Afghans in NH face New Outrage

By Rick Minard, Executive Director

To personalize the current outrage, I would normally start a column like this with a short story about an Afghan refugee living in Concord or Manchester whom I have come to know and care about.  I would illustrate the story with a handsome photograph of the subject.  President Trump’s threats to all Afghan refugees over the last week would make that immoral.  Calling attention to any individual, no matter how sympathetic, could make him or her the next target for harassment, investigation, or deportation.

So I challenge you to imagine that individual: a young mother whose husband was killed by the Taliban while he worked with US forces in Afghanistan; an older gentleman, well-educated and disabled by a Taliban gunshot wound; a 40-year-old man working in a Manchester factory to support his family of six while he also attends classes to learn English.  He aspires to become a US citizen and send his kids to college.  Good people, 200 to 300 of them, different in many ways from me and you, but contributing to New Hampshire’s culture, community, and economy.

All of whom are now threatened by the federal government because one troubled Afghan evacuee committed a terrible act of violence. 

Over the Thanksgiving weekend, the president said that “only reverse migration can fully cure this situation,” and that “the refugee burden is the leading cause of social dysfunction in America.” Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller said that “the only process invaders are due is deportation.” The Department of Homeland Security posted “remigration now” on social media.

If that rhetoric weren’t being backed up by actual federal policy changes and violent ICE raids, we could dismiss it as mere fear-mongering and racist demagoguery.  This isn’t hollow rhetoric. The State Department and the US Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) have stopped processing visas for Afghans and slowed or halted issuing “green cards” to refugees, the documents granting refugees permanent resident status in the United States and the ability to seek employment.

Church World Service posted the quotes above on its website, cwsglobal.org, along with a helpful guide to the mechanics of visas, green cards, and immigration, and the steps the Trump administration is taking to shut down refugee resettlement and intimidate immigrants who are already here. 

CWS reports: “The administration intends to “reexamine” all green cards issued to those from the 19 countries “of concern” that are on the June 4 travel ban list. The countries of origin implicated in this retrospective review include Afghanistan, Burundi, Chad, Cuba, Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Laos, Libya, Myanmar, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Sudan, Togo, Turkmenistan, Venezuela, and Yemen. This re-examination comes in addition to the previously announced policy to review all refugees who entered the country from January 20, 2021, to February 20, 2025 (including green card holders).”

The pledge to reexamine resettlement cases is a devastating threat to hundreds of New Hampshire families who had thought they were finally safe here.  The pledge also threatens scores of New Hampshire employers who thought they had finally built a reliable and productive workforce by hiring men and women from Congo, Afghanistan, Haiti, or Myanmar. 

As an employer of refugees, I worry for my staff and feel their growing dread.  I have already had to terminate one employee who could not get his employment authorization documents renewed.  We work with many others, particularly Ukrainians, whose documents have expired and whose renewals are languishing because of the chaos the administration has generated within the system.  These Ukrainians are out of work and running out of money.  One highly skilled but bureaucratically unemployed Ukrainian volunteered at BCNH recently. He fixed our IT problems.  He should be in the paying workforce.

Employers, I think, need to raise their voices in support of their refugee employees.  New Hampshire needs a growing workforce, our communities need young, energetic families, and displaced people from around the world need a safe and welcoming place like New Hampshire to call home. 

And all of us, whether native born or newly arrived, should be able to tell our story without fear of harassment, investigation, or deportation.  Employing terror as a policy tool is unAmerican.