Sarah Beckstrom shot in Washington DC by Afghan suspect
For many Americans, the emotional response to this atrocity is: They shouldn’t be here. But who “they” refers to varies depending on who you talk to.
Some people who hate Donald Trump think the Guard should never be in Washington. They were compromised by the President. This comes dangerously close to saying it happened to them.
President Donald Trump said he would “permanently pause” immigration from Third World countries to the United States.Credit: access point
Others think Afghans should never be allowed into the United States. Vice President J.D. Vance, who objected at the time, said bluntly: “They shouldn’t be in our country.”
Rahmanullah Lakanwal’s alleged actions should not denigrate the 190,000 other Afghans who have settled in the United States since 2021. When these numbers are reached, some people will commit crimes. You hope none of them will become radicalized. But this is a risk that is omnipresent in an open and welcoming society.
It’s a risk many Americans think they shouldn’t take. In an already heated climate over immigration, the attack provoked a visceral reaction. And this is not limited to Afghan refugees.
Stephen Miller, the White House’s deputy chief of staff who manages immigration policy, said that under the Biden administration, every immigrant coming to the United States is now under the spotlight. He was outraged, saying millions of people from “the world’s most failed societies” such as Afghanistan, Libya, Somalia and Iraq had been allowed into the country.
Stephen Miller, the White House’s deputy chief of staff for policy, said the administration would accelerate the deportation drive.Credit: Bloomberg
Miller is unconvinced by the idea that one man’s actions should not tarnish an entire group.
“This is the great lie of mass immigration,” he wrote in X. “You’re not just importing individuals. You’re importing societies. There’s no magical transformation when failed states cross borders. Immigrants and their descendants recreate the conditions and horrors of their shattered homelands on a large scale.”
Laura Loomer, an influential MAGA personality who has the president’s ear, is calling for a permanent ban on Muslim travel to the United States and a strict deportation spree. He called for “raid mosques and mass deport every non-citizen Muslim immigrant.”
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Trump began his response. He announced that he would “permanently pause” immigration from what he described as Third World countries and remove anyone who was not a “net asset to the United States.”
He also said he would end all federal aid and subsidies for noncitizens, strip citizenship of immigrants who “undermine civil peace” and deport any foreign national who poses a security risk or is “incompatible with western civilization.”
Details are yet to be seen. But this much is clear: there is a question mark hanging over anyone who comes from a Muslim-majority country and wherever Trump deems a “shithole country.”
“For the most part, we don’t want them,” Trump said. “They’re coming illegally, they’ve got a lot of problems, their country’s pushing them because their country’s smart, they don’t want them. ‘Let’s give it to the Americans to handle this.'”
In another sign of the broad, emotional backlash this attack has sparked, Trump seized the opportunity to attack Somali-born Democratic congresswoman Ilhan Omar, who “was always wrapped in a swaddle hijab and likely came to the United States illegally,” reigniting the conspiracy theory that she married his sister.
The attacker in Washington killed an American soldier. It shot directly at the heart of the country, targeting one of Trump’s proudest accomplishments: the deployment of the National Guard.
Fairly or unfairly, many people will now pay the price for his despicable actions. It’s probably going to get ugly.
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