State Department Spokesperson Asked About Trump's Withdrawal Of Temporary Protective Status For Afghans In The US

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During Thursday’s State Department press briefing, Deputy Spokesperson Tommy Pigott answered questions about Trump's withdrawal of temporary protective status for Afghans in the U.S.

Transcript

00:00Yes.

00:01Thank you very much, Tommy.

00:03Can you explain the apparent conflict between the State Department's position regarding

00:11Afghanistan, the safety – relative safety and security of the Taliban government regarding

00:19the decision made on withdrawing temporary protective status for Afghans here in the

00:25U.S. as of July 12th, because it's safe enough, presumably, for them to go back.

00:32And the fact that the State Department has now decided that Afghanistan is not safe, so

00:38it is on the list of states for which immigration is banned.

00:43So we're talking about two dynamics here.

00:46When it comes to the specific of TPS, temporary being the operative word here, I refer you

00:50to DHS for more details, but it was always a temporary benefit, a temporary protection

00:55that's in the name itself.

00:57So we have that dynamic, and people that are here, people that were here on temporary protected

01:01status have had opportunities to apply for permanent residence here in the United States.

01:05So you have that dynamic of a temporary protected status that was temporary, versus the second

01:10dynamic of the ability to vet people entering this country, the ability to ensure people

01:15coming into this country on a visa are properly vetted.

01:18So without getting into specifics of individual countries, the White House has put out a fact

01:22sheet on this that I would refer you to for more specifics, but the idea of people coming

01:26into this country, the ability to properly vet, is a separate dynamic.

01:29And we have to have confidence that we can vet people properly, and I think the American

01:33people would expect us to have that.

01:35So what we're looking at here is, can we vet people properly?

01:37Are there terrorist concerns?

01:40Do we see visa overstays in regards to some of these countries?

01:42Those are some of the driving purposes here.

01:44So we have those two separate dynamics when it comes to Afghanistan.

01:46Just to follow up, there are large numbers of American veterans, those who have fought

01:54in Afghanistan and – and also including State Department personnel, CIA personnel, others

02:01who have worked with the U.S. government, who feel very strongly that many Afghanistan refugees

02:09are at risk if they go back because of their connections to the United States in the past,

02:15in the present time.

02:17And that going back, particularly for women, is of high risk as well.

02:23And they are asking why it is not a different case, why Afghanistan is being treated this

02:30way after the Afghans worked so hard to try to help us during the war.

02:36Well, the temporary protected status is only one dynamic when it comes to the many different

02:41ways that people from Afghanistan have come to this country.

02:44And again, I'd refer you to DHS on the specifics of that TPS announcement.

02:48But I think those two separate dynamics are important, again, to stress.

02:51The temporary protected status, which is always meant as a temporary protection versus the

02:56ability to vet people that are entering this country.

02:58And I think we have to have that realistic approach to say, are we able to vet people that

03:02are coming into this country?

03:03And the American people, I believe, want to see us be able to say that we can when we're

03:07looking at these visas.

03:09And this is part of a broader action, a broader emphasis from this administration with this

03:13action and other actions regarding visas to make sure we have that proper vetting in

03:17place.

03:18You don't think that we are violating a trust, a sacred trust, with many of these

03:25people who have put their lives on the line for the United States of America?

03:29Well, look, I think when it comes to this, again, the TPS is one dynamic

03:32of the many ways that people from Afghanistan have come to this country.

03:35Special immigrant visas, for example, exceptions related to that, are in the proclamation itself

03:39when it comes to the proclamation we saw yesterday.

03:42So I think, again, we're looking at two different dynamics.

03:44A temporary protected status that, again, was always meant to be temporary.

03:47There was the opportunity for those that were here on TPS to apply for permanent residence,

03:53while then also having the secondary part of it, which says, are we able to vet people

03:56coming into this country?

03:57And I think those are two separate dynamics.

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