Opinion - 'Guilt by association' doesn't justify a war on immigrants

On Nov. 26, two members of West Virginia’s National Guard were shot while on patrol in Washington, D.C. One of them, Sarah Beckstrom, has died. The suspect, Rahmanullah Lakanwal, is an Afghan national who worked for the CIA before the Taliban took control of his country. He was admitted to the U.S. in 2021 and granted asylum in April 2025.

“The animal,” President Trump declared, “will pay a very steep price.”

He subsequently ordered the U.S. Citizen and Immigration Service and other relevant federal agencies to “re-examine every single alien who has entered our country from Afghanistan under Biden”; suspend all pending Green Card requests from Afghans; “permanently pause” migration from all Third World nations; and denaturalize immigrants currently living in the U.S. “who undermine domestic tranquility” or “don’t add benefit our country.” Trump also claimed that immigration posed “the single greatest national security threat to our nation”; and that “only REVERSE MIGRATION can fully cure this situation.”

To justify his policies, Trump is relying on a variant of an old fallacy. Instead of punishing individuals because they are members of certain organizations or nationalities, Trump’s version of guilt by association punishes an entire group of people because of the behavior of just one of its members.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/opinion-guilt-association-doesn-t-130000861.html