Mr. President, I come to the floor again today to speak about a program I have been working on that has had bipartisan support for a number of years; that is, the Afghan Special Immigrant Visa…
Mr. President, I come to the floor again today to speak about a program I have been working on that has had bipartisan support for a number of years; that is, the Afghan Special Immigrant Visa Program. This program allows Afghans, including interpreters, who have supported the U.S. mission in Afghanistan and who face threats as a result of their service to apply for refuge in the United States. As I said, this has had strong bipartisan support. I have worked with Senators McCain, Tillis, Leahy, Graham, and so many others here in the Chamber to try to make sure we provide enough visas for those Afghans who are being threatened and who want to come to the United States.
I wish to point out that the Trump administration, even as it has sharply restricted immigration and refugee programs, has made exceptions for those who served alongside our soldiers and diplomats. In fact, when the administration's original Executive order on immigration was released, there was bipartisan anger that Iraqi interpreters were not protected because this program has served not just those in Afghanistan who have helped us but also those in Iraq. So the administration recognized its mistake and has made an exception for Iraqi SIV recipients, and now they have exempted Iraq from their Executive order.
It is really past time that we rally renewed support for the Afghan SIV Program. Last week, we learned that the State Department has stopped interviewing applicants for the Afghan program because there are more applicants in the final stages of the process than there are visas. Unless Congress acts, the final visas will be exhausted by the end of May. It is estimated that more than 10,000 applicants are still in some step of the process of obtaining these visas.
For these Afghans, it really is no exaggeration to say that this is a matter of life and death. Interpreters who served the U.S. mission are being systematically hunted down by the Taliban, and unless Congress acts, this program will lapse and we will abandon these Afghans to a harsh fate.
The United States promised to protect those Afghans who served our mission with great loyalty and at enormous risk, and it would be a stain on our national honor to break this promise. It would also carry profound strategic costs. U.S. forces and diplomats have always relied on local people to help us accomplish our missions. We continue to require this assistance in Afghanistan, and we will need this support in other places in the future where we face conflict. So we have to ask, if we don't keep our promise, why would anyone agree to help the United States if we abandon those who assist us? This is exactly why the former commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, GEN David Petraeus, and his predecessor, GEN Stanley McChrystal, have pleaded with Congress to extend the Afghan SIV Program. In a letter to Congress last year, more than 30 additional prominent generals, including Gen. John Allen, the former commander in Afghanistan, GEN George Casey, the former commander in Iraq, and two former Chairmen of the Joint Chiefs of Staff also urged Congress to extend the program.
In addition, our soldiers and marines are keenly interested in protecting the interpreters who served with them in Afghanistan. Many of them owe their lives to the interpreters who went into combat with them. In recent years, I have gotten to know one of those servicemen, a former Army captain, Michael Breen, who is a Granite Stater. He served with the infantry in Iraq and led paratroopers in Afghanistan. He speaks with admiration about one interpreter in particular who was an Iraqi--part of the Iraqi program--a woman in her early twenties who was named Wissam.
On one occasion, Captain Breen and his soldiers were at a small forward operating base in Iraq. He said that a man approached, frantically pointing to his watch and indicating an explosion with his hands. The Americans didn't speak Arabic, so they couldn't tell if the man was trying to warn them or threaten them. Wissam hurried over toward Captain Breen to assist. Wissam was beloved by her American comrades, always cheerful and eager to help. She listened to the man and said that he was actually there warning of an improvised explosive device on the main road.
As Captain Breen later told me, ``A trusted interpreter can be the difference between a successful patrol and a body bag.'' He noted that every night, he and his fellow soldiers would hunker down in their heavily guarded perimeter, but Wissam would leave the compound and go home. One evening after she left the American compound, three gunmen ambushed her car. She was killed--one more interpreter who paid
the ultimate price for serving the American mission. As Captain Breen later said, one day there will be a granite monument with the names of all of the American servicemembers who died in Iraq and Afghanistan. Wissam deserves to have her name on that monument, too, because she took great risks and she gave her life while serving the United States.
To be eligible for a visa through the Afghan SIV Program, new applicants must demonstrate at least 2 years of faithful and valuable service to the U.S. mission. To receive a visa, they must also clear a rigorous screening process that includes an independent verification of their service and then an intensive interagency review.
We know that the service of these individuals has been critical to our successes in Afghanistan.
Last month in Keene, NH, I met with a remarkable recent immigrant from Afghanistan named Patmana Rafiq Kunary. Patmana had worked closely with the U.S. Agency for International Development in Kabul. She went door to door, encouraging women to take out microloans to start their own businesses. Patmana eventually became vice president for operations at the USAID-sponsored Microloan Program.
In fact, just today I talked to a woman reporter from Afghanistan who wanted to know what message of hope I could provide to the women of Afghanistan. Well, I told her about Patmana, and I told her that one of the things that keep us in Afghanistan supporting our soldiers is concern about what is happening to the women in Afghanistan.
For Patmana, going door to door and working closely with Americans-- this was dangerous work. She drew unwelcome attention wherever she went, and she became a high-profile target for the Taliban and others. And then one day in 2013, she got a call at her USAID office. It was from the distraught wife of one of her USAID colleagues, another Afghan. The caller's husband had just been murdered, apparently in retaliation for his work with the Americans.
Realizing that her life was in danger, too, Patmana applied for a special immigrant visa. For 2 years, she and her husband were subjected to repeated interviews at the U.S. Embassy in Kabul. Her background was checked and rechecked before visas were finally granted. She told me that they would move frequently. They couldn't stay in one place very long because the Taliban would find them. And she said occasionally there was a knock on her relatives' door, saying ``We know where Patmana is,'' and that would be a signal to move.
She and her husband now live happily in Keene, NH. I am pleased to say her husband has found work as an auditor with a local financial company, and they have a 2-year-old daughter. They are welcomed as valued members of the Keene community and of our larger Granite State family.
The many contributions of these Afghans--both in Afghanistan and now as residents or citizens of the United States--those contributions help explain why senior U.S. commanders and diplomats have urged Congress to extend the Afghan SIV Program. Our Secretary of Defense, GEN James Mattis, during the confirmation process, said: ``Most of our units could not have accomplished their missions without the assistance, often at the risk of their lives, of these courageous men and women.''
We would never leave an American warrior behind on the battlefield. Likewise, we must not leave behind the Afghan interpreters who served side by side with our warriors and diplomats.
We made a solemn promise to these brave people, and I am going to do everything I can to ensure that we keep this promise. I know there is a lot of bipartisan support in this body to do that. So today I am introducing the Keep Our Promise to Our Afghan Allies Act with Senators McCain, Reed, and Tillis. This legislation would authorize additional special immigrant visas and would help ensure that the program does not lapse and leave behind thousands of Afghans who helped us with the threat by the Taliban.
In addition, I intend to work closely with Senators who are negotiating legislation to fund the Federal Government in order to ensure that additional visas are included. I urge my colleagues to join me. Let's keep the promise we made to our Afghan allies and support these efforts.
