Dem
47
GOP
53
It may be the Thanksgiving holiday, but the news marches on. And, at least for now, the shooting of two members of the National Guard continues to dominate the headlines. The biggest development on that front, as you can see from the headline, is that one of the two has died. Her name was Sarah Beckstrom, and she was 20 years old. She was also white, and from West Virginia. Those may seem extraneous details, but keep reading.
The other significant development is that much more detail is known about the shooter. His name is Rahmanullah Lakanwal, and he was able to relocate to the United States from Afghanistan under a program called Operation Allies Welcome. Basically, Afghans who helped the U.S. during its endless war in Afghanistan were allowed to move to the front of the immigration line, in part as thanks for their help, and in part because the Taliban does not look kindly upon people who helped the enemy. Lakanwal apparently lives in Washington, and drove all the way from that state to D.C. to do what he did. For the record, that is a drive of about 2,500 miles and 40 hours.
These two developments have produced two responses from the Trump administration, and from many Republicans in Congress. The first of these is to blame Joe Biden for everything. Trump himself, along with FBI Director Kash Patel, U.S. Attorney for Washington D.C. Jeannine Pirro, and others, have declared that Operation Allies Welcome should never have existed in the first place, and that even if it did exist, the Biden administration did not vet admittees carefully enough.
Neither of these complaints can be taken seriously. Imagine you were to approach Republicans, both within the administration and without, about a potential war in, say, Syria. Further imagine you were to propose to them that the U.S. would trade citizenship in exchange for intel and logistical support from natives who know the language, the lay of the land, and the culture better than any American. Somewhere between 99% and 100% of Republicans (not to mention somewhere between 99% and 100% of Democrats) would take that deal. We don't have to speculate, even, because Republicans DID take that deal during the Iraq War.
Or, let's put this another way. The death of Beckstrom is absolutely a tragedy. But she is one person. We are certain that the assistance rendered by Afghans who became part of Operation Allies Welcome saved the lives of many soldiers. Far more than one, that is for sure. It's not a fun thing to write, but wars are about tradeoffs, and often involve things like trading 50 lives to save 500, or 5,000.
As to the second complaint, that this is Joe Biden's fault, that is also ridiculous. The number of people who benefited from Operation Allies Welcome is about 120,000. If one of them turned out to be problematic, then that means the Biden administration did a proper job of vetting 99.99916% of them. That's a heck of a batting average. If that's not good enough, and someone STILL believes that Lakanwal should have been flagged, well, his application for asylum received final approval in April of this year. We may need to double-check our information, but as we understand it, Trump has been president since January 20 of this year.
So, that's one insta-response: Blame Joe Biden and the Democrats and lambaste the whole relocation program. The other insta-response, given that a brown person committed an act of violence against a young, white woman, is to scapegoat immigrants. Well, not ALL immigrants, just brown ones. It's Laken Riley all over again.
It's only been 24 hours or so since Beckstrom's death was announced, but already the following xenophobic things have happened:
Please note, by the way, that we recognize that there are many people out there who are hostile to the United States, and there are some populations of would-be immigrants who might demand extra levels of scrutiny. But painting an entire religion with a broad brush like this is not a serious policy proposal; it's just knee-jerk bigotry. And we would not be doing our job if we did not point out that this kind of garbage almost always comes from Republicans who wear their Christianity on their sleeves. This is the same Christianity that was founded on a message of radical inclusivity. We guess Tuberville, Miller and Roy must have skipped that part. We KNOW Trump skipped that part, since he skipped the entire Bible, despite claiming that it's his "favorite book."
And speaking of Trump, the time has come to share the "Thanksgiving" message he posted to his turkey of a social media platform. It is not easy to read, because it's so rambling, so if you don't want to read it, skip to the end, and we'll highlight the key elements:
A very Happy Thanksgiving salutation to all of our Great American Citizens and Patriots who have been so nice in allowing our Country to be divided, disrupted, carved up, murdered, beaten, mugged, and laughed at, along with certain other foolish countries throughout the World, for being "Politically Correct," and just plain STUPID, when it comes to Immigration. The official United States Foreign population stands at 53 million people (Census), most of which are on welfare, from failed nations, or from prisons, mental institutions, gangs, or drug cartels. They and their children are supported through massive payments from Patriotic American Citizens who, because of their beautiful hearts, do not want to openly complain or cause trouble in any way, shape, or form. They put up with what has happened to our Country, but it's eating them alive to do so! A migrant earning $30,000 with a green card will get roughly $50,000 in yearly benefits for their family. The real migrant population is much higher. This refugee burden is the leading cause of social dysfunction in America, something that did not exist after World War II (Failed schools, high crime, urban decay, overcrowded hospitals, housing shortages, and large deficits, etc.). As an example, hundreds of thousands of refugees from Somalia are completely taking over the once great State of Minnesota. Somalian gangs are roving the streets looking for "prey" as our wonderful people stay locked in their apartments and houses hoping against hope that they will be left alone. The seriously retarded Governor of Minnesota, Tim Walz, does nothing, either through fear, incompetence, or both, while the worst "Congressman/woman" in our Country, Ilhan Omar, always wrapped in her swaddling hijab, and who probably came into the U.S.A. illegally in that you are not allowed to marry your brother, does nothing but hatefully complain about our Country, its Constitution, and how "badly" she is treated, when her place of origin is a decadent, backward, and crime ridden nation, which is essentially not even a country for lack of Government, Military, Police, schools, etc.
And now, the executive summary:
Maybe, one day, we will know what the hell is wrong with Trump. Maybe we will not. All we can say for sure is that a message like this is not the work of a healthy mind. There is something broken within him, even if we don't know exactly what it is. We are not qualifying that assertion in any way, since we are 100% certain it is correct. In another message, by the way, Trump said he might just attend Sarah Beckstrom's funeral, since it will be in West Virginia, and he won West Virginia by 30 points. Who thinks that way? And even if someone DOES think what way, who says that part out loud?
Anyhow, just like we cannot take seriously the "blame Biden" response, we cannot take seriously the "blame the immigrants" response. There is no basis for thinking that immigrants are somehow more likely to commit crimes than non-immigrants. In fact, the evidence has made very clear that they are actually less likely to commit crimes. That's doubly true for undocumented immigrants. And the great majority of the crimes they DO commit are immigration-related.
The explanation for the lower crime rates among immigrants is obvious: For those folks, particularly if they are undocumented, the consequences of being caught committing even a minor crime are potentially much more serious than they are for native-born Americans. An undocumented immigrant who is caught shoplifting, to take one example, might pay the price that is normally exacted for a shoplifting conviction (usually a slap on the wrist; maybe a fine or a few days in jail). And then, they might well be deported, which could well mean good-bye to their job, their home, maybe their family. A native-born American, by contrast, risks only the slap-on-the-wrist stuff.
And even if you believe immigrants commit crimes at a greater rate than do non-immigrant Americans (and there HAVE been some very carefully tailored studies, used by right-wing members of Congress to make this point), there is no reason to believe that immigrants from, say, Somalia are more likely to commit crimes than immigrants, from say, Slovenia. The only explanation for targeting "Third World" countries is anti-sh**hole bigotry.
So, what is REALLY going on here? We have several explanations, and they could very well all be correct:
You cannot know how much we dislike writing "bigotry" and "xenophobia" and other such terms, over and over and over. It runs entirely contrary to our training as academics to use such loaded language. On the other hand, our training as academics also compels us to be accurate and unflinching, even if it means reaching unpleasant conclusions. And softening our verbiage risks, at some level, tolerating the obvious chauvinisms of Trump, Vance, Tuberville, et al. As Freud observed, sometimes a cigar is just a cigar, and there's nothing more to be said. Our corollary to that would be that sometimes a bigot his just a bigot, and there's nothing more to be said.
What we dislike even more is writing borderline conspiratorial stuff like "their efforts to militarize the United States and create the trappings of a dictatorship in advance of the 2026 elections." But again, we can't ignore the evidence. There are now soldiers deployed in at least five American cities. Shots have been fired, and people have died, on both sides of the fray. ICE continues to act like Trump's personal paramilitary force. The latest news on that front is: (1) that the number of non-criminal detainees in ICE custody is up 2,000% (with the total number of detainees, more than 60,000, easily shattering previous records) and (2) the Border Patrol is using its cameras to monitor Americans' driving patterns, and to flag anyone whose activities seem "suspicious."
In short, it's scary and disheartening stuff. And we would be willing to bet good money that, once Congress is back from the Thanksgiving break, one or more show horses in the House will introduce a "Sarah Beckstrom Act," with the goal of scapegoating non-white immigrants in one way or another. If and when that comes to pass, we hope that 100% of readers will see it for the political grandstanding it will be. (Z)