically, “Is it really our responsibility to welcome thousands of potentially unvetted refugees from Afghanistan? All day, we’ve heard phrases like, ‘We’ve promised them.’ Well, who did? Did you?”
- Columnist Ann Coulter remarked, “There seems to be some confusion about who was helping whom here. Our Afghan allies’ were not helping us. The Taliban weren’t in Iowa. We were helping them.”
- Tucker Carlson said, “If history is any guide, and it’s always a guide, we will see many refugees from Afghanistan resettle in our country, and over the next decade, that number may swell to the millions. So first we invade, and then we are invaded.”
- Steve Cortes, a senior adviser to President Trump’s 2020 campaign, reacted to the Afghan refugee photo above by tweeting, “Raise your hand if you want this plane landing in your town.”
- Two other former Trump officials, Russ Vought and Ken Cuccinelli, issued the following statement: “[I]t is not in our national interest to accept refugees merely because they are refugees. U.S. governors are rushing to resettle refugees from Afghanistan with no thought as to how it will impact the security or cohesion of their communities.” The statement was retweeted by a third Trumpist, Stephen Miller.
Finally, former President Trump himself seems to have second-guessed his first reaction. On Monday, August 16, he asked:
Can anyone even imagine taking out our Military before evacuating civilians and others who have been good to our Country and who should be allowed to seek refuge?
But by Wednesday, August 18, referring to the same photo as Cortes above, he said:
This plane should have been full of Americans. America First!
For more, see Fox News.