Has this Administration turned into a cult of murderers? They have the data for these countries that proves the danger that most will be in. The Administration is one step away from forcing women to have more children. So, they are getting rid of families to make room for unborn white children? When just supporting two can strain a family’s finances. I said two years ago when there was a crush at the border..”hire more judges for immigration cases”. Biden tried to do that with a bipartisan bill but overruled by Republicans because they wanted to have full credit for it. This is murder, period
Another important and poignant story, Rekha. Heartbreaking 💔. Everyone should read your essay about Afghan immigrants. Trump and Stephen Miller, the real strategist behind Trump’s cruel, heartless, and hateful treatment of immigrants, appear to take pleasure in their suffering. I’m appalled and embarrassed to be an American at this moment.
Excellent local reporting, brilliant global insights. The Trump administration's betrayal of the Afghans here legally who risked everything to help the U.S. and then fled their home country in fear of not only persecution buy summary execution is not only shameful it's incredibly shortsighted. What nation will join us again in defense of liberal democracy? The question answers itself: This administration is not interested in defending liberal democracy. It’s interested in a new world order that sees democracy as inefficient and a barrier to the global reach of billionaires and techno-tyrants who want to replace the dollar with crypto and nation states with "network states." Scary? Yes. True? Yes. Now, what do we do about it?
..."a new world order that sees democracy as inefficient and a barrier to the global reach of billionaires and techno-tyrants." Well put, Michael. Right now the federal courts seem to be the best hope for reversals. But in the long term, the political opposition will have to grow more organized, focused and persuasive to get more voters to the polls to reject this self-serving administration.
Amen. If he openly defies the courts it’s time for Democratic and Republican leaders to call him what he is—a tyrant trampling on the Constitution—and impeach him post haste.
Read the article & immediately called & left messages @ Senators Grassley & Ernst's DC offices, which are already closed for the day. Mean spirited tone of the letter, and certain torture & death would await their being returned to Afghanistan. We will have no friends or allies left in the global world that will trust us in the very near future.
Thank you so much for sharing Miriam’s story! Joni Ernst staff, on Tuesday told me to have them call 988, exhibiting No Comprehension of these refugees’ plight.
988 is a suicide and crisis hotline. Certainly a great resource but this is a monumental national atrocity, begging for our Congress and our court system to stand up.
In 1980 the US allowed Afghan refugees into the USA. (Wikipedia).
In 2001 several Afghan families arrived in Des Moines to escape the Taliban.
At Des Moines’ Greenwood Elementary School, I taught art to five children from a family who had escaped with their widowed mother. Their travel was difficult through dangerous mountains and rocky passes into a refugee camp in Pakistan. They had to escape because their father’s body was dumped on their front doorsteps by the Taliban.
These children came to Des Moines and Greenwood Elementary in 2001 five of them from ages Kindergarten- 4th grade. The staff at school welcomed them and helped them build their foundational skills to become the successful people they are today some twenty years later. This is the American way I envision happening again.
Most recent refugees SHOULD NOT be turned out of the US and kicked to the curb by Kristi Noem’s Deport the Afghanistans Policy.
I have lived in America over 70 years and want to live in a country which is still humane and supportive. We should help people like the Afghanistan refugees, whom we let in for good reason. If Noem’s deportation of Afghanistans is allowed to be enforced, it will be a dark, bloody stain on US.
I beg you to use your voice and contract your senators to stand up for the Afghan refugees. It’s the America I’ve lived in before and hope I am still living in.
Please help, Easy to email our senators. I just sent this letter to our Iowa senators. Urge you to make up your own and send one too, also. Let's have a ground swell of voices heard!
Mary Helen, thanks for your voice and for sharing your experience teaching Afghan refugee children so many years ago. It's heartbreaking what these families are expected to return to. Those in power need to hear and read these responses.
I’m not completely ashamed , to sincerely wish Kristi Noem would be dropped into the hands of the Taliban , wearing the same outfit she wore parading in front of prisoners in El Salvador.
This makes me so sad, and there seems so little to do. As someone else mentioned, contacting our senators get worthless form letters in return. People’s lives are at stake. We have made commitments as a country that are being ignored. It is a betrayal of the Afghans and it is a betrayal of us.
Elections certainly DO have consequences. It is heart breaking.
I can't like this. It's horrifying. Thanks for reporting this Rekha. The both-sidesism of the media is part of the problem--most are captured and complicit.
Thank you, Rekha. This whole situation is shameful. I wish I could believe that Joni and/or Chuck would do one damn thing to protect these people, but I know better after receiving countless worthless form letters from them every single time I write to them. And the next people who will be sent home? The Ukrainians we promised to help and protect. What have we become?
I know chances are probably slim that they’ll stop it. Hopefully the courts will. But the more people they hear from, the more they see that public opinion is turning against these travesties and that it doesn’t bode well for them.
And then we have to hope anyone in this administration cares about public opinion. I have always believed that the Courts would hold and that has been the case up to the appellate level, but I do not trust the SCOTUS to come through on every count. All we need is another one of John Roberts “brilliant decisions” and then “Katie Bar The Door” 🫣
Oh Rekha this makes me weep. I served for one year in Afghanistan as an agriculture adviser and worked daily with people who were our interpreters and our “field” people. I have lost contact but know several made it to this country.
They risked their lives daily to help us and now these heartless creeps are turning their backs.
The Afghans cannot go back. The regime is so cruel that they would more than likely be executed.
Thanks for sharing that perspective, Denise. You must have been there during Taliban rule and experienced what life there was like, especially for females. I can't imagine families having to go back to that.
I was there when the girls schools were being bombed and women were hidden. When we would got through villages we only saw men and boys. I could see women peeking out behind doors and windows. I had hoped to work with women but it was nearly impossible.1
Has this Administration turned into a cult of murderers? They have the data for these countries that proves the danger that most will be in. The Administration is one step away from forcing women to have more children. So, they are getting rid of families to make room for unborn white children? When just supporting two can strain a family’s finances. I said two years ago when there was a crush at the border..”hire more judges for immigration cases”. Biden tried to do that with a bipartisan bill but overruled by Republicans because they wanted to have full credit for it. This is murder, period
Re "getting rid of families to make room for unborn white children" -- it sure looks and feels that way.
Another important and poignant story, Rekha. Heartbreaking 💔. Everyone should read your essay about Afghan immigrants. Trump and Stephen Miller, the real strategist behind Trump’s cruel, heartless, and hateful treatment of immigrants, appear to take pleasure in their suffering. I’m appalled and embarrassed to be an American at this moment.
Thank you, John. I know how you feel. This is such a different America from the one I was raised in.
Excellent local reporting, brilliant global insights. The Trump administration's betrayal of the Afghans here legally who risked everything to help the U.S. and then fled their home country in fear of not only persecution buy summary execution is not only shameful it's incredibly shortsighted. What nation will join us again in defense of liberal democracy? The question answers itself: This administration is not interested in defending liberal democracy. It’s interested in a new world order that sees democracy as inefficient and a barrier to the global reach of billionaires and techno-tyrants who want to replace the dollar with crypto and nation states with "network states." Scary? Yes. True? Yes. Now, what do we do about it?
..."a new world order that sees democracy as inefficient and a barrier to the global reach of billionaires and techno-tyrants." Well put, Michael. Right now the federal courts seem to be the best hope for reversals. But in the long term, the political opposition will have to grow more organized, focused and persuasive to get more voters to the polls to reject this self-serving administration.
Amen. If he openly defies the courts it’s time for Democratic and Republican leaders to call him what he is—a tyrant trampling on the Constitution—and impeach him post haste.
Read the article & immediately called & left messages @ Senators Grassley & Ernst's DC offices, which are already closed for the day. Mean spirited tone of the letter, and certain torture & death would await their being returned to Afghanistan. We will have no friends or allies left in the global world that will trust us in the very near future.
Thank you so much for sharing Miriam’s story! Joni Ernst staff, on Tuesday told me to have them call 988, exhibiting No Comprehension of these refugees’ plight.
Thank you, Maribeth, for alerting me to Miriam's discovery. I hope lots of people are following up with calls to the senators.
What's 988?
988 is a suicide and crisis hotline. Certainly a great resource but this is a monumental national atrocity, begging for our Congress and our court system to stand up.
Oh for heaven’s sake. What a facile response.
... you actually spoke with Ernst's staff? I've only ever gotten voicemail. I'm not complaining, simply observing.
Yes, early am, young woman.
Shameful.
What a powerful and deeply troubling post. Thank you, Rekha.
Thank you, Peter. That means a lot.
STOP THE DEPORTATION OF AFGHANI REFUGEES
In 1980 the US allowed Afghan refugees into the USA. (Wikipedia).
In 2001 several Afghan families arrived in Des Moines to escape the Taliban.
At Des Moines’ Greenwood Elementary School, I taught art to five children from a family who had escaped with their widowed mother. Their travel was difficult through dangerous mountains and rocky passes into a refugee camp in Pakistan. They had to escape because their father’s body was dumped on their front doorsteps by the Taliban.
These children came to Des Moines and Greenwood Elementary in 2001 five of them from ages Kindergarten- 4th grade. The staff at school welcomed them and helped them build their foundational skills to become the successful people they are today some twenty years later. This is the American way I envision happening again.
Most recent refugees SHOULD NOT be turned out of the US and kicked to the curb by Kristi Noem’s Deport the Afghanistans Policy.
I have lived in America over 70 years and want to live in a country which is still humane and supportive. We should help people like the Afghanistan refugees, whom we let in for good reason. If Noem’s deportation of Afghanistans is allowed to be enforced, it will be a dark, bloody stain on US.
I beg you to use your voice and contract your senators to stand up for the Afghan refugees. It’s the America I’ve lived in before and hope I am still living in.
Please help, Easy to email our senators. I just sent this letter to our Iowa senators. Urge you to make up your own and send one too, also. Let's have a ground swell of voices heard!
Mary Helen Grace
Mary Helen, thanks for your voice and for sharing your experience teaching Afghan refugee children so many years ago. It's heartbreaking what these families are expected to return to. Those in power need to hear and read these responses.
Thank you very much for callng our attention to this plight. It seems that things are getting worse every day. I will followup with our Senators.
Thank you, Pat, and thanks for following up on it. Yes, it feels that way most days.
I’m not completely ashamed , to sincerely wish Kristi Noem would be dropped into the hands of the Taliban , wearing the same outfit she wore parading in front of prisoners in El Salvador.
That would be the perfect outfit for that. Same styled hair.
This makes me so sad, and there seems so little to do. As someone else mentioned, contacting our senators get worthless form letters in return. People’s lives are at stake. We have made commitments as a country that are being ignored. It is a betrayal of the Afghans and it is a betrayal of us.
Elections certainly DO have consequences. It is heart breaking.
I can't like this. It's horrifying. Thanks for reporting this Rekha. The both-sidesism of the media is part of the problem--most are captured and complicit.
Thank you, Rekha. This whole situation is shameful. I wish I could believe that Joni and/or Chuck would do one damn thing to protect these people, but I know better after receiving countless worthless form letters from them every single time I write to them. And the next people who will be sent home? The Ukrainians we promised to help and protect. What have we become?
Indeed, Kathi. What HAVE we become?
I know chances are probably slim that they’ll stop it. Hopefully the courts will. But the more people they hear from, the more they see that public opinion is turning against these travesties and that it doesn’t bode well for them.
And then we have to hope anyone in this administration cares about public opinion. I have always believed that the Courts would hold and that has been the case up to the appellate level, but I do not trust the SCOTUS to come through on every count. All we need is another one of John Roberts “brilliant decisions” and then “Katie Bar The Door” 🫣
Oh Rekha this makes me weep. I served for one year in Afghanistan as an agriculture adviser and worked daily with people who were our interpreters and our “field” people. I have lost contact but know several made it to this country.
They risked their lives daily to help us and now these heartless creeps are turning their backs.
The Afghans cannot go back. The regime is so cruel that they would more than likely be executed.
Thanks for sharing that perspective, Denise. You must have been there during Taliban rule and experienced what life there was like, especially for females. I can't imagine families having to go back to that.
I was there when the girls schools were being bombed and women were hidden. When we would got through villages we only saw men and boys. I could see women peeking out behind doors and windows. I had hoped to work with women but it was nearly impossible.1