Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), speaking to CNN, tore into President Donald Trump's move to strip deportation protections away from thousands of Afghans who risked their lives to help U.S. troops carry out their mission against the Taliban in that country.
The decision has sparked intense backlash, including from faith leaders, which prompted the Trump administration to consider walking back the move at least for the handful of Afghan refugees who are Christians.
"As many as 9000 Afghan refugees currently in the United States are at risk of deportation because the Trump administration has ended the temporary protected status, or TPS, that allowed them to stay here legally," said anchor Jake Tapper. "Many of them, of course, risked their lives working for the U.S. military during the Afghanistan War as interpreters in combat and occupations like that. The White House says Afghanistan is no longer dangerous for them. What do you make of that claim?"
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"Well, it shows you how out of touch this White House is, or how callous they are that they don't care," said Duckworth, a former military helicopter pilot who lost her legs in the line of duty.
"Remember that some of these Afghans are women who were serving in the Afghan government, standing up to the Taliban, fighting for the rights of women and girls to go to school," said Duckworth. "These are women who served in their parliament at the request of the American people. You know, we helped them write their constitution that said that, I think 23 percent or 25 percent of their parliament had to be women. And so these are people who are also being affected."
"It is the children of Afghans who escaped, and they are now in threat of going back," she added. "In fact, many of them still have family members who are still living in hiding in Afghanistan because they're still being hunted by the people, by the Taliban that want to destroy them. And so this really shows how incredibly out of touch and callous this White House is."
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