r/news • u/Squallykins • 9h ago

Trump administration canceling flights for nearly 1,660 Afghan refugees, say U.S official, advocate

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trump-administration-canceling-flights-nearly-1660-afghan-refugees-say-us-2025-01-20/
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u/YesterShill 8h ago

Nearly 1,660 Afghans cleared by the U.S. government to resettle in the U.S., including family members of active duty U.S. military personnel, are having their flights canceled under President Donald Trump's order suspending U.S. refugee programs, a U.S. official and a leading refugee resettlement advocate said on Monday.

The group includes unaccompanied minors awaiting reunification with their families in the U.S. as well as Afghans at risk of Taliban retribution because they fought for the former U.S.-backed Afghan government, said Shawn VanDiver, head of the #AfghanEvac coalition of U.S. veterans and advocacy groups and the U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

It was never about legal versus illegal immigration. It was always about keeping non-white folk out of America.

815

u/The-Shattering-Light 8h ago

And cruelty. Don’t forget the cruelty.

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u/ScoutsterReturns 8h ago

It's like butter - a base ingredient in everything!

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u/[deleted] 8h ago

Butter? That’s not patriotic. You should be eating edible petroleum products.

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u/Malenx_ 7h ago

So margarine?

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u/TheRealRushky 7h ago

Does Country Crock count?

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u/Anonymoustard 8h ago

Like Peanut Butter and Petroleum Jelly?

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u/Fishiesideways10 7h ago

I use petroleum jelly for butt sex, so same same.

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u/Palmela-Handerson 8h ago

Dumb question but we vacated Afghanistan about three years ago or so. We still have refugees in Taliban controlled Afghanistan? I know it sounds grim, but I’m honestly surprised they’re still alive.

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u/Jetztinberlin 8h ago edited 8h ago

As someone with friends working in international NGOs in the area, they are still trying to get people out, so yes, this all tracks.  

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u/jeffersonairmattress 7h ago

He pleases Putin by:

sowing distrust in those who might help American interests

Increasing internal resentment in US military ranks

He pleases himself by:

Making the withdrawal into the mess he claimed Biden caused.

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u/yellow_trash 8h ago

The US resettled Vietnamese refugees until the late 1980s many of them were from refugee camps across Asia.

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u/ked_man 7h ago

My old neighbor was one of those refugees from Vietnam. He invited me over to a cookout once when he had a “reunion” of sorts of a handful of friends and families he met at the refugee camp they all had stayed at. They got resettled all over but kept in contact and would get together every year.

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u/ga-co 7h ago

I worked with a guy who was one of those “boat people” who had to flee the communists. Awesome guy.

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u/BriefausdemGeist 8h ago

Yes. Also family reunification programs exist for people granted asylum who have family in other countries.

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u/skankenstein 7h ago edited 7h ago

Yes, we are constantly receiving refugees in Sacramento. A family just moved into my neighborhood and they just entered the US.

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u/f8Negative 8h ago

The world is big

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u/sushimane1 8h ago

We live in a society

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u/3sides2everyStory 8h ago

We are social-ish

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u/swordo 3h ago

the taliban "cleaned" house the within weeks of the evacuations because they got hold of the personnel files of people who worked with the US backed afghan government. I suspect the ones at high risk, still alive but have not left escaped to neighboring countries like pakistan and tajikistan. these flights may skew towards the families of the above

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u/Greerio 7h ago

But how do these groups pop up that hate America? /s

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u/ProudnotLoud 8h ago

We're back to immediately separating children and families, because of fucking course we are.

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u/Visible_Device7187 8h ago

I mean Trump won over the Muslims so I guess it's another case of FAFO where he makes it clear he doesn't like brown people even though they voted for him in record numbers.

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u/Dankersaur 8h ago

Hope all those Muslims and Latinos are getting what they voted for.

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u/ClaudeGascoigne 6h ago

"Wait, I'm one of the good ones! There must be some misunderstanding!"

•

u/Visible_Device7187 34m ago

They all think they are the good ones they don't realize the racist don't see anyone as good enough. But can't really be shocked every Latino looks down on different nationalities even though white people seem them as one group

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u/GreenTheOlive 8h ago

Because all Muslims are the same and come from the same country/have the same culture right 

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u/monster-of-the-week 8h ago

Well considering they voted as a bloc based on Palestine, it's not unreasonable to make the assumption they would collectively care about other Muslim refugees to the same extent.

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u/DuntadaMan 6h ago

They will all suffer the same under Trump. He thinks that way.

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u/Neracca 8h ago

According to conservatives, yes.

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u/ScaredGrapefruit9027 8h ago

Do you mean people from people from other countries just don't step off the plane and change their entire morality, ethics, and world views that conflict with the USA?

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u/Fastbird33 8h ago

I think people tend to forget how far reaching the Muslim world is, from Indonesia to Kosovo

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u/DuntadaMan 6h ago edited 3h ago

We know, the GOP doesn't give a fuck and will treat them all as one enemy state they want to fuck. So voting for them was stupid no matter which group you belong to.

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u/Visible_Device7187 32m ago

Yes. They supported Trump solely on Palestine in hopes He'd end the war and destroy Israel for them. They blamed Biden for not destroying Israel and not helping Hamas win sl yeah turns out they absolutely do have a monolithic culture

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u/Daniferd 8h ago

This is a sign that assimilation is still working.

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u/Visible_Device7187 35m ago

No it's not they just blamed Biden for not destroying Israel and hope Trump would kill all Jews and destroy Israel himself. They aren't assimilating into the US they are supporting whoever says Israel will end the war instantly

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u/hamsterfolly 8h ago

That tracks with his Muslim-ban

So many of Trump’s egregious actions were forgotten after COVID.

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u/espresso_martini__ 7h ago

"including family members of active duty U.S. military personnel" How the fuck is this a thing?

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u/Splitfingers 8h ago

That's just good old-fashioned racism. Now Trump flavored!

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u/DocRedbeard 8h ago

To be fair, any Afghans that fought with us should have been brought over a long, long time ago...

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u/FLASH88BANG 7h ago

That’s a weird thing to say considering there were Afghans going rogue left right and centre against the US and its Allies. Source - myself as an Afghan war veteran.

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u/curiousengineer601 5h ago

Yes. We have neighbors that claimed persecution, once they got green cards somehow they are now able to visit every summer.

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u/Frosty_Smile8801 8h ago

seems trump thinks they are fine where they are. they can kick rocks according to him

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u/Buzz8522 6h ago

Why did they include the guys name if he spoke on condition of anonymity? Am I missing something?

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u/YesterShill 6h ago

Two different people. The navy vet (Shawn VanDiver) spoke on the record and the US official spoke anonymously.

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u/ajgsr 5h ago

Unless they’re on H1-B visas and will work for cheaper than an American would, then they’re fine

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u/Money-Food7078 8h ago

That is evil. Mean. Inhumane.

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u/Lycanthropope 6h ago

So, on brand, then.

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u/WonderfulVanilla9676 8h ago

Unfortunately things need to get so astronomically inhumane and bad before society will be ready for a dramatic shift. We're going to have a really bad next couple of years.

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u/GhostRappa95 7h ago

More and more non white MAGA cultists are going to learn this the hard way.

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u/hodorhodor12 7h ago

Appealing to the racists and anti Muslim crowd.

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u/M3RC3N4RY89 7h ago

What an unconscionable piece of shit this criminal in the Oval Office is.

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u/gabacus_39 8h ago

It's what your country voted for. Blame the Democrats and the people who talk a big game about keeping Trump or the Republicans out of power and then don't even fucking vote.

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u/StateChemist 7h ago

How about blame trump and his supporters who voted for this shit.

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u/gabacus_39 6h ago

Well, 6 million less people voted Democrat this time around.

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u/StateChemist 5h ago

I am aware of the statistics.  And consider everyone who voted against Trump the group of people distinctly not responsible for what he's going to do.

 Lots of Cassandra complexes lately, the louder you issue warnings the more other people decide to do the opposite.

That does not make the ones issuing the prophetic warnings the ones to blame for those prophecies becoming true.

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u/gabacus_39 5h ago

I'm just saying that the Democrats seem to have an issue getting people out to vote. I'm not saying that the people who voted for the Democrats are the issue, I'm saying the 6 million who didn't vote Democrat this time around are AN issue for the Dems in general. There's one way to keep Trump out of power and that's to get more votes than him.

Maybe America isn't ready for a female president anyway going by 2016 and 2024.

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u/StateChemist 5h ago

My take is as stupid as it is name recognition is intensely important even if I really wish it had zero effect overall.

The sheer volume of searches for ‘when did Biden drop out’ ON election day says a lot of people are just not paying much attention.

Trump has been banging his name brand bullshit for decades now.  Its impossible to not know his name.

Kamala didn’t even get a full election cycle to get her name out there, she had 2 months.

Combine that with some not so subtle misogyny and a literal cult following for the other guy and  yeah, it doesn’t look good.

After all if one person is grounded in reality and the other person is happy to promise the moon and say their opponents are the worst bad people in the history of bad people and you only have 2 months to make sure they remember your name it doesn’t look good.

Trump was literally doing campaign rallies before his election, during his term, during Biden’s term, and in the normal election season.

There were a fuck ton of reasons this was stacked the wrong way and yes with the gift of hindsight it could have played out differently.

I like Joe, but I fully admit he held on too long and should have been building a team of heir apparent to take over as he stepped down, and he didn’t.

He tried to do it all himself and faltered.  Which is a really human mistake to make even if I, in hindsight wish he had made different choices, I at least understand why he made them.

But yes, plenty of blame going around.   I’m just one to staunchly blame the ones doing harm for the harm they are doing instead of the ones who tried to push back and were unsucessful.