RASC News Agency: American media have reported that J.D. Vance, Vice President of the United States under Donald Trump, has publicly defended the decision to suspend flights carrying Afghanistani citizens awaiting relocation and resettlement in the U.S. In an interview with CBS News, Vance argued that the security vetting of some Afghanistani applicants seeking immigration visas and resettlement in the U.S. had been insufficient, raising serious national security concerns. In the interview, Vance stated, “I don’t want my children to grow up in neighborhoods where individuals are present without having undergone thorough vetting. Since I wouldn’t accept this for my own family, I cannot ask other American citizens to accept it either.”
Vice President Vance also referenced the case of Nasir Ahmad Tohidi, an Afghanistani refugee residing in Oklahoma, who was accused of planning a terrorist attack on Election Day in the U.S. He cited this incident as evidence of systemic flaws in the security screening process for Afghanistani immigrants. When asked by the CBS host about whether these individuals had been properly vetted, Vance retorted, “Do you mean like the individual who, just a few months ago, was planning a terrorist attack in Oklahoma? He was supposedly thoroughly vetted.” Vance went on to highlight that numerous refugee programs suffer from critical shortcomings in the quality of their vetting procedures, emphasizing that the U.S. government cannot admit thousands of individuals without rigorous security checks.
This policy aligns with Donald Trump’s recent executive orders, signed last Monday, which suspended the majority of U.S. foreign aid and development assistance. These orders have also effectively canceled the relocation and resettlement of over 40,000 Afghanistani citizens who had been identified as U.S. allies. Notably, these Afghanistani citizens had worked alongside U.S. forces during America’s two-decade presence in Afghanistan. Now, they face the looming threat of Taliban retribution. Many have reported that their collaboration with U.S. forces has exposed them to severe risks, including “reprisal, detention, torture, threats, imprisonment, and death” at the hands of the Taliban.
