A top homeland security adviser to former Vice President Mike Pence accused the Trump administration of distorting the truth about Afghan refugees, writing on Twitter that the former president and his top immigration adviser, Stephen Miller, blocked refugees from entering the United States. demanded.
In an interview, Olivia Troy recalled meetings where Mr Miller called for a ban on refugees, including refugees from Afghanistan and Iraq. She said cuts to the refugee program during the Trump years hollowed out the government’s ability to bring interpreters and others to the United States.
“Now we are in this crisis and they are saying Trump would have evacuated them,” Ms Troy said. “But he hasn’t in four years. You don’t get revisionist history at play here. There are people who know what the situation is.”
President Donald J. Trump and his allies have repeatedly claimed in recent days that his administration would have handled the withdrawal from Afghanistan better than President Biden, whom he described as working with the United States to help evacuate Americans and Afghans. criticized for failing. Top conservative commentators, including Ben Domenech, have tweeted in support of Mr Trump.
Ms Troy denied those claims on Twitter and in an interview, claiming instead that Trump administration officials acted against bringing Afghan and Iraqi allies into the country by granting them a special immigrant visa, indicating that they had fought the US war. supported the efforts.
Mr Miller “and his supporters across the government will not undermine anyone who worked on solving the SIV issue by destroying the system at DHS & State,” she wrote on Twitter.
Mr Miller successfully pressed for deep cuts in the number of refugees the United States allowed into the country, although the Trump administration tried to prioritize more limited visas for Afghans and Iraqis towards the end of the presidency. .
In 2017, when Mr Trump imposed a travel ban on foreigners, including Iraqis, former national security adviser HR McMaster was furious that it would deter Iraqi allies who helped the military during the war there. After repeated clashes between Mr McMaster and Mr Miller, Mr Trump reluctantly agreed to lift Iraq from the travel ban.
The Biden administration has said it is allowing only fully tested Afghans into the United States. But in a series of tweets last week, Mr Miller warned against bringing “millions” of Afghans into the United States.
“Bottom line: If we’re not careful, we could end up with 20 years of Afghanistan showing a failed terrorist state, a humanitarian catastrophe and an immigration policy that has brought the threat of jihad inside our shores,” Mr. Miller wrote.
“If we are to safely and effectively assist the *millions* of people leaving Afghanistan,” he said, “the focus must be on regional resettlement—not large-scale resettlement within the United States.”