A bipartisan group of lawmakers is urging Biden to immediately evacuate the thousands of Afghans who worked closely with the U.S. government over the past 20 years
Afghan security personnel inspect the site of a bomb explosion in Kabul, Afghanistan, Thursday, June 3, 2021. | Rahmat Gul/AP PhotoA bipartisan group of lawmakers urged President Joe Biden to immediately evacuate the thousands of Afghans who worked closely with the U.S. government over the past 20 years and will likely be punished by the Taliban once the last American troops leave the country this summer.
The latest criticism reflects the sense on Capitol Hill that the Biden administration is not doing enough to safeguard thousands of Afghan citizens who helped U.S. and NATO forces. Roughly 16,000 SIVs have been issued since Congress set up the program in 2009; another 18,000 applications are in the pipeline and need to be processed before the withdrawal, lawmakers wrote. It takes the State Department an average of more than 800 days to process a special visa — far too long, considering the U.S. military is scheduled to leave Afghanistan in less than 100 days, they wrote.
The lawmakers noted that the United States has conducted evacuations before at a far greater scale, citing the removal of 130,000 Vietnamese refugees after the fall of Saigon in 1975. The refugees were held temporarily in Guam before being transported to the United States to finish visa processing.
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