Injustice at its highest level

This week, the United States was rocked by a cold-blooded, ambush-style attack against two National Guards stationed in Washington, D.C., a few blocks away from the White House. Sadly, one passed away and the other victim is still in critical condition. The lone assailant has been identified as an immigrant from Afghanistan who was admitted in the United States during the Biden administration under a special immigrant visa and later granted asylum attributed to his work with the US government during the war in Afghanistan. He has since been charged with first-degree murder.

The Trump administration reacted swiftly by implementing a pause on all asylum applications and calling for a review of all citizenship and green card applications from Afghanistan. It also expanded its review and rigorous examination of all green card applications from 19 countries previously listed under a travel ban.

In a social media post, the president vowed to permanently pause migration from all third-world countries and that his administration would revoke the citizenship of those it deems "undermine domestic tranquility" and deport any foreigner "who is a public charge, security risk, or non-compatible with Western Civilization." There is a lot to unpack here as there are a lot of qualifiers that need to be understood in order to get a sense of what he means by his reaction. At this point, he has not issued an official executive order carrying out this post but it gives us a sense on how and what would be coming in a few days or weeks.

I hope this is just an initial knee-jerk reaction to what is such an awful tragedy. There is no question that evil happened here and that the suspect needs to face the fullest extent of the law, but his "sins" should not be used to paint a broad brushstroke against all Afghans and all immigrants. Both parties should be careful of their rhetoric as there are fringe and loose minds out there that could take advantage of the chaos and would sow further terror and fear most especially on the law-abiding immigrant population. It is injustice at its highest level if the rest of the immigrant communities have to suffer ill consequences from an action not of their own making but because of one man's guilt.

At this point, while there is no official proclamation yet, we Filipinos do not need to worry about potential repercussions on pending petitions and applications. Processing is still going on. Also we have to be vigilant for our own safety. We do not know if some deranged individual would act on the anti-immigrant, hateful speech he or she has been hearing or happening as a result of this senseless tragedy.