CONGRESS STEPPING UP PRESSURE ON BIDEN TO GRANT ASYLUM TO AFGHAN INTERPRETERS
" Lawmakers Proposed Increasing The Number Of Visa Authorizations For Afghan Interpreters In Fear Of Reprisals Once U.S. Troops Are Set To Leave By September 11, 2021."
June 20, 2021 By Art Fletcher & Leo Madison Reporting For: Englebrook Independent News, Supporting Foreign Policy Report,
WASHINGTON- Congress is stepping up pressure on The Biden Administration to get Afghan Interpreters who were promised United States asylum back to American soil, with the last of U.S. Troops set to leave Afghanistan by September 11, 2021. Lawmakers have proposed to increase the number of visa authorizations by 20,000, and setting up an interagency task force to deal with the issue.
But Congress is running out of options, and time. Delays in the visa program for Afghan Interpreters can take up to nine hundred days. President Biden's deadline for U.S. Troop withdrawal is less than 90-days away, and the State Department has frozen processing of applications as the Coronavirus Pandemic spirals out of control in Afghanistan.
Senator Angus King, a Maine Independent who caucuses with Democrats, is worried that Congress will not be able to get Legislation finished in time before U.S. Troops leave Afghanistan, with some Officials expecting The Pentagon pullout will be done as soon as next month. So King is asking The Biden Administration to add moe civilian and uniformed processing power in the mix in Washington.
Nevertheless, even if The Biden Administration can get through all of the paperwork, getting the Afghans to safety will be tricky. Afghanistan is landlocked, which means evacuations would have to be entirely by airlift, and it's not clear if NATO Allies who fought alongside U.S. Troops would be willing to provide a way station, something that Sen. King is also asking for.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said he would welcome the efforts of member countries to grant asylum to Afghans, but cautioned the individual nations would have to decide for themselves in whether the would accept more refugees.
What's The Worst Case Scenario ? Lawmakers fear images coming out of Afghanistan will parallel the 1975 Fall of Saigon, with American Partners on the ground clutching at air as Army Helicopters evacuated embassy employees out of the overrun country. In Afghanistan, King and other Lawmakers stated they have already heard of cases of former interpreters being hunted and murdered by The Taliban.
We have seen this story more recently, too. In Iraq, thousands of interpreters who aided U.S. Troops are still stuck in processing lines, and some say targeting by militias has increased since Iranian Quds Force Leader Qassem Suleimani was killed by an U.S. Drone Strike last year. And is also come into play in Syria, where American Forces evacuated Kurdish held territory to allow Turkish incursion in October, 2019.
Senator King fears that future interpreters are going to have to think twice before helping The United States if it turns out to be a major bloodbath in Afghanistan after Troops leave in September, 2021.
FILED UNDER JUNE 20, 2021: GLOBAL, NATIONAL: