Commentary: Oregon should pause Afghan resettlement

Published 10:15 am Wednesday, October 13, 2021

In mid-August, three days after Afghanistan fell to the Taliban, Oregon Gov. Kate Brown proclaimed our state “ready to welcome any and all Afghans.” Fifty-one of 55 Democratic legislators, who comprise supermajorities in the state House and Senate, issued letters declaring the same.

So it came as no small surprise when the White House informed Brown in mid-September that, of the initial nationwide distribution of 37,000 Afghan refugees, Oregon would receive 180.

Consider that number vis-a-vis other states’. Our neighbors to the north and south, Washington and California, were allocated 1,679 and 5,255, respectively. Kentucky, whose population approximates Oregon’s, got almost five times our number (850). Even reliably-red Oklahoma — every one of whose 77 counties voted for Donald Trump over Joe Biden in 2020 — netted 1,800.

Will Oregon’s leaders now — believing an allotment of “only” 180 refugees slights our state’s reputation as (in Brown’s words) “a welcoming and inclusive place” — implore the Biden administration to send us far more?

Most likely. What they should do, however, is remove their “woke” blinders, look unflinchingly at Oregon’s current predicament, and objectively consider the impact a mass influx of Afghan refugees would have on the citizens of an already-overstressed state.

Even before Afghanistan fell, Oregon was beset by multiple crises. Since the pandemic’s start, more than a third of a million Oregonians have contracted COVID; as of last week, some 1,400 new cases still were being reported each day. In our biggest city, crime has exploded; between January and August 2021, Portland already had seen more murders than in any entire year since 1994. And rural communities continue to rebuild from the summer’s devastating wildfires, which consumed hundreds of thousands of acres. Stretched, already, to the breaking point, need Oregonians’ leaders volunteer them for yet another costly challenge?

Most harmed by a mass infusion of Afghan refugees would be Oregon’s poorest. Statewide, reports the National Low Income Housing Coalition, there is a shortage of almost 99,000 rental homes available to what it terms “extremely low-income households, whose incomes are at or below the poverty guideline or 30 percent of their area median income.” Should Gov. Brown and her Democratic colleagues force poor U.S. citizens to compete with thousands more destitute Afghans for our already-scarce low-income housing?

And however uncomfortable it may make them, Brown et al should take a clear, unbiased look at the Afghans themselves.

Between 2008 and 2012, the Pew Research Center surveyed residents of Muslim countries, including Afghanistan. (During those years, remember, Afghanistan had a pro-U.S. government and American personnel were working to imbue its people with democratic values.) What Pew discovered:

Ninety-nine percent of Afghans surveyed believed sharia should be the law of the land. Eighty-five percent believed sharia should sanction the stoning of adulterers. And 61 percent believed sharia should govern not just Muslims, but non-Muslims.

Considered “sometimes” justifiable were suicide bombings (by 39 percent of Afghans polled) and “honor” killings of female family members who had engaged in extramarital sex (by 60 percent).

Crime? In Europe, resident Afghans commit disproportionate numbers of violent offenses. In Austria, for example, a 2018 government report, summarized by the Center for Immigration Studies’ Jason Richwine, found that “Afghans’ overall crime rate is seven times higher than the rate of Austrians, and that Afghans commit rape at an astonishing 22 times the Austrian rate.”

Given all this, how likely are Afghans, as a whole, to assimilate seamlessly into Oregon communities?

Rather than plead for more Afghan refugees for our state, Brown and her colleagues should urge the Biden Administration to seek to resettle them in Central Asian nations — especially Pakistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, which border Afghanistan directly, share its cultural attributes and, collectively, have received billions in U.S. aid.

Since 1975, Oregon has welcomed some 70,000 refugees — which testifies mightily to our character and compassion. But given our already-numerous challenges and the problematic values, beliefs and behaviors of so many Afghans, our state, today, must say no to more.