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NYT Falsely Tries to Tie Afghan Visa Problem to Trump Travel Ban (Two Aren’t Related)
Here’s a NYT article that goes out of its way trying to tie the lack of Afghan Special Immigrant Visas (SIVs; for former U.S. military translators) to the Trump travel ban executive order.
The two are not related, and it would have taken the New York Times exactly one Google worth of journalism, or even reading elsewhere on their own website, to understand that instead of publishing a misleading piece. For a newspaper claiming its work stands between us and fake news, this is just sad.
The article includes these lines:— Afghans who worked for the American military and government are being told that they cannot apply for special visas to the United States, even though Afghanistan is not among the countries listed in President Trump’s new travel ban.
— It was unclear if the visa suspension was related to the president’s new ban.
— Officials at the International Refugee Assistance Project… said “Our worst fears are proving true.”
— It is unclear whether the reported suspension of new applications was related to the number of available visas or to the president’s order reducing refugee intake generally, or to a combination of the two factors.
— Afghanistan was not included in either of the president’s travel bans, but his decision to reduce the overall number of refugees accepted by the United States would affect Afghans as well.
To be clear, the Trump travel ban and visas for Afghan translators have absolutely no connection. None.
Afghanistan is not included in Trump’s travel ban at all. Afghans translators are not refugees under the law. Like its now-defunct sister program for Iraqi translators, the Special Immigrant Visa Program (SIV) was set up to provide immigrant visas (Green Cards) to Afghans who helped U.S. forces. Congress, not the president, sets numerical limits on how many of these visas are to be made available each year. When the limit is reached, the program goes on hiatus until next year. Congress is free at any time to expand the number of these visas available. That’s it.
Now, how could the Times have uncovered these facts? Journalism.The Times could have Googled Afghan Special Immigrant Visas. That would have shown them a State Department page explaining things.
The Times could have contacted any number of advocacy groups that also have online explainers about all this. Most competent immigration lawyers would know, too.
The Times could have looked at its own archives from 2011.
Or, the Times reporters on this story could have read their own website. Because elsewhere in the Times was reprinted a Reuters story that pretty much accurately explains the problem.
That’s it, that’s really all that was necessary to publish an accurate story. But that accurate story would not have included the attempts to link the Afghan problem to Trump, which is the takeaway rocketing around the web.And for the haters, my own article here is not “pro-Trump.” The reason? Because the Afghan story has nothing to do with Trump.
Copyright © 2020. All rights reserved. The views expressed here are solely those of the author(s) in their private capacity.
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RICH BAUER said...
1Peter, keep biting the hand that feeds you and you will be back writing for Hillary Exposed and Hillary Daily.
03/12/17 7:12 AM | Comment Link
wemeantwell said...
2Hillary Exposed? That wasn’t me unless they were reprinting stuff I wrote for elsewhere. Hillary Daily wasn’t so bad, easy people to work with. Odd Russian accents, though, and I’m still trying to convert those rubles to Bitcoin.
03/12/17 8:52 AM | Comment Link
Mitch said...
3Peter.
Its because of the haters, that the article exists.
Or… To put it another way….
” The more centrist right media seems to spend most of its time debunking stories… ”
PVB.
Pisses you off, huh?
There comes a point, when its just another bullshit agenda.
M
03/12/17 7:21 AM | Comment Link
Mitch said...
4Ahhh… Speaking of haters…
Good Morning Rich.
M
03/12/17 7:23 AM | Comment Link
Mitch said...
5Rich.
Some reading material for you…. It might help.
https://m.townhall.com/columnists/thomassowell/2016/11/08/painful-choices-n2242931
https://m.townhall.com/columnists/thomassowell/2016/11/08/painful-choices-part-ii-n2242932
https://m.townhall.com/columnists/thomassowell
M
03/12/17 9:49 AM | Comment Link
John Poole said...
6We may be left with: Assume the worst but have no hope for the best. Russia now says some of its people met with Hillary’s campaign staff during the campaign. Religious insanity of most Americans insures that there are really no threats to humanity.
since a diety has it all planned, Global warming? it is God’s plan.
03/12/17 3:36 PM | Comment Link
chuck said...
7Will Districts in Miami be redistricted when under water in ten years? Help u.s.. Buy an American Time Share in Florida.
03/12/17 5:38 PM | Comment Link
chuck said...
8I like Trump (Puke). I like the Dems and I’m with her (Puke). I like working for the people. Shut Up.
03/12/17 5:41 PM | Comment Link
chuck said...
9ON TOPIC…The NY times is “Judith Miller” Journalism. WMD stuff, and State TV! Have a nice day. (I am not Russian)
03/12/17 5:45 PM | Comment Link
chuck said...
10Clinton’s helped Haiti (how) !
03/12/17 5:53 PM | Comment Link
chuck said...
11Trump is Grape!
03/12/17 6:03 PM | Comment Link
chuck said...
12Be well.
03/12/17 6:03 PM | Comment Link
RICH BAUER said...
13Trump’s phones weren’t bugged. His tv was.
03/12/17 9:34 PM | Comment Link
RICH BAUER said...
14Stephen King has nothing on Steve King in the horror genre.
03/13/17 8:05 AM | Comment Link
RICH BAUER said...
15Did anybody see Trump tweet condemning this fucking king of bigots?
03/13/17 8:10 AM | Comment Link
RICH BAUER said...
16So to recap,the media reports the CIA and NSA are looking for the guys who robbed Vault 7 and leaked to the media the reports of the CIA and NSA ability to use smartphones and smart tvs as bugging devices against Americans while ridiculing The Trumpsters for asserting the same vulnerabilities.
Trump: If I was the president, I would take a flamethrower to these places.
Conway: You are.
Trump: Oh yeah…..
03/13/17 12:12 PM | Comment Link
RICH BAUER said...
17Speaking of Trumps travel ban, he is not going to travel overseas often. Can’t get his coffin through customs.
03/13/17 2:13 PM | Comment Link
RICH BAUER said...
18Trump: About that “Obama wiretapped me” fake news, nevermind.
03/13/17 4:09 PM | Comment Link
RICH BAUER said...
19Obama just tweeted: Terrible. Just found out Trump is a lying sack of shit. McCarthyism!!
03/13/17 4:14 PM | Comment Link
Mitch said...
20Rich.
The problem with fake news…. It really is just slander, libel, misinformation, and disinformation.
Just a thought.
M
03/13/17 4:29 PM | Comment Link
RICH BAUER said...
21Mitch,
Trump’s right about his communications being Intercepted by US. The Intercept today explains it all.
Trump has the power to burn the NSA or CIA or whatever jackass alphabet soup agency did it…..but he won’t.
03/13/17 5:37 PM | Comment Link
Mitch said...
22Rich.
Suggestion….
Don’t pretend to know what Trump is going to do.
That would be a mistake.
The bugging…
Pretty simple…. The Secret Service never allows a President to be any where he might be bugged.
The scanned … They found….
Now…. Who ordered it.
M
03/13/17 6:19 PM | Comment Link
RICH BAUER said...
23With the pisspoor security that allowed the theft of Vault 7 it could be anyone.
03/13/17 8:50 PM | Comment Link
Mitch said...
24Rich.
The bugging happened before the breach.
Want to watch something scary?
Watch the mole/witch hunt that happens next…
Now you will see the unleashed wrath of a government.
The damage that “leak” has done… Will be catastrophic.
M
03/13/17 9:49 PM | Comment Link
RICH BAUER said...
25Mitch,
Scott Ritter in Truthdig article makes the case the Brit did it and implicates several high Obama officials involved in the violation of Flynn’s privacy.
H-A-Double N-I-G-A-N spells Hannigan.
03/15/17 3:24 PM | Comment Link