AFGHAN AMERICAN COMMUNITY CONDEMNS BIDEN’S ABHORRENT DEAL
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: February 5, 2024
Media Contact: Arash Azizzada | arash@weareafghans.org | 202-277-5481
Link: bit.ly/AAAsenatedeal
WASHINGTON D.C. – On Sunday evening, the United States Senate released the text of a negotiated supplemental appropriations bill that includes Afghan Adjustment but kills asylum protections and allocates more money for deadly forever wars overseas. This bill includes $118 billion for foreign military spending and border militarization that will jeopardize the lives of immigrant communities seeking safety at the border. A budget is a moral document, and this proposal shows that our elected officials are prioritizing more war, detention, and deportation over basic human needs.
“This deal is a cynical attempt to use Afghan evacuees as a political bargaining chip, trading away a precious lifeline that Afghans left behind by the United States have used to seek safety and asylum on our border, " says Afghans For A Better Tomorrow’s co-director Arash Azizzada. “We cannot in good conscience accept this abhorrent deal that destroys these life-saving protections, trades the safety of one group over another, and continues to fund the indiscriminate killing of Palestinians.
This bill would mimic Trump-type policies to gut and destroy the asylum system as we know it, including throwing billions to surveil, detain and deport some of the most vulnerable people on this planet in their quest to seek safety.
It is maddening that Congress is attempting to cut a deal that would eliminate our asylum system while at the same time funding the wars that make them seek asylum in the first place. Congress should kill this awful deal and instead pass the bipartisan Afghan Adjustment Act.”
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Afghans For A Better Tomorrow (AFBT) is an Afghan-led community and advocacy organization that organizes the Afghan-American community to bring about systemic change in the U.S. and beyond to ensure all Afghans have lives of safety, dignity, and freedom.