Expel all for the misdeeds of a few? That's not the 'Oklahoma Standard'
Just a few years ago, in the fall of 2021, we began welcoming the arrival of what would amount to about 1,800 Afghan refugees into our community.
They came at a time when our country was withdrawing its military forces from Afghanistan, allowing the Taliban and its brutal, hardline regime to retake control of that war-ravaged land.
Some of the refugees had worked for U.S. and alliance forces and various non-governmental organizations, charities and media outlets operating in the country. They rightly feared Taliban retribution.
Gov. Kevin Stitt, working with a Christian organization, Catholic Charities, welcomed the refugees to Oklahoma, as did the state's two Republican senators at the time, James Lankford and Jim Inhofe, and Republican Reps. Frank Lucas, Stephanie Bice and Tom Cole.
Support for the Afghans was seen as a concrete example of the "Oklahoma Standard," forged in the aftermath of the tragic Oklahoma City bombing 30 years ago this past April. Maintaining that standard, often expressed as "people helping people," over the past three decades since the bombing has been a source of pride for Oklahomans regardless of their political affiliation, race or ethnic background.
There was an earlier and more relevant example, as well, when Oklahoma welcomed thousands of refugees from Vietnam after the fall of Saigon 50 years ago.
The thousands of immigrants we accepted then reshaped Oklahoma City in ways that forever changed the city for good.
So, what are we to make of our attorney general, Gentner Drummond, who now is saying all Afghan refugees in this country should be expelled?
In his public announcement, Drummond said he was following the lead of President Donald Trump in issuing "a proclamation effectively banning Afghan nationals from entering the United States."
"I am demanding that Gov. Stitt reject the approval he gave to the Biden Administration so all Afghan refugees can be removed from Oklahoma," said Drummond, who has announced he will be a candidate for governor in 2026.
Has Drummond made some sort of political calculation that Oklahoma voters will approve of throwing the Oklahoma Standard out the window and punishing all Afghans for the acts of just a few of them?
Drummond is defending his call for expulsion by pointing out that an Afghan refugee shot and wounded two police officers in Virginia in April and that two others in Oklahoma allegedly plotted a mass shooting on Election Day 2024 before being arrested.
The attorney general did not elaborate on the legal principle he believes justifies the expulsion of all members of a particular ethnic group — who came to this country legally — because a few members of that group broke the law.
Drummond criticized Stitt and former President Joe Biden for "not properly vetting" the Afghans that were admitted, apparently under the illusion that some piece of paper would serve as a guarantee against future law-breaking.
The Oklahoman rejects this reasoning.
If Drummond is to be our next governor, and early polls show him to be well on that path, we urge him to accept the invitation put forth in a recent op-ed by Veronica Laizure-Henry, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), Oklahoma Chapter, to meet with members of the Muslim community and our new Afghan neighbors and learn more about them before making broad, inflammatory deportation demands.
We admire many of the stands Drummond has taken since being sworn in as attorney general in 2023, particularly in protecting religious freedom. But we deplore the political posturing and the lack of merit in his generic attack on a group of people who are following the law, contributing to our community, and to whom, in many cases, we owe a debt of gratitude for their actions to aid and protect our servicemembers and other Americans when we were strangers in their land.
This editorial was written by William C. Wertz, and represents the position of The Oklahoman editorial board, which includes deputy opinion editor Wertz, opinion editor Clytie Bunyan and executive editor Ray Rivera.
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Trump and AG Drummond are wrong on Afghan refugees | Editorial
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