IT is clear that the Trump administration is using last week’s shooting incident, in which two National Guard troopers were targeted, to further clamp down on asylum and immigration. The suspected shooter, a former Afghan security man with ties to US forces, came to America in 2021. In the wake of the Washington shooting, the US has suspended all asylum claims, while people from 19 “high-risk” countries will have their immigration status reviewed retroactively.
Moreover, the US travel ban could be extended to more than 30 countries — mostly ‘Third World’ states in the words of the US president. According to the US homeland security secretary, “foreign invaders” who “snatch the benefits owed to Americans” are not welcome. Yet much of this xenophobic rhetoric conveniently overlooks one crucial fact: many of the asylum seekers and migrants heading to American shores come from countries that the US and its Western allies have themselves helped destroy through military interventions.
Out of the 19 states under particular scrutiny, Afghanistan, Libya, Cuba, Yemen and Venezuela have all suffered from regime change attempts or armed attacks by the US; some of the ‘enemy’ governments have fallen, others have not. From Latin America to the Middle East, the US and its allies have for decades indulged in destabilising behaviour to bring unyielding governments to heel. Many of these states, such as Syria and Iraq, not to mention Afghanistan, have been destroyed in the process.
Now, if people from these broken states head to the US or Europe, they are being told to stay away. It is even more ironic that those who helped the US during the Afghan occupation may also be sent back. Considered ‘collaborators’ by the Afghan Taliban regime, deporting these individuals, as well as rights activists, to Afghanistan would be the equivalent of a death sentence.
Mr Trump’s dislike of immigrants is well-known. In his first term, he championed the border wall with Mexico. He has also termed migrants ‘killers’ and ‘rapists’. Yet he has opened America’s doors for Afrikaners to escape an imagined ‘white genocide’ in South Africa. The anti-migrant stances seem to be coloured by racism, as it is easy to blame others, particularly people of colour, for one’s own failings. Far-right forces across the Western world are echoing similar sentiments.
While those individuals that break the law must surely be held to account, it would be unwise for the West to launch sweeping anti-migrant pogroms. Especially so when it is Western states that have helped destroy the migrants’ home countries. In particular, the US and other Western states have a moral responsibility to take in Afghan asylum-seekers — including those residing in Pakistan at the moment — who worked with foreign forces during the US-led occupation of Afghanistan.
Published in Dawn, December 5th, 2025
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