Rice also explained the difficulties Afghans have had registering with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), which does not operate in all countries. While the UNHCR does operate in Pakistan, “between corruption and other reasons, it has been very, very difficult for Afghans to get registered” there, she said.
US Has Vested Interest in Helping Afghan Refugees
“I would love for us to help all refugees,” said Rice, “and I hope we can get back to that.” However, she believes that Afghan refugees have a unique claim on American aid for several reasons, including that “we have had such long partnership and activity in their country.”
“We know a lot about these people,” she said. “Refugee vetting is very extensive. And for Afghans, we have the ability to really vet them.”
Another difference is that “these are folks, by and large, who have already bought into the American way of doing things,” said Rice. “They’ve worked in American business, American work settings. Many people speak English well, and so their ability to integrate is quite swift. And they have been fighting with us against terrorism.”
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Rice was clear that she is in full favor of protecting Americans from danger and “taking legitimate precautions.”
“I’m working with a lot of military veterans and active duty service members who…took jobs to put their lives on the line for America,” she said. “So if anyone’s concerned about American security, these are the people who are. And they are advocating for Afghans.”
Rice pointed out that the systems the EOs have paused for 90 days took years to develop and that people had to be hired and trained to run them. Now, the systems have been totally disrupted and people have been laid off.
“Every indication is that this is not about just a 90-day pause,” she said, “because during those 90 days, all the systems are being kind of taken apart. So that’s not efficiency…to restart them, you have to find new employees, retrain them—it’s a very inefficient thing to do.”
Regarding the American withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021, Rice said, “We are absolutely critical of how that evacuation went down, the lack of planning, the unnecessary chaos.” During that time, the vetting of refugees was in fact inadequate, and people did make it into the U.S. who should not have been allowed in.
Now, however, the vetting process for Afghans is extremely thorough. “To pretend that the vetting isn’t robust enough is disingenuous,” said Rice. “And it’s a fear tactic.”
