SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) — The Bay Area Afghan community is condemning the shooting of two national guard troops in Washington, D.C, allegedly by an Afghan national. But they are also raising concerns that their entire community is being demonized and held accountable in the aftermath of the shooting.
On social media, the U.S. government announced: “Effective immediately, processing of all immigration requests relating to Afghan nationals is stopped indefinitely pending further review of security and vetting protocols.”
That comes after two national guards were shot, allegedly by Afghan national, who was in the United States legally.
“What we are now seeing is deeply concerning. Collective punishment based on identity or nationality,” says Harris Mojadedi, a long-time Afghan community activist in Bay Area. “It is xenophobia. It is racism. It is very discriminatory. And it is in a pattern we have seen with (the Trump) administration.”
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Mojadedi condemns the shooting. But he says the backlash in cities like Fremont, home to one of the largest Afghan communities in the country, is already being felt.
“I am talking to family and friends who are worried to go to (an Afghan) grocery store. They are worried to go to the mosque. They are concerned they may be rounded up,” says Mojadedi.
Fremont’s Afghan community has been a target before. In May, Afghans here legally on humanitarian parolee visas, received a letter from the Department of Homeland Security, telling them to go back. Earlier this month, Fremont officials confirmed ICE agents did door knocks in a predominately Afghan neighborhood.
But Professor Nolan Higdon, a political analyst at UC Santa Cruz, says what the Trump administration is now doing is new.
“Historically, when someone has committed a crime or been accused of it, people who share that identity have also been demonized in the court of public opinion,” Professor Higdon said. “But to raise it to the level of actual stopping people coming to the country, of people of that identity, that is a new escalation in terms of American history.”
That escalation is what has many concerned.
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The Bay Area-based Project ANAR, which provides Afghan-Americans with legal services issued a statement, saying:
“Refugees wait years for the opportunity to resettle in the U.S., often after being left with no choice but to flee their homes because of conditions caused in part by U.S. foreign policy. This memorandum undermines the refugee program by wasting resources on re-screening those who have already gone through the highest level of vetting to prove their needs for protection.”
“I am very proud to be an American, but I also want to flag the fact that Afghans have been living in the United States, very proudly and peacefully, for over four to five decades,” says California State Senator, Dr. Aisha Wahab, whose district includes parts of Fremont. “And I will hold every elected official accountable for how this is going to be utilized to harm all people that are literally seeing safety and justice and freedom, and the American ideals. And harming them, and exploiting what is happening today, just for their political gain.”
Senator Wahab is one of the highest ranking Afghan-Americans in public office.
Professor Higdon concludes by saying, “This individual, who is the accused attacker, supposedly came here after President Joe Biden pulled the troops out of Afghanistan. It is also something that Trump Administration and MAGA would like to tie to the Biden administration. Particularly their narrative that Biden let anybody in across the border. So, I think politically speaking, is a very easy lay-up for the Trump Administration.”
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