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Please call your Senators and Representatives and ask them to #SaveOurAllies by insisting that any withdrawal plans from Afghanistan and Iraq include addressing the multi-year backlog and absurdly high denial rates for US military interpreters who fought alongside US troops. 1/18
Many of my followers know about the Afghan interpreter, Muhammad Kamran, and his family. My family and I have been advocating for this family for 4 years, including making 12 trips to DC (with our own time/money -- I took the bus from Upstate NY to DC a lot prior to COVID). 2/18
NBC News wrote about his story last year 3/18 https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/lawmakers-ask-trump-admin-why-afghan-interpreter-facing-taliban-threats-n1011931
And Christian Post wrote about it two years ago 4/18 https://www.christianpost.com/news/american-evangelicals-give-58k-to-save-persecuted-muslim-family-us-still-denies-asylum.html
USA Today also published my OpEd about the case 5/18 https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/voices/2018/09/10/afghan-interpreters-special-immigrant-visas-column/1250440002/
Dozens of members of Congress have participated in a bipartisan effort to ask USCIS why they denied this family. USCIS has never questioned Muhammad's service record or the critical danger he faces. But they continue to stonewall and mislead Congress for 2.5 yrs. 6/18
Instead of answering the question of why they denied Muhammad's case and later made the preposterous claim that granting a 1-yr visa to a then 4 YO child was a security concern. (This briefing promised 2 yrs ago never happened.) 7/18
The Kamran family's case is unique because USCIS actually blacklisted a 4 YO and because of how much effort Congress has put into trying to get info on the case. But denying US military interpreters without good cause is not unique. In fact, USCIS is now denying 90% of them. 8/18
Here is a graph of the arrivals vs. denials of Iraqi US military interpreters applying as refugees for FY15 - 18. This is a 99.7% decline in 4 years despite a huge backlog of cases. 9/18
Here is a graph of denial rates for all refugees (black line) vs. Iraqi US military interpreters (colored bars). Discretionary reasons can be anything including a misspelled name or a relative the person has never met. 10/18
Here is an NBC News article on the data showing only 2 Iraqi US military interpreters were admitted under the Direct Access Program in FY18. 11/18 https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/only-2-iraqi-translators-who-worked-u-s-troops-got-n1035661
I have spoken to retired generals who said the denial rate should be extremely low for US military interpreters. Instead it is over 90% now. (The graphs stop in FY18 because despite my repeated requests, no one in Congress has followed up to get data for FY 19 or 20.) 12/18
And the Pentagon routinely requests 4 to 6k Iraqis be admitted under the DAP. But DHS only fills 1-3% of the slots and no one does anything about it. It is time for Congress to do their job and do more oversight on this issue. 13/18
As to the Kamran family, my family and I continue to try every available avenue to get them to safety in the US or elsewhere. Sen. Gillibrand's office is going to send a letter early next yr requesting to know why the case was denied. She hopes to find a Republican to join. 14/18
The Biden Admin will be more refugee friendly than the Trump Admin, but delays and denials without good cause for US military interpreters started during the Obama Admin then exacerbated under Trump. 15/18
And it's not clear if the Biden Admin will do anything about already-denied cases, which is why Congress needs to be pro-active in exercising oversight on this important issue and not looking the other way. 16/18
The Kamran family remains in critical danger & deteriorating health due to the extreme trauma of their situation. We appreciate your prayers & any help with advocacy for military interpreters. I keep a BCC email list for updates. (Email save (dot) [email protected] to join) 17/18
We also have a petition and Go Fund Me for the Kamran family if you would like to sign and share. 18/18
https://www.change.org/p/uscis-save-aysha-and-her-family-from-being-executed-by-the-taliban https://www.gofundme.com/f/rescue-afghan-interpreter-and-family-from-taliban
https://www.change.org/p/uscis-save-aysha-and-her-family-from-being-executed-by-the-taliban https://www.gofundme.com/f/rescue-afghan-interpreter-and-family-from-taliban
