State Dept. Recommends Pittsburgh As U.S. Destination For Afghan Refugees

[gg]

Originally Posted by SteelCityRising

This is fantastic! Thanks for sharing! Maybe now our population will stop declining, and our local employers that can't find any job applicants can have these roles fulfilled.

Thanks for working. Your tax dollars will support them forever. You are growing into an amazing person. Just a few more years and you will be with the majority on here. People that work support the lazy. I don't think they will amount to much when they get here. I hope I am wrong and I post a retraction to you. Nothing would make me happier.

[gg]

Originally Posted by Moby Hick

All my ancestors who came to America were random peasants.

Clearly. I of course am from Royalty.

[Blue Shift]

Originally Posted by eschaton

Plus, it needs to be noted that the Afghan refugees who are for the most part not random peasants. They're functionaries who worked with the government and for U.S. forces. They are "middle class" by Afghan standards, and should be pretty upwardly mobile within a decade.

I fought in Afghanistan, and my (admittedly, unpopular) opinion is that most of the Afghans that worked "with" us are NOT people you'd want to be neighbors with. There were some, of course, that were excellent people, and they were the ones who got Special Immigrant Visas (SIVs). If an Afghan had a SIV, someone was vouching for them. The fact that so few Afghans that were flown over here had SIVs should give one pause; no American vouched for non-SIVs, probably for a reason.

Originally Posted by eschaton

Eh. Plenty of Americans kill people as well, and the government cannot assure 100% security without being a totalitarian nightmare state.

The difference is that we are "stuck" with our own. Any refugee who commits crimes here in the US was 100% avoidable. Maybe I shouldn't say 100%, since sneaking across the borders is possible, but accepting non-SIV Afghans, who have an absolutely awful record in Europe, is malicious.

Originally Posted by Lost_In_Translation

Most if not all of them had US visas prior to the exit, the US did not process many visas during the exit. They’re well vetted. Plenty of other Afghans that helped the US got left behind because of the slow visa processing.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.nyt...ugees.amp.html

Your article claiming 7,000 was from 19 August. As of 2 weeks ago the number was 21,000, with expectations of 50,000 by September (NY Post). The majority have not been vetted. Some who fail security screenings are being sent to Camp Bondsteel in Kosovo. US officials are dealing with people "who lie or destroy their identification in hopes of qualifying for immigration." Many Afghans go by one name, and don't know how old they are. To say processing them is a s---show is an understatement.

That said, I have seen stories about Afghans who got bureaucratically screwed when whoever vouched for them died, or they didn't complete the process for whatever reason. In an ideal world they could have been identified and shuffled to the front of the line.

Originally Posted by eschaton

81% of all Americans support resettling Afghan refugees in the U.S. This includes 79% of Trump voters and 76% of Republicans. It is not a partisan issue.

Nothing stops people from having an opinion on issues they're ignorant of, but that's nothing to cheer for.

That said, Afghanistan's loss is our gain.

Wait, were you deployed in Afghanistan too? It's not a given that the Best And Brightest Afghans worked for the Americans.