Leftist media outlets are throwing a fit now that the Trump administration has canceled flights of refugees hoping to make their way to the United States.
On the day of President Donald Trump’s inauguration, the White House released an executive order which suspended the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program “until such time as the further entry into the United States of refugees aligns with the interests of the United States.”
According to the EO, American cities large and small have been overrun by “significant influxes of migrants” that require the redirection of precious resources and that threaten the security and stability of local residents.
“It is the policy of the United States to ensure that public safety and national security are paramount considerations in the administration of the USRAP,” the EO continued.
The EO called for involving local and state leaders in decisions about refugee settlements and promised to review possible exceptions to the suspension “on a case-by-case basis.” The suspension goes into effect just after midnight on January 27.
‘Thousands of refugees who fled war and persecution … are now stranded at various locations worldwide.’
In addition to suspending USRAP, the Trump administration has also canceled the flights of prospective refugees still waiting to come to the U.S.
“All previously scheduled travel of refugees to the United States is being cancelled, and no new travel bookings will be made. [Resettlement support centers] should not request travel for any additional refugee cases at this time,” said a memo from the State Department obtained by CNN.
The canceled flights will affect an estimated 10,000 foreigners, some of “whose medical exams or security checks, for example, are on the cusp of expiring,” CNN repined.
Not to be outdone, the Associated Press bewailed that “thousands of refugees who fled war and persecution and had gone through a sometimes yearslong process to start new lives in America are now stranded at various locations worldwide.”
While a breakdown of the countries of origin of these prospective refugees is not available, CNN claimed that refugees to America typically come from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Venezuela, Syria, Burma, and Afghanistan.
Because of the deadly, disastrous withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan under the Biden administration, several media outlets have focused mainly on the canceled traveled plans of approximately 1,660 Afghanis.
“The U.S. decision also leaves in limbo thousands of other Afghans who have been approved for resettlement as refugees in the U.S. but have not yet been assigned flights from Afghanistan or from neighboring Pakistan,” Reuters said in an exclusive report, citing Shawn VanDiver, head of #AfghanEvac, and a U.S. official who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The president will reconsider the suspension on refugee resettlements in the future if doing so ‘is in the interests of the United States.’
Reuters then tugged at readers’ heartstrings by lamenting the unaccompanied minors, family members of active U.S. military servicemen and women, and the “unknown number of Afghans who fought for the former U.S.-backed Kabul government” who may not be able to move to the U.S. as planned.
However, CNN mentioned that those in possession of a Special Immigrant Visa would likely still be able to travel to the U.S. despite the suspension of refugees. SIVs are available to “persons who worked with the U.S. Armed Forces or under Chief of Mission authority as a translator or interpreter in Iraq or Afghanistan,” so those without one presumably do not qualify for an SIV or failed to acquire one in the years since those conflicts began or in the nearly three and a half years since the Afghanistan withdrawal.
CNN also noted that at least some of these refugees have already flown to third-party countries and may not be able to return to their country of origin. “It is not clear what is going to happen to those individuals,” one government official told the outlet. “They could be stuck there, we don’t know for how long.”
Though the liberal media attempts to spin the story as evidence of Trump’s heartlessness, Trump’s EO makes plain that his heart remains first and always with the American people. The EO claims the president will reconsider the suspension on refugee resettlements in the future if doing so “is in the interests of the United States.”
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Donald trump, Refugee, Refugee admissions program, Special immigrant visa, Afghanistan, Iraq, Executive order, Politics
