Many Americans lately it seems are flag-wrapped and hostile. The America they want to be “great again” is some vague construct more about tribe than “created equal” or “with justice for all” or e pluribus unum. And certainly not “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.”
But Afghan refugee resettlement has reawakened that last bit in some of us in what may constitute “one of the largest mass mobilizations of volunteers since the end of the Vietnam War,” the New York Times reports:
In rural Minnesota, an agricultural specialist has been working on visa applications and providing temporary housing for the newcomers, and she has set up an area for halal meat processing on her farm. In California, a group of veterans has sent a welcoming committee to the Sacramento airport to greet every arriving family. In Arkansas, volunteers are signing up to buy groceries, do airport pickups and host families in their homes.
“Thousands of people just fled their homeland with maybe one set of spare clothes,” said Jessica Ginger, 39, of Bentonville, Ark. “They need housing and support, and I can offer both.”
Perhaps in helping others not already among one or the other major political tribes in this country, we can find ourselves again.
“Even the most right-leaning isolationists within our sphere recognize the level of responsibility that America has to people who sacrificed for the nation’s interest,” said Caleb Campbell, chief pastor of Desert Springs Bible Church, an evangelical megachurch in the Phoenix suburbs.
Parishioner Mars Adema, 40, tried over the last year to orient church ministries to caring for immigrants, only to be rebuffed. “With Afghanistan, something completely shifted,” Ms. Adema said.
How long the welcome will last is unknown. Xenophobia is one of the conservative echo chamber’s most potent marketing tools. Polls show Republicans less likely to extend a hand in welcome than Democrats, the Times adds.
But a broad array of veterans and lawmakers have long regarded Afghans who helped the United States as military partners, and have long pushed to remove the red tape that has kept them in the country under constant threat from the Taliban. Images of babies being lifted over barbed-wire fences to American soldiers, people clinging to departing planes and a deadly terrorist attack against thousands massed at the airport, desperate to leave, have moved thousands of Americans to join their effort.
“For a nation that has been so divided, it feels good for people to align on a good cause,” said Mike Sullivan, director of the Welcome to America Project in Phoenix.
Resettling Afghan allies and their families is bringing out the American in Americans.
Public opinion surveys have shown broad support for resettling Afghan refuges. In a Washington Post-ABC News poll released on Friday, 68 percent said they supported taking in refugees who had been subjected to security review, and 27 percent opposed it. The support included 56 percent of Republicans. Volunteer agencies said the community mobilization has crossed traditional political dividing lines.
“We have never seen anything like it,” said Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, the chief executive of Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, a resettlement agency that has affiliates in 22 states.
CBS News reports that Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas expects “over 50,000 Afghan evacuees, including U.S. citizens, lawful permanent residents, visa holders, applicants for special immigrant visas (SIVs) and others at risk” will need help resettling, including “journalists, and vulnerable women and girls.”
Of the thousands now housed in Europe awaiting transport to the U.S., only one has “popped red” in their security screening, General Tod Wolters, the head of U.S. European Command, tells reporters. That person remains in custody under scrutiny and is not considered high threat.
In Wisconsin, in Texas, and elsewhere, Americans are stepping up to provide aid to Afghan families who receive $1,200 per person from the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants for helping get started on new lives. The cash must be spent within 90 days. It is not a lot for finding housing and work in this (mostly) English-speaking country when starting from nothing.
“We also take some of that money to buy grocery cards and provide families with a little cash for any additional expenses that come up,” says Marisol Girela, associate vice president for social programs for RAICES, the San Antonio, Texas-based nonprofit providing immigrant resettlement and legal representation services.
“This is where donations really make a difference,” Girela said. “The more we get from people — a free sofa or canned food — the more of their own money they can keep.”
Relief agencies themselves are underfunded and understaffed for handling the influx after the Trump administration slashed immigration and cut resources for resettlement during its tenure.
In Phoenix, evangelicals are finding common ground on the issue. For now (the Times again):
Jason Creed, chairman of the board of Desert Springs Bible Church, said he had not heard complaints about the fund-raising drive for refugees.
“This is an issue where vaxxers and anti-vaxxers meet,” said Mr. Creed, a tax lawyer.
The church is part of a newly formed coalition of churches in Phoenix that has committed to provide families with groceries, household supplies and furniture as well as assistance navigating the bus system and filling out job applications.
“At the core of our mission is loving our neighbors,” Pastor Campbell said. “Which is not a one-time event.”
Where that occurs, it is a case of Americans showing more compassion for foreigners than they do for neighbors a few blocks or the next county over. Here’s hoping the lesson will stick.