Oklahoma Delegation Weighs In On Afghan Refugees Coming To Oklahoma

With Oklahoma set to receive the third most Afghan refugees in the country, the state’s congressional delegation is urging Oklahomans to be welcoming and the government to be wary.

In the last week, the first of approximately 1,800 Afghans have arrived in the state and begun the difficult process of resettlement. Many of them are Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) holders because they provided assistance to the United States during the 20-year war in Afghanistan and would likely have been targeted by the Taliban if they had remained there.

“Many of these individuals stood alongside our military men and women for years, sometimes decades, to help our military be able to do the job that they were tasked with in Afghanistan,” said Rep. Stephanie Bice (R-OK5) in a recent interview, “and so not to be supportive of them is turning our back on our military men and women.”

True to form, Oklahomans are opening their hearts and wallets, donating supplies to help provide basic comforts to those who end up in the sooner state

“To me, it’s a debt of honor for the United States to provide the support and hospitable reception that these people deserve,” said Rep. Tom Cole (R-OK4).

Some members of the state’s DC delegation are more vocal than others, though, about the need to make sure that relocating hundreds of refugees to Oklahoma doesn’t put local citizens at risk.

“Some of the individuals we know exactly who they are because they fought alongside our military, they were interpreters, they were drivers, they were individuals that worked in our state department in Afghanistan,” said Sen. James Lankford (R-OK), [but] some of these individuals we don’t know well. “

Sen. Lankford said we need to do ‘extensive vetting’ with those people we don’t know well to make sure it’s safe to have them here in United States.

“That’s a reasonable thing to be able to do for any country in any place, to be able to go through that basic vetting process, said Lankford.

Congressman Markwayne Mullin (R-OK1) says there’s no question we should welcome with open arms anyone who served all side are troops and has qualified for an SIV, but he says not all of those who will be coming have.

“I don’t think we should just open our door openly to anybody it wants to come inside the united states, I think there needs to be a proper vetting process,” said Mullin.

The two states taking more refugees than Oklahoma or California and Texas.