Non-State Actress #27: Female Cats with More Freedom than Women in Afghanistan
BLUF: A very busy few weeks here at Camp NSA (more on this soon, I hope) but in the interim you may have heard rumblings about President Trump’s revoking of Temporary Protected Status for Afghans, Cameroonians, and others who fled certain danger for the relative safety of America.
If not, I’ve got you. I joined Lindsey Reiser on CBS’ ‘Daily Report’ to talk about what this means and why it matters. I’ve also done a quick, slightly expanded rundown below.
https://www.cbsnews.com/video/trump-administration-will-not-renew-temporary-protections-afghans-us/
-Peoople seeking protected status, why did they flee Afghanistan :
Many Americans have incomplete information on why and how Afghans are at risk in Afghanistan, the legal status of those people who are here in the US and those trapped in a now frozen legal process to reunite with family or make their way to safety. The lack of clarity here has put these newly Afghan-Americans at dire risk - and overwhelmingly people who are, currently , not seeking protected status but in fact already have it.
So, let's do the first one first and the second one second in search of greater clarity.
1. These people are not at risk in Afghanistan for "helping the Americans." Afghans at risk from the Taliban are at risk because they fought for their own freedom and their own democracy before and after the US and NATOs various engagements. They are at risk because they are women who can read and write and build robots. This distinction is important because it reaffirms the people who most want freedom for Afghanistan are Afghans, and any Afghan who dares to fight for that is an Afghan the Taliban wants to kill. It’s as cut and dry as that.
2. The majority of people are not seeking protecting status - they already have it and the current battle is about ensuring these individuals who followed the laws and processes…the US government *also* must follow the laws and processes. This also requires the resumption of processing at-risk Afghans which includes a significant number of people who are family members of US service members.
The haziness around both things has created confusion AND allowed those without good intent to capitalize on that confusion - so here we are.
-How has life in Afghanistan changed under the Taliban
One of the most visible, most intentional, and most tragic changes is the way Afghan women are now forced to live. It’s as if the tradwife movement was the official policy of a violent terrorist organization that took over a country, but without the sourdough recipes. A generation of women whose futures were secured by their own mothers and grandmothers and became lawyers, poets, doctors, mothers, and caretakers are now forced to live in fear in their own homes. Girls and women have no access to education, to professional life, to society, to one another. This is the standard operating procedure for any tyrannical force - terrorist or authoritarian- because of the important role women play in the health of a democracy and economy. By violently forcing women into isolation and silence, the Taliban are not merely obliterating these women’s personal freedoms but completely undermining the nation’s economic, political, intellectual infrastructure and insuring it can’t return without the return of women.
-Impact of the move; Message it sends to Afghans who helped the U.S. during the war:
The latest refusal to follow US policy has real
impacts for Americans at the local level.
-One, it undermines our national security by not merely further eroding international trust in America but diverting precious resources that must be used to combat human trafficking, organized crime, cartels, terrorism, and keeping our country and our borders safe to now illegally deporting people.
-Two, it creates even greater economic instability especially at the local level - because we are talking about people and families with jobs, in schools, who buy groceries, in all of our towns around the country. Research shows that on average, after 20 years in the US the average refugee earns $4300 more a year than a native-born american. According to American Immigrstion Council In 2022, immigrants contributed $579.1 billion in taxes, and they generated $1.6 trillion in economic activity. Some of the people now at risk of deportation were in the US at that time - and are part of that number. Who will replace that value at a time when Americans feel so much financial stress?
-Third, this forces Americans to ask a deeply terrifying and painful question - what do we do when the helpers are forced to be the hurters? America is not supposed to be in the business of deporting people who entered this country legally and continue to meet the legal obligations of that status. When did that change, and if it did, what does that mean for the other laws and processes? and protect America’s national security interests by not only undermining our international standing and faith in our own institutions to Afghans is that they fled certain danger to perhaps be forced to return to it.
-Likelihood of legal challenges
If people who are in this country legally are illegally targeted and/or driven, or threatened, by the US government civil society and private individuals must fight to ensure the laws, processes of our nation and intentions of our Constitution are upheld. This would include legal challenges.