One bad apple spoils the whole barrel. Rahmanullah Lakanwal not only sealed his own fate, but that of all Afghans, and others from the ‘third world’ awaiting judgment on their immigration status. His ambush that killed a National Guard and critically injured another a short distance from the White House, is endless ammunition for anti-immigration hardliners.
Lakanwal’s history of working with the CIA in Afghanistan complicates the story, but not enough. He was brought to the US in 2021 on a special visa, as were thousands of Afghans who worked as translators, foot-soldiers and intel gatherers in the US’ long war against the Taliban. He was granted asylum earlier this year.
Other Afghans may not be so lucky – not for a long while. Lakanwal’s attack is a painful illustration of everything Donald Trump believes is horribly wrong with the country’s immigration policy. Combine that with a recent expose of widespread fraud worth almost a billion dollars in Covid benefits by Somali immigrants in Minnesota and ‘the ugly immigrant’ picture is complete. In 50 shades of Brown and Black.
Trump doesn’t have to prove much any more. He campaigned against open borders, ‘invasion’ by illegal immigrants, rise in crime, abuse of benefits meant for the needy, identity politics gone absurdly wrong, and lack of assimilation by some communities. Constant criticism of the US from ‘ungrateful’ immigrant voices (Congresswomen Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib) didn’t help, but elicited variations of ‘If things are so bad here, go home’.
This is the prevailing sentiment within MAGA. Few dare express disagreement. Stephen Miller, Trump’s chief adviser for homeland security, talks about the ‘great lie’ of mass migration. ‘You are not just importing individuals. You are importing societies. No magic transformation occurs when failed states cross borders. At scale, migrants and their descendants recreate the conditions, and terrors, of their broken homeland.’
Trump has taken the battle several notches up by talking about ‘denaturalising’ or revoking citizenship of those who got their papers during the Biden administration. But to take that ultimate step, his administration will have to prove in court immigrants intentionally concealed material facts, or misrepresented themselves.
The killing of 20-yr-old Army National Guard Specialist Sarah Beckstrom on the streets of DC was the final straw. Not that a trigger was
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