Ian Patrick, FISM News
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Days after the U.S. officially announced their withdrawal from Afghanistan, the American embassy in Tajikistan said that it will be financially supporting “a project to construct new facilities for a Border Guard Detachment in Ayvoj, along the Tajik-Afghan-Uzbek border.” The funding will reportedly begin in 2022.
The funding will be used to replace an outdated border facility with a new, upgraded facility “to deploy forces more quickly to border areas in response to threats.” It will also house the border guards as well as their families.
Ambassador John Mark Pommersheim of the American embassy in Tajikistan said, “The United States and Tajikistan enjoy strong security cooperation, and this border detachment project is just another example of our shared commitment to the security and sovereignty of Tajikistan and Central Asia.”
According to the update from the Tajikistan embassy, the U.S. has been actively funding security efforts in Tajikistan for a while:
Since 2002, the U.S. government has provided over $300 million in security-sector assistance to Tajikistan and renovated or rebuilt 12 border outposts, nine border checkpoint facilities, and three training centers for border guards to help combat security threats.
This new project is intended to protect Tajikistan and the 100,000 Afghan refugees that the nation has pledged to take from Afghanistan in light of the Taliban retaking the country and setting up an ever-similar government to the one implemented 20 years ago. However, border officials at the U.S. southern border took this decision personally as they have had to deal with ever increasing border encounters and limited engagement from the Biden administration.
Speaking with Fox News, one border agent called it “a slap in the face” to the force. Another official sarcastically remarked “it’s heartening to see the Biden administration finally getting serious about border security. It’s just too bad it’s in another country.”
The U.S. has recently been struggling with an effort to deport Haitian migrants located in Del Rio, Texas to other nations. Not only that, but CBP data from January to August of 2021 says that there have been 1,323,507 southwest border encounters. Both July and August of this year have seen over 200,000 border encounters each. The Biden administration has struggled to present the data on border encounters, often shifting the blame to former President Donald Trump or dodging questions on data.
