The minute I heard that an immigrant from Afghanistan had gunned down two National Guardsmen near the White House, I knew how President Donald Trump would and would not react.
I knew Trump would not limit himself to expressions of outrage about the crime, words of sympathy for the victims and promises of swift justice for the perpetrator. And he certainly would not admit that the guardsmen were put in harm’s way as part of a totally unnecessary show of force with no purpose other than authoritarian muscle flexing.
And I knew Trump would use the incident to intensify his ruthless assault on immigrants, immediately spreading blame for the heinous crime well beyond the lone man who pulled the trigger.
Trump accused his longtime nemesis, former President Joe Biden, of letting too many Afghani refugees into the country when the U.S. finally called an end to the war in Afghanistan after 20 disastrous years. He failed to acknowledge that the American government had a responsibility to protect a big share of those refugees who were in serious danger because of their support for the American military operation.
One of those people was Rahmanullah Lakanwal, who worked with the CIA during the Afghanistan war and is being held as the assailant in the attack on the National Guardsmen.
Trump has ordered a halt to further processing of Afghani asylum-seekers and made it obvious that he would like to see them all sent back to where they came from, even those who have become U.S. citizens.
“When it comes to asylum, when they’re flown in, it’s very hard to get them out,” Trump said in answer to a reporter’s question. “No matter how you want to do it, it’s very hard to get them out, but we’re going to be getting them all out now.”
Get them all out now, along with Somalis, other refugees from “Third World” countries and the many Latino immigrants who are already being cruelly chased down by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. That is Trump’s American dream — a nightmare for a nation built by immigrants and their descendants.
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