A bipartisan group of senators introduced a bill on Wednesday to allow 2,500 more Afghans who worked as translators for U.S. forces to come to America.
The special immigrant visa program allows Afghans who supported the military there to come to America and bring their families. Many face threats of death or violence because of their work with the military.
The Obama White House asked for 4,000 additional visas in its fiscal 2017 request to bring in Afghan interpreters, but the final fiscal 2017 National Defense Authorization Act included only 1,500 visas. That means the State Department will likely run out of visas in just a couple months for the 12,000 who are in some stage of the application process to move here, advocates said.
The bill, titled the “Keeping Our Promise to Our Afghan Allies Act,” would authorize an additional 2,500 visas, bringing the fiscal 2017 number back up to the 4,000 requested by Obama.
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and one of the authors of the legislation, said the bill would send allies a message that the country “will not turn its back on those who, at great personal risk, stand with us in the fight against terror.”
“We simply cannot win this war without the assistance of the Afghan people who put their lives on the line to help American troops and diplomats serving in harm’s way,” McCain said in a statement. “Unfortunately in recent years, Congress has reneged on the promise we made to protect these brave individuals by failing to authorize the appropriate number of Special Immigrant Visas for Afghan translators and interpreters.”
Three other lawmakers also introduced the bill with McCain: Sens. Jack Reed, D-R.I., Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., and Thom Tillis, R-N.C.
Supporters of increasing the number of visas have previously worried that not doing so could harm national security if allies are no longer willing to partner with the U.S. because they know America will not fulfill its promises to them.
“This is a matter of life and death for interpreters and other support staff. As we speak, many of them are being hunted down by the Taliban and other terrorists. We have a moral obligation to protect the thousands of Afghans who put themselves, and their families, at risk to help our soldiers and diplomats. To abandon them now would be a stain on our nation’s honor,” Shaheen said.
The fiscal 2017 NDAA narrowed the eligibility requirements for the program, giving preference to those who worked outside the wire, and authorized the program for four more years through Dec. 31, 2020.
The special immigrant visa program made national news during the first roll out of Trump’s executive order this year that banned immigrants from certain countries when Defense Secretary Jim Mattis asked for and received an exemption for those who had served with troops and been cleared through the program.
