President Trump, who closed down the U.S. asylum system at the start of his second term, made an unusual offer on Monday.
He said the 26-member Iranian women’s soccer team could come to the United States as refugees if Australia refused to take them in.
“Mr. Prime Minister, give ASYLUM,” Mr. Trump said on social media in an appeal to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese of Australia, where the women had been playing in a tournament. “The U.S. will take them if you won’t.”
In the end, Mr. Trump said he had spoken to Mr. Albanese about the Iranian soccer players and that five of the players were “taken care of,” others were being helped and some felt they should return to Iran to help their families. Australia later confirmed it had granted humanitarian visas to five members of the team.
But even for a president who frequently expresses conflicting views, the break between his call for asylum for the Iranian athletes and his own hard-line immigration policies, which have left thousands of refugees in limbo, was striking.
Earlier this year, the Trump administration deported about a dozen Iranians back to their home country even though the government there was violently targeting protesters. And last year, the administration struck a deal with Tehran to send Iranian deportees back to the nation on chartered planes, despite concern that Iranian dissidents or religious and ethnic minorities would face persecution in their homeland.
Mr. Trump has also effectively paused asylum processing in the United States and suspended admissions to the program that allows families overseas to seek refuge in the United States — with the exception of mostly white South Africans.
“When it comes to saving lives, consistency is key: protect the Iranian players absolutely, but also restore functioning humanitarian systems for everyone else facing persecution,” said Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, president of Global Refuge, a refugee resettlement organization. “Humanitarian protection cannot be a photo op for the high profile and a dead end for everybody else.”
The White House declined to answer a list of questions seeking more details about Mr. Trump’s call to assist the Iranian soccer players, including whether it meant he was open to creating an exemption to his own refugee ban for Iranians fleeing violence in their home country.
Mr. Trump weighed in as Australia faced mounting calls to help the Iranian team after Iran’s state media referred to them as “traitors” for not singing the national anthem during a tournament in Australia.
Their silence was an apparent protest against the Iranian government, prompting a commentator on Iranian state television to call for their punishment.
The team had been expected to return home after playing its final game in the women’s Asian Cup on Sunday night until sports officials, members of the Iranian diaspora and Australian politicians expressed concern about their safety.
Reza Pahlavi, an exiled son of the deposed Iranian shah, said on social media that five players on the national team had indeed secured refuge in Australia. He also thanked Mr. Trump for his pressure on the Australians.
“The members of Iran’s women’s national football team are facing intense pressure and ongoing threats from the Islamic Republic following their courageous act of refusing to recite the regime’s anthem, and they may face very serious consequences if they return to Iran,” Mr. Pahlavi said.
Mr. Albanese, however, later said that the steps to offer visas to the women had been in the works for days.
“Australians have been moved by the plight of these brave women,” he said. “They’re safe here, and they should feel at home here.”
Other immigration advocates questioned how Mr. Trump had gone from attacking the U.S. asylum program to demanding Australia move faster to grant asylum. Mr. Trump in the last campaign also focused his criticism on the Biden administration’s decision to allow thousands of Afghans into the United States after the haphazard military withdrawal from Afghanistan.
And since he has entered office, Mr. Trump has stripped temporary protections for those already in the United States who fled war, famine and natural disaster.
“If the administration believes women fleeing state retaliation deserve safety,” Ms. Vignarajah said, “then they should provide this themselves.”
Victoria Kim contributed reporting from Sydney, Australia.
Zolan Kanno-Youngs is a White House correspondent for The Times, covering President Trump and his administration.
The post After Turning Away Refugees, Trump Presses to Protect Iranian Soccer Team appeared first on New York Times.
