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An Afghan soldier fleeing the Taliban spent months reaching the U.S. to request asylum. He was arrested at the Texas border.

Confirms the MAGA tendencies.
I don’t think you even know what that means. You just use it now if someone disagrees with you like a petulant child calling someone else a doodoo-head and thinking you’re so creative.
Excuse me for not wanting to allow any and every person who crosses halfway around the world through countless other countries to come to the US and seek “asylum”
 
This kind of sucks...

DEL RIO — Two brothers stand across from each other at the Val Verde Correctional Facility in this border city, speaking reverently through the fixed telephones. They are separated by the visiting room’s thick glass partition, too energized to sit.

One brother, Abdul Wasi Safi, wears an inmate’s bright orange uniform. The other brother, Sami-ullah Safi, wears a blue blazer, jeans and a look of determination to bring his brother home safely.

About 18 months ago, Abdul Wasi Safi, whose family calls him Wasi, was a newly minted officer in Afghanistan’s special forces, working alongside U.S. troops to combat the Taliban in the longest U.S. military engagement in its history.

Just three months later, the U.S. abruptly exited the country. The Taliban — an Islamic fundamentalist group — took control of the country and began hunting down those who had helped the Americans.

Over the course of the conflict there, the U.S. issued special visas to more than 34,000 Afghans who qualified for various reasons — including Sami, who in 2015 moved to Houston. Sami, 29, had been working side by side with the U.S. military as an interpreter for special forces in Afghanistan. For years, he traveled between the two countries and in July 2021 was granted full U.S. citizenship.

But thousands like Wasi, 26, who had helped U.S. forces — but were not paid by the U.S. government — were left behind with few options to escape. With a Taliban target on their backs, many went into hiding as reports of revenge killings grew.

When it was clear Wasi could not get a visa, he went into hiding with his parents and eight other siblings before setting out on a harrowing journey halfway around the world that led to a jail cell more than 12,000 miles from his home.

“It was unfair, unjust, for the U.S. military to leave all the people who put their lives on the line working for the military and in the end leaving them to be slaughtered by the Taliban and closing their eyes on them,” Sami said. “Pretending nothing happened. People have done so much.”


Republicans in Congress have failed. MMM and Joni Ernst have failed. They’ve both said they will be all bi-partisan. As vets this was their chance. Relief for Afghans, and relief for immigration reform in general.
 
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Republicans in Congress have failed. MMM and Joni Ernst have failed. They’ve both said they will be all bi-partisan. As vets this was their chance. Relief for Afghans, and relief for immigration reform in general.
It’s a bipartisan failure.
 
It’s a bipartisan failure.
No

Republicans wanted no part in reviewing any of it.
That has left Democrats footing the bill, politically, for it.

If you WANT accountability, ELECT people within a party who will at least try. The GOP is actively fighting that accountability.

You've been informed what the GOP is for years now, and seem to still want to defend them and vote for them. They will not change, until they get thoroughly thumped in elections by voters who will not put up with the BS. You still want to get grifted, apparently.
 
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I don’t think you even know what that means. You just use it now if someone disagrees with you like a petulant child calling someone else a doodoo-head and thinking you’re so creative.
Excuse me for not wanting to allow any and every person who crosses halfway around the world through countless other countries to come to the US and seek “asylum”

I don't think you know what 'asylum' means here in the Uinted States.
 
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I don't think you know what 'asylum' means here in the Uinted States.
I do, it’s a broken and ridiculous system allowing nearly anyone and everyone to say “seeking asylum” and they get to come in and chill. Seeking asylum from or via Mexico is nothing short of a joke.
 
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I do, it’s a broken and ridiculous system allowing nearly anyone and everyone to say “seeking asylum” and they get to come in and chill. Seeking asylum from or via Mexico is nothing short of a joke.

What about it do you think is broken and ridiculous, and why would going through Mexico across the most trafficked border in the world be a joke? Is there another point of entry that makes more sense to you?
 
What about it do you think is broken and ridiculous, and why would going through Mexico across the most trafficked border in the world be a joke? Is there another point of entry that makes more sense to you?
Mainly the fact many people are coming from other Central American countries and not seeking asylum in Mexico, but rather the US. This on top of seeking asylum from Mexico is a joke.
That is what is broken.
 
Mainly the fact many people are coming from other Central American countries and not seeking asylum in Mexico, but rather the US. This on top of seeking asylum from Mexico is a joke.
That is what is broken.

Well, the thread is about an Afghani not a Mexican, despite your opinion there seems to be very real physical threats to people in Mexico that would qualify for an asylum hearing the US. Again, I have no idea what you actually think is broken. Nothing you're saying has seems to have anything to do with our system other than maybe how it's perhaps an under resourced system.
 
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Which is even worse. He’s so afraid of staying in Afghanistan he skips over how many other countries to request asylum in the US specifically?

You're making the accusations/assumptions, you tell me what he "skipped over" and what he should have done differently to raise to your approval.
 
You're making the accusations/assumptions, you tell me what he "skipped over" and what he should have done differently to raise to your approval.

When escaping persecution you seek asylum in the very first safe country you encounter,.. Simple enough?
 
You're making the accusations/assumptions, you tell me what he "skipped over" and what he should have done differently to raise to your approval.
“journey halfway around the world”
Seems to me he skipped over a number of countries in which he could have requested asylum in no matter which direction he went.
 
You have his itinerary?
I do not. The article stated he traveled halfway across the world. I will assume he boarded a flight/boat (or both, possibly multiple times) somewhere and landed somewhere other than the US. Maybe I’m wrong in my assumption and he swam, or was on a submarine, or came via hot air balloon and thus I am sorry and will retract.
 
If you're truly running for your life it's very realistic....

I'm sure that's a subject both you and I know so much about. What country should this guy have gone to or is it just 'anywhere but here's? Because the vibe these conversations usually have is a few pages of anti-immigration folks dancing around the fact that they don't actually support any sort of realistic immigration, only the nebulous idea of "the right way".
 
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I'm sure that's a subject both you and I know so much about. What country should this guy have gone to or is it just 'anywhere but here's? Because the vibe these conversations usually have is a few pages of anti-immigration folks dancing around the fact that they don't actually support any sort of realistic immigration, only the nebulous idea of "the right way".
The very first safe country he encountered,... Upon reaching safety there he could then pursue US entry through normal channels.
 
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I'm sure that's a subject both you and I know so much about. What country should this guy have gone to or is it just 'anywhere but here's? Because the vibe these conversations usually have is a few pages of anti-immigration folks dancing around the fact that they don't actually support any sort of realistic immigration, only the nebulous idea of "the right way".
You telling me he didn’t first encounter or couldn’t encounter any of these easier?
  • Albania
  • Austria
  • Belgium
  • Bosnia and Herzegovina
  • Bulgaria
  • Brazil
  • Croatia
  • Cyprus
  • Czech Republic
  • Denmark
  • Estonia
  • Finland
  • France
  • Georgia
  • Germany
  • Ghana
  • Greece
  • Hungary
  • India
  • Ireland
  • Italy
  • Jamaica
  • Kosovo
  • Latvia
  • Lithuania
  • Luxembourg
  • Malta
  • Mongolia
  • Montenegro
  • Morocco
  • Netherlands
  • North Macedonia
  • Poland
  • Portugal
  • Romania
  • Senegal
  • Serbia
  • Slovakia
  • Slovenia
  • Spain
  • Sweden
  • Togo
  • Tunisia
  • Trinidad and Tobago
  • Ukraine
  • United Kingdom
  • Vatican City
 
You telling me he didn’t first encounter or couldn’t encounter any of these easier?
  • Albania
  • Austria
  • Belgium
  • Bosnia and Herzegovina
  • Bulgaria
  • Brazil
  • Croatia
  • Cyprus
  • Czech Republic
  • Denmark
  • Estonia
  • Finland
  • France
  • Georgia
  • Germany
  • Ghana
  • Greece
  • Hungary
  • India
  • Ireland
  • Italy
  • Jamaica
  • Kosovo
  • Latvia
  • Lithuania
  • Luxembourg
  • Malta
  • Mongolia
  • Montenegro
  • Morocco
  • Netherlands
  • North Macedonia
  • Poland
  • Portugal
  • Romania
  • Senegal
  • Serbia
  • Slovakia
  • Slovenia
  • Spain
  • Sweden
  • Togo
  • Tunisia
  • Trinidad and Tobago
  • Ukraine
  • United Kingdom
  • Vatican City

I don't know what or where this man went through. That's sort of my point.
 
I think we can agree that Afghanistan and the US do not share a border, and that airspace is sovereign...
 
As currently written, our asylum laws are supremely phucked up...

I disagree. The law, IMO, is fine. The system of enforcement and processing sure is behind the times though and could sure use some updating/reorganization. But that seems to be an area that there can be no compromise.
 
I disagree. The law, IMO, is fine. The system of enforcement and processing sure is behind the times though and could sure use some updating/reorganization. But that seems to be an area that there can be no compromise.

We are all entitled to our own opinion,... But the majority of countries on this planet require asylum seekers to apply for same upon reaching the first safe country encountered.
 
We are all entitled to our own opinion,... But the majority of countries on this planet require asylum seekers to apply for same upon reaching the first safe country encountered.
Those are probably mostly socialist European countries. Places that America doesn't need ro look to for advise because of our unique size and demographics. ;)
 
I think we can agree that Afghanistan and the US do not share a border

lost-kermit.gif
 
What this demonstrates is that there are many posters on here who have no interest in solutions that work toward resolving the issue and only that they want to push the issues onto other countries.
 
It’s a bipartisan failure.
NPR laid the blame squarely at the feet of Iowa’s 89 year old senator, Chuck Grassley. There was enough support, but the rules of the Senate allowed Chuck to block the movement of the legislation. He thinks we cannot properly screen non whites. Let’s be honest about what that old goof thinks.
 
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NPR laid the blame squarely at the feet of Iowa’s 89 year old senator, Chuck Grassley. There was enough support, but the rules of the Senate allowed Chuck to block the movement of the legislation. He thinks we cannot properly screen non whites. Let’s be honest about what that old goof thinks.
Chuck Grassley is shameful.
 
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