US Argues Afghanistan is Safe

Being outraged feels like a perpetual state for the informed immprof. But there's just something about our country's crap treatment of Afghan wartime allies that sends me through the roof.

Remember this gem from 2014 about our disgraceful treatment of Afghani military interpreters?

(As I've blogged before, I still use this now 11-year-old clip in class to discuss "flat affect" of traumatized people, the complexity of immigration process, among other topics).

Or perhaps you recall this video featuring immprof Phil Schrag's son discussing our disastrous pullout from Kabul in 2021.

Maybe you've been following the ups and downs of the never-passed (though bipartisan) Afghan Adjustment Act or Fulfilling Promises to Afghan Allies Act that would provide a means for Afghan allies to remain stateside post-evacuation. Which evacuated Afghans sorely need given Trump 2.0's ending of TPS for Afghans.

It is with that context that I've been reading about the government's position in a pending Virginia asylum case brought by one of our airlifted Afghan allies. As WaPo reports, the government is presently arguing that the Afghan asylum seeker would be in no danger from the governing Taliban if removed to Afghanistan. This despite the fact of his known attendance at an American university in Kabul and his work for a U.S.-based nonprofit in Afghanistan. Things the Taliban has been and remains totally cool with.

Ugh.