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Afghan Refugees in U.S. Are Sending Our Tax Dollars Back to Afghanistan
FrontPage Magazine ^ | 8-28-22 | Daniel Greenfield

Posted on 08/29/2022 8:48:46 AM PDT by SJackson

Some countries run their entire economies around remittances, promoting mass migration to America, and then profiting from the"/>

Frontpage Mag

"Inside Every Progressive Is A Totalitarian Screaming To Get Out" @Horowitz39, David Horowitz

Afghan Refugees in U.S. Are Sending Our Tax Dollars Back to Afghanistan

Sun Aug 28, 2022
Daniel Greenfield

Not actually a surprise.

Some countries run their entire economies around remittances, promoting mass migration to America, and then profiting from the money sent back to their families. Once we enabled money to enter Taliban territory, this was inevitable.

But this little detail emerges from what is supposed to be a sympathetic profile of Afghan migrants by the Los Angeles Times, but is actually an exercise in entitlement.

In many ways, Musafer said, America has provided him and his family with the safety and opportunity they had hoped for. He quickly found a full-time job at an Apple warehouse. His children — Sefatullah, 18; Rabia, 16; Muqaddas, 12; and Subhanullah, 10 — are enrolled in school. He and Yalda take English-language courses. Many in Yalda's family immigrated to California several years ago, during an earlier phase of the U.S. occupation, and on weekends the Musafers spend time with her sister's family, cooking together or exploring Northern California.

But America sucks.

About 10 miles from Musafer's home, Ali Zafar Mehran questioned why the resettlement process for Afghans hasn't gone more smoothly. Since arriving in the U.S. in April, Mehran, 36, has struggled to find housing. His caseworker told him that it could take months for the resettlement agency to help him find a place to live.

It can take Americans months to find a place to live. And we do it without subsidies or a government-funded agency.

"This resettlement system and refugee services are not fair," said Mehran, who worked as a budget advisor for the Justice Sector Support Program — an international partnership with the U.S. and Afghan governments to help reform the Afghan criminal justice system and curb the flow of narcotics. "Some of my friends received good services. But most are in bad situations like me."

His resettlement agency didn't help him find a home, he said.

Why should it? The vast majority of people coming to this country don't have government agencies finding them homes. They have to do that on their own.

He found his current apartment through another friend, who said he knew the leasing office manager in a complex in the Arden Arcade area where many Afghans have resettled.

That's how it works.

Mehran used his "welcome money," about $3,500 disbursed by the resettlement agency, to pay for the apartment that he has furnished with hand-me-downs and items he's salvaged from the street. His wife, Karima, 31 — a former nurse who gave birth to their second daughter after moving to California — sleeps on a mattress he pulled from the trash. The decorative pillow cases that he brought from Afghanistan are also filled with things he found in the garbage.

Mehran works in a warehouse, he got $3,500 in aid and is getting government aid now. Why can't he afford a mattress for his pregnant wife?

He borrowed roughly $12,000 from friends to purchase a car, a rug and other household items.

Buying the rug is a priority, but your wife can sleep on a mattress from the trash. That's a cultural value.

"I really didn't expect it, that life will start like this in the United States," Mehran said. "I have lots of other problems. I must earn money to send to my parents in Afghanistan."

Each month, he receives roughly $1,400 from Sacramento County in the form of cash aid and food stamps.

Between a full-time job and $1,400 in state welfare, Mehran might have more money, but he's sending it to his family who live in Talibanstan. One way or another, the terrorists will get a cut of money brought into Afghanistan.

How much money is he sending to them? We're not told.

The bottom line though is that Mehran is surly and complaining about the country that took him in and is lavishing cash on him because it's not doing enough, meanwhile he's sending money back to his home country.

We haven't left Afghanistan.



TOPICS: Editorial; Government; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: afghanistan; remittances; taliban

1 posted on 08/29/2022 8:48:46 AM PDT by SJackson
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To: SJackson

I suspect many businesses owned by middle easterners in this country have been doing the same thing for literally decades.


2 posted on 08/29/2022 8:51:28 AM PDT by V_TWIN (America...so great even the people that hate it refuse to leave)
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To: texas booster

ping


3 posted on 08/29/2022 8:52:16 AM PDT by SJackson (nations that are barren of liberties are also barren of groceries, Louis Fisher)
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To: SJackson

More human garbage. Arrogant beggars all of them.


4 posted on 08/29/2022 8:56:20 AM PDT by jmacusa (Liberals. Too stupid to be idiots. )
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To: SJackson

WANNA BET me the “RUG” is a prayer rug ?????


5 posted on 08/29/2022 8:58:02 AM PDT by ridesthemiles
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To: ridesthemiles

This sounds like the Tucker Carlson book I just(unfinished) read. I had to skip the chapters on diversity and the bedroom. We’re being presented with too much of this crap and I’m tuning out. The left won’t hear about our Afghan failures so where are we at collectively? We’ll find out in November. I’ll send a hundred bucks to Masters(AZ.) + one or 2 other senate wannabes come October but only if they have a chance to win. Getting sick of this crap.


6 posted on 08/29/2022 9:08:44 AM PDT by DIRTYSECRET
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To: Taxman

Ping


7 posted on 08/29/2022 9:09:19 AM PDT by Taxman (SAVE AMERICA!)
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To: DIRTYSECRET

That book was “Ship of Fools”.Don’t waste your time even thought the first 2 chapters were good.


8 posted on 08/29/2022 9:09:51 AM PDT by DIRTYSECRET
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To: SJackson

To the surprise of.......no one.


9 posted on 08/29/2022 9:11:55 AM PDT by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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To: 100American; 21twelve; 2nd amendment mama; A Conservative Thinker; Absolutely Nobama; ...
Daniel Greenfield, a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center, is a New York writer focusing on radical Islam and leftism.

Not actually a surprise.

Some countries run their entire economies around remittances, promoting mass migration to America, and then profiting from the money sent back to their families. Once we enabled money to enter Taliban territory, this was inevitable.

Ping out to the Daniel Greenfield Ping! List.

As always, please FReepmail me if you want on or off the esteemed Daniel Greenfield ping list.

10 posted on 08/29/2022 9:43:58 AM PDT by texas booster (Join FreeRepublic's Folding@Home team (Team # 36120) Cure Alzheimer's!)
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To: SJackson

My translator in Afghanistan emigrated to the USA, along with a few of the others that I worked with while there. They all started out receiving welfare (food stamps and medicaid). The ones I know are now all hard working homeowners and taxpayers.

I had a truck, and used to help them haul back the furniture items they found when they first got here. They were amazed at what people just discarded, like working big screen TVs, with the remote taped to it for convenience. Nobody seems to throw out big rugs though, which is like their main furnishing.

My personal translator is now such a close friend, that we call each other brother (his family lived with us when they first arrived). He owns his own business, works long hours, makes good money, and all his kids are in, or bound for college.

He sends money back every month, for his family and his wife’s. He reports that the economy is frozen there since the Taliban took over, and nobody can find jobs. There is no social safety net from the Government. The Taliban almost laugh at the idea, saying that they are not there to bring you bread. He is not going to leave his widowed mother to starve, nor his sisters, whose school was closed by the Taliban. He is probably feeding over a dozen people there.

There have been a few waves of immigration from Afghanistan over the years. When the communists first deposed the Shah in the 1970s, we got some of the elite, and the cream of the crop. Later we got a mixed bag, including some underclass, that has been content to rest on welfare.

In my view, the quality of the Afghan immigrants we got in recent years is significantly higher than what Europe got in its overland caravans. I don’t really know about this last wave during the evacuation, but what I hear is that it was largely not based on merit, but mostly whoever bribed or snuck their way in to line.

One problem that I do see, is the radical mosques that are allowed to operate here, and indoctrinate the kids. They have effective ways to lure in non radical Afghans, and get their kids into regular indoctrination programs.


11 posted on 08/29/2022 10:02:08 AM PDT by BeauBo ( Bulkand(1/2 of GD)
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To: SJackson

Just like the Central American illegals have been doing for ages. Why does this surprise anyone?

‘Face

;o]


12 posted on 08/29/2022 10:14:09 AM PDT by Monkey Face ( ~~ God is still writing your story. Quit trying to steal the pen and trust the Author. ~~ FB)
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To: texas booster

Thanks for the Daniel Greenfield ping. And thanks for putting his name in the ping... No matter what - I’ll stop to read Greenfield.


13 posted on 08/29/2022 10:18:19 AM PDT by GOPJ (Merrick's proud the DOJ & FBI are being renamed "Lavrentiy Beria Society' in honor of Joseph Stalin.)
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To: SJackson

And I’m sure American dollars are welcomed in Afghanistan - - probably buying more than they buy here. Same with dollars sent to Valenzuela.

Same for the millions of illegals Biden’s inviting here.

Must be nice to be a democrat and feel the joy of being so giving - and all the while doing it on someone else’s dime.


14 posted on 08/29/2022 10:29:17 AM PDT by GOPJ (Merrick's proud the DOJ & FBI are being renamed "Lavrentiy Beria Society' in honor of Joseph Stalin.)
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To: GOPJ

Years ago, US money sent back to Mexico was was the 2nd largest source of Mexico’s “GDP” after oil. It might be number 1 now.


15 posted on 08/29/2022 10:52:24 AM PDT by 21twelve (Ever Vigilant. Never Fearful.)
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To: SJackson

They’re saving big money on not using toilet paper and not flushing so they’re sending it home so their relatives can sneak across the border.


16 posted on 08/29/2022 11:00:20 AM PDT by RedMonqey
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To: 21twelve
Years ago, US money sent back to Mexico was was the 2nd largest source of Mexico’s “GDP” after oil. It might be number 1 now.

True. But with Biden's spending - and the inflation that spending will cause - who knows how long our money will be worth anything in Mexico or Afghanistan...

17 posted on 08/29/2022 11:16:00 AM PDT by GOPJ (Merrick's Garland's DOJ & FBI are being renamed "Lavrentiy Beria Society' in honor of Joseph Stalin.)
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To: SJackson

Just like democrats, they curse you because you are not generous enough.


18 posted on 08/29/2022 1:20:04 PM PDT by oldbrowser (The ghost president concerned about ghost guns.)
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To: V_TWIN

......”I suspect many businesses owned by middle easterners in this country have been doing the same thing for literally decades”......

Oh without question! Same with Latinos and all those coming in from S. America. They send money back to their home countries to family members and “others”.


19 posted on 08/29/2022 7:05:06 PM PDT by caww (O death, when you seized my Lord, you lost your grip on me......Augustine)
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