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Tag: afghan refugees

  • Afghan refugees in Fort Worth face feds’ scrutiny after Guard members shot in DC

    Afghans who fled the Taliban to resettle in Fort Worth face uncertainty as the Trump administration promises an immigration crackdown after this week’s shooting of two members of the National Guard in Washington, D.C.

    The suspected shooter, 29-year-old Rahmanullah Lakanwal, is from Afghanistan and worked with the CIA during the U.S. war in that country. Hours after the shooting, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services posted on X that the agency will indefinitely stop “all immigration requests relating to Afghan nationals.”

    Many of the Afghans in Fort Worth are still waiting for their cases to be processed.

    Angie Kraus, the founder of a nonprofit organization that assists refugees in Fort Worth, said she was shopping with an Afghan friend Friday morning when the woman learned about the USCIS announcement.

    “She started crying in the store,” Kraus said Friday.

    The woman has been in the U.S. since 2021 but still hasn’t received her permanent resident card, according to Kraus. Now it’s uncertain when that will happen.

    Nearly 200,000 Afghans have sought safety in the U.S. since the Taliban returned to power in 2021. More than 1,000 of the new arrivals call Fort Worth home. The U.S. military and intelligence agencies relied on Afghans as translators and in other crucial roles during the 20-year war that made them targets after the Taliban takeover.

    Refugees walk through Dulles International Airport in Virginia on Aug. 31, 2021, after being evacuated from Kabul following the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan.
    Refugees walk through Dulles International Airport in Virginia on Aug. 31, 2021, after being evacuated from Kabul following the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan. Anna Moneymaker Getty Images

    John Stettler told the Star-Telegram on Friday he’s “deeply concerned” over the impact the fallout from the shooting could have on these refugees. Stettler was giving a driving lesson to an Afghan when reached by phone Friday.

    Stettler hasn’t heard much yet from local Afghans about Wednesday’s events, but he said many of them have been living in “very deep fear” since President Trump took office in January. In addition to cracking down on illegal immigration, Trump’s administration has revoked the legal status of thousands of migrants, including Afghans with Temporary Protected Status.

    Stettler pointed to statistics which indicate that native-born Americans are much more prone to commit serious crimes than immigrants. Refugees and immigrants are more likely to become victims of violent crime, Stettler said. He’s concerned the response to Wednesday’s shooting will drive this vulnerable population further into the shadows.

    “This will have the immigrant community even more scared of cooperating with police,” he said.

    The D.C. shooter faces a murder charge after one of the victims, 20-year-old Spc. Sarah Beckstrom, died on Thanksgiving Day from her injuries. The other guardsman, 24-year-old Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe, remains in critical condition. Both of them are from West Virginia and were deployed to the nation’s capital as part of Trump’s crackdown on crime.

    The shooter’s motives still aren’t clear. Investigators believe he drove from Washington state for the attack.

    AfghanEvac, a group of American veterans and Afghan allies, issued a statement Wednesday saying they were deeply saddened by the attack and called for the shooter to be held accountable.

    “This individual alone is responsible for his actions,” the statement reads. “This individual’s isolated and violent act should not be used as an excuse to define or diminish an entire community.”

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    Fort Worth Star-Telegram

    Harriet Ramos covers crime and other breaking news for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

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  • National Guard shooting halts immigration processing for Afghan nationals

    The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced late Wednesday that it has stopped processing all immigration requests from Afghan nationals following the shooting of two National Guard members in Washington, D.C.

    The suspect in the shooting, identified by multiple media outlets as Rahmanullah Lakanwal, 29, is an Afghan national who came to the U.S. in 2021 during the administration of former President Joe Biden under a program called Operation Allies Welcome.

    President Donald Trump backed those reports in a video statement released by the White House on X Wednesday night, saying, “The suspect in custody is a foreigner who entered our country from Afghanistan, a hellhole on earth. He was floated by the Biden administration in September 2021 for those infamous flights that everybody was talking about.”

    In a post on X late Wednesday, USCIS said, “Effective immediately, processing of all immigration requests relating to Afghan nationals is stopped indefinitely pending further review of security and vetting protocols.

    “The protection and safety of our homeland and of the American people remains our singular focus and mission.”

    In June, the Trump administration placed Afghanistan on a travel ban list, with the exception of people with Afghan Special Immigrant Visas, given to Afghans who helped the U.S. government during the war there.

    Why It Matters

    The shooting of two West Virginia National Guard members deployed to Washington, D.C., has reignited concerns about security and the vetting of Afghan refugees, especially after the withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021 led to rapid resettlement of tens of thousands of Afghans in the United States.

    Trump linked the incident to his wider immigration policy and criticized the prior administration, calling for a “reexamining” of all Afghan nationals brought in under the program during the Biden administration.

    The decision is expected to impact Afghan nationals seeking asylum, resettlement or other immigration benefits, while raising questions on U.S. commitments to wartime allies and national security priorities.

    What To Know

    USCIS announced in a post to X that all processing of immigration requests from Afghan nationals are “stopped indefinitely.” The statement came hours after a suspect in the shooting of the Guard members near the White House was identified as an Afghan national. The duration of the suspension is undefined, and the review process is ongoing.

    Authorities identified the suspect as Lakanwal, who arrived in the U.S. in 2021 under the Operation Allies Welcome program after the Taliban recaptured Kabul.

    The victims, two members of the West Virginia National Guard deployed to Washington, D.C., for the Trump administration’s crackdown on crime in the nation’s capital, were critically injured.

    The suspect was shot, injured and arrested. Officials have not determined a motive, but Trump described the shootings as “an act of terror.”

    Lakanwal reportedly served with U.S. forces in Afghanistan for 10 years and arrived in the United States as part of an effort to protect Afghan allies, according to family members who spoke to NBC News.

    The U.S. government allowed around 76,000 Afghans entry under Operation Allies Welcome, designed to assist those at risk after the American withdrawal from Afghanistan.

    Following the attack, Trump announced the deployment of an additional 500 federal troops to Washington, D.C., supplementing the over 2,000 National Guard soldiers already stationed there for what the administration calls a public safety initiative.

    The shooting and the administration’s response have drawn renewed scrutiny to the legal status and operational role of the National Guard in the nation’s capital.

    Advocacy groups and some lawmakers have also raised concerns about the vetting process for Afghan refugees.

    While human rights advocates argue that arrivals face significant scrutiny, government audits have found flaws and data inaccuracies in records. The Biden-era program granted temporary parole, not permanent status, to most evacuees. The Trump administration recently moved to end Afghanistan’s temporary protected status designation.

    What People Are Saying

    President Trump: “We must now reexamine every single alien who has entered our country from Afghanistan under Biden, and we must take all necessary measures to ensure the removal of any alien from any country who does not belong here, or add benefit to our country. If they can’t love our country, we don’t want them.”

    Shawn VanDiver, president of AfghanEvac, to NBC News Wednesday night: “This individual’s isolated and violent act should not be used as an excuse to define or diminish an entire community.”

    Republican West Virginia Governor Patrick Morrisey, on Wednesday: “Our prayers are with these brave service members, their families, and the entire Guard community.”

    Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, on X Wednesday night: “The suspect who shot our brave National Guardsmen is an Afghan national who was one of the many unvetted, mass paroled into the United States under Operation Allies Welcome on September 8, 2021, under the Biden Administration. I will not utter this depraved individual’s name. He should be starved of the glory he so desperately wants. These men and women of the National Guard are mothers, fathers, sisters, daughters, children of God, carrying out the same basic public safety and immigration laws enshrined in law for decades. The politicians and media who continue to vilify our men and women in uniform need to take a long hard look in the mirror. Bryon and I will be praying hard for these two National Guardsmen, their families, and every American who puts on uniform to defend our freedom.”

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  • Thousands Of Detained Afghan Evacuees Are Living In Prison-Like Conditions In UAE

    Thousands Of Detained Afghan Evacuees Are Living In Prison-Like Conditions In UAE

    More than 2,000 Afghans who fled their country after the Taliban took power are being detained indefinitely in the United Arab Emirates, according to a new report from Human Rights Watch.

    An estimated 2,400 to 2,700 Afghans have been “arbitrarily detained” in a housing facility dubbed “Emirates Humanitarian City” for more than 15 months, the organization said in its report, released Tuesday. Having no idea what their future holds and being confined to a prison-like facility for months has taken a severe toll on their physical and mental well-being.

    “We are not criminals,” Ahmad, who resides in the facility and asked to be identified by a pseudonym because he feared for his safety, told HuffPost. “We had to leave because our lives were in danger, and we shouldn’t be treated like prisoners.”

    The majority of the people who remain detained lack status. They are ineligible for immigrant visas, are not considered refugees since UAE is not a signatory to the 1951 Refugee Convention, and cannot request asylum in a third country. But they’re also typically not aware of these complications, as they have no access to legal assistance, according to the HRW report.

    “We are completely in the dark about this whole thing,” Ahmad said. “We don’t know why some got flights while we didn’t. We have no idea what comes next, and we don’t know who to go for help.”

    Some 12,000 Afghan evacuees were initially brought to the facility after Kabul fell to the Taliban in August 2021. Some were airlifted by the U.S. military aircrafts as part of “Operation Allies Welcome,” and some U.S. veterans and non-governmental groups arranged civilian-chartered flights to bring more people to the UAE after the airlift operation ended. Many of the evacuees had fled Afghanistan because they feared being persecuted or killed as ethnic or religious minorities, LGBTQ people, journalists, activists or judges.

    People have repeatedly protested the slow and ambiguous process, including the lack of clarity over who is given priority for onward flights. The U.S. has mainly focused on relocating those who had ties to the U.S. and had been flown in under government operations.

    As of September 2022, the United States had granted entry to over 88,000 Afghans, but thousands are still awaiting admission into the country due to pending statuses, including through the special immigrant visa and the refugee admissions program, a type of visa issued to those who served with U.S. military and diplomatic missions. Other countries, including Canada, Australia and Germany, have also taken some evacuees.

    The evacuees who remain in the UAE have been left to their own fate, often consoled with false assurances.

    “They’ve been promising us flights for months and nothing has happened yet,” Ahmad said.

    Afghans rallied in an Afghan refugee camp in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates, to protest the non-transfer to the United States on Feb. 13, 2022.

    NurPhoto via Getty Images

    “Governments should not ignore the shocking plight of these Afghans stranded in limbo in the UAE,” Joey Shea, UAE researcher at Human Rights Watch, said in the report. “The U.S. government in particular, which coordinated the 2021 evacuations and with whom many evacuees worked before the Taliban takeover, should immediately step up and intervene to provide support and protection for these asylum seekers.”

    Mara Tekach, the coordinator of the State Department’s Afghan relocation effort, said in a letter to the HRW that the U.S. is still committed “to relocate and resettle all eligible Afghans” including those “eligible Afghans” located at the UAE facility.

    Afghans are being held in apartment buildings located in an industrial district of Abu Dhabi that has been turned into a temporary refugee housing facility. The facility’s management and provision of essentials like food, health care and education are under the control of the UAE government.

    Families are provided with one small room, according to the HRW report, while single men are kept in separate halls and in shared rooms with other single men.

    Human Rights Watch spoke with 16 Afghan detainees, who all complained about the facility’s poor condition, including food quality and schooling options for children.

    The report also lists overcrowding, infrastructure decay and bug infestation complaints. Movement is severely restricted. Only some necessary hospital visits and rare group shopping — under careful supervision — are allowed outside the complex. The building is also off-limits to outside visitors.

    People with severe health conditions who need specialized care have had trouble getting medical care, according to the report. Many adults and children suffer from mental health conditions like depression, but they do not receive sufficient psychosocial support.

    “Some people even have suicidal thoughts,” Ahmad said. “Even children are depressed and don’t know what to do with their daily lives.” He said his daughter, who can’t make new friends or try new activities, has lost all her motivation, gone completely quiet, and has no interest in school.

    “I am more concerned about my children and their future,” Ahmad said. “We can’t go back, and there is no way forward either.”

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