The latest GOP schism: how to deal with Afghan evacuees

WASHINGTON – The Republican Party is united in its criticism of President Biden’s chaotic military withdrawal from Afghanistan. But the crisis also revealed a deep internal divide between party leaders over the resettlement of Afghan refugees to their homes.

Many Republican lawmakers have accused Mr Biden of abandoning the Afghan interpreters and guides who aided the United States during two decades of war, leaving thousands in limbo in a country now controlled by the Taliban.

But others, including former President Donald J. Trump and Representative Kevin McCarthy, the minority leader, have sought to mainstream the Afghan refugee issue into the party’s far-right anti-immigrant stance. They criticize Mr. Biden not only for leaving the Afghans behind, but for opening up the United States to what they have called dangerous foreigners.

“We will have terrorists crossing the border,” McCarthy said last week on a call with a group of bipartisan members of the House, according to two people who were on the call, where he denounced the management of the withdrawal by the Biden administration. . He also raised the issue of migrants entering the country along the US-Mexico border in his discussion on the evacuation of Afghans.

In fact, Afghan evacuees fleeing the return of the Taliban are subjected to extensive background checks by intelligence agents to receive special immigrant visas, a lengthy and complex process available to those at risk due to their work for the US government. In the past, it took years for applications to be processed.

In a statement Tuesday, Trump suggested, without evidence, that uncontrolled Afghans were boarding military flights and that an unknown number of terrorists had already been airlifted out of Afghanistan. The former president also criticized the evacuation of controlled Afghans from Kabul, arguing that the military planes should have been “full of Americans”.

The unusual split pits traditional conservatives, who are more inclined to defend those who sacrificed themselves for America, against the party’s anti-immigrant and anti-refugee wing. And it’s yet another test of Mr. Trump’s power to get Republican leaders to side with him.

“The central division in the Republican Party after Trump is over immigration,” said Frank Luntz, the Republican pollster. “The Republican Party was the party of immigration, and Trump changed all that.”

Debate highlights the wider ideological divide within the party between “America First” isolationists like Mr. Trump and Republicans who believe that maintaining strong alliances and America’s influence abroad benefits to the security of the country.

For now, the faction of the Republican Party that supports the relocation of translators and Afghan refugees to the United States is more important than the mere warning of any potential danger that may accompany their relocation. A recent CBS News / YouGov poll found that 76% of Republicans and 79% of Independents support efforts to bring Afghans here who have helped the United States.

And in two Trump voters’ focus groups conducted last week in Georgia and Wyoming by Sarah Longwell, an anti-Trump Republican strategist, the vast majority said, “We should take the interpreters and the refugees, with some cautions regarding proper verification, ”Ms. Longwell said.

She attributed this sentiment to a level of patriotism that is lacking when these voters watch migrants cross the southern border. “On the gut level, these are people who fought with us in a war,” Ms. Longwell said.

On the Afghan refugee issue, Mr McCarthy has walked a tightrope as he has on other issues, trying to appease both sides of the party. He said publicly that “we owe it to these people, who are our friends and who have worked with us, to get them out safely if we can.” But he also leaned on the Nativist and Trumpian side, voicing widespread and inconsistent fears over the entry of foreigners into the country.

Traditionally, evangelical groups and Christian charities wielding influence on the right have supported refugee resettlement, prompting elected leaders who depend on their support to follow suit. But other lawmakers have echoed the fear and anger expressed by Mr McCarthy during the bipartisan appeal.

Rep. Matt Rosendale, Republican from Montana, warned that once Afghans are resettled in the United States, “they may bring more people.”

“The chaos we are witnessing is no excuse to flood our country with Afghan refugees,” said Rosendale, a candidate for reelection.

And Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, Republican from Georgia, slammed her state’s Republican governor for saying he was open to state acceptance of refugees.

“Will that also lead to a chain migration?” She asked on Twitter, referring to family immigration. “How much will this cost the AG’s taxpayers in government aid?” “

Last month, the House passed a bill to distribute 8,000 additional visas for translators. Ms Greene voted against the bill along with other Republicans, including Rep. Andy Biggs of Arizona, Rep. Lauren Boebert of Colorado, and Rep. Mo Brooks of Alabama.

Anti-refugee policies have been at the heart of Mr. Trump’s nativist appeal since he entered the political arena in 2015, warning that Mexican “rapists” would bring drugs and crime into the country. Mr. Trump and his allies backed a travel ban, which suspended immigrant and non-immigrant visas for applicants from seven countries, five of which are Muslim-majority. Their rallying cry was to build a wall along the southern border to prevent migrants from entering. And they have banned the entry of Syrian refugees into the United States.

But some Republicans who in the past have aligned with Mr. Trump’s immigration policies find themselves on the other side of the Afghan refugee debate.

Formerly moderate New York Republican Representative Elise Stefanik who was elected to her party’s No.3 position after winning support from Mr Trump, signed a letter alongside Progressive Democrats calling on Mr Biden to take action. commit to saving the Afghan allies.

Republican Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas released a statement expressing concern over Afghan allies harassed and mistreated by the Taliban. “President Biden should pledge to stay in Afghanistan until we save all US citizens and Afghans who risked their lives for US troops,” said Mr. Cotton, a military veteran. who served in Afghanistan and Iraq.

And Alyssa Farah, Trump’s former White House communications director, said helping Afghans who served alongside US forces was a “moral imperative.”

“To those on the right who suggest that they are not being checked and that we should not be willing to accept them: they have been checked enough to be co-located with US forces and put their lives in danger to help them,” he said. said Mrs. said Farah. “Those who oppose the relocation of refugees to the United States blatantly interpret public sentiment, especially within the Christian community in the United States”

Stephen Miller, former political adviser to Mr Trump known for his far-right immigration policies, rejected the split and said he believed his party would eventually unite around the opposition to leave the Afghans relocate in large numbers across the country.

“There is enormous agreement among conservatives that there is no desire among the American public for a large-scale resettlement of widespread refugees,” he said.

With right-wing Fox News hosts like Laura Ingraham and Tucker Carlson lining up with the party’s anti-refugee wing, Ms. Longwell, the Republican strategist, said the “open question” was whether Republican sentiment that America was morally obligated to aid the Afghan allies “wanes after two weeks.”

“Is it really our responsibility to welcome thousands of potentially uncontrolled Afghan refugees? Ms. Ingraham said on her prime-time cable news show last week.

Some Democrats have noticed the rift among Republicans who have generally lined up behind Mr Trump and are hoping this could be a sign that the former president’s grip on the party has diminished.

“I have members from the progressive left of the Democratic Party to the most hawkish, all agree that we need to get the vulnerable Afghans out,” said Representative Tom Malinowski, Democrat of New Jersey, who was Assistant Secretary of State during the Obama administration. Mr. Malinowski lobbied the White House to commit to maintaining troops in Kabul until all American and Afghan allies are safely evacuated.

“Maybe this is an opportunity for some of my friends on the other side to make the GOP the party of Reagan, not Trump, when it comes to refugees,” he said.

Other Democrats have said it is unrealistic to expect Republicans to break Mr. Trump’s grip.

“They will follow the line and parrot Trump’s nativism,” said Philippe Reines, former Hillary Clinton adviser at the State Department. “When he preaches ‘Afghanistan did not send its best’, his whole temple will say ‘amen’.”

For now, the GOP remains united in capitalizing on Mr. Biden’s first major foreign policy crisis as a way to undermine the reputation of a president who ran on the basis of his skills.

The America First Policy Institute, a group formed by former senior Trump administration officials, has previously run online ads replaying some of the images of the chaos at Kabul airport, contrasting with Mr. Biden’s promise that there would be “no circumstance where you are going to see people being lifted off the roof of a United States embassy from Afghanistan.”