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His family has been killed by the Taliban and he is next.

Srosh is one of the many language interpreters from Afghanistan who put his life on the line to work with the United States Armed Forces during the war in Afghanistan, providing ground forces with priceless intelligence that saved countless lives. Because of their help to the United States, interpreters became targets for the Taliban.

Srosh, like many other language interpreters, was promised an SIV (Special Immigrant Visa) and now the United States is giving up on their promises and stranding Srosh and other language interpreters for certain death by the Taliban. This corrupt betrayal of our ardent allies must, at all costs, be stopped.

Everyone in Srosh’s hometown knows about his work with the United States, including the Taliban. “My friends tell me, ‘Srosh the bad people are looking for you. Please run away.’ I’m afraid of the day when the United States forces leave Afghanistan. It means we are done. They’re going to catch me. They’re going to probably cut my head off.”

Srosh obviously needs help escaping the Taliban and he has obviously provided us help that we could never repay him for. So why isn’t he receiving a visa? Well, it turns out Srosh is just one of the estimated 5,000 Afghan interpreters who are waiting on SIV’s.

The reason that so many people are waiting is because the process of granting an SIV takes about 3 years and is insanely arduous. It is so difficult that from 2009 to 2013 only 32 SIV’s were granted and Matt Zeller described that receiving an SIV is “next to impossible. It is akin to winning the lottery”. This is completely unacceptable. Not only is applying for an SIV a 14-step process but, even if an interpreter miraculously makes it through all 14 steps they must pay out of pocket for vaccinations, medical exams, plane tickets, passports, a visa interview and security clearance.

So you made it through all of these processes? Well, you still aren’t home bound. Most likely you have been working to get to this point for a few years and now all you can do is wait. That’s right, you have to wait several months or if you’re unlucky, several years to receive your SIV. Then finally you can fly to the United States after several years of dodging the Taliban’s attacks.

You could argue that this process is so strenuous because the United States is being admissibly cautious about terrorist attacks but there is no reason that it should take over 3 years of screening to confirm that our allies who have risked their lives and the lives of their family are truly our allies.

Remember that during this entire 3-5 year process interpreters are in seclusion from society, hiding from the Taliban. They are simply waiting for the United States to do their part of the process and in the meantime running from the Taliban who are out to kill them.

After the Vietnam War the United States successfully relocated over 140,000 refugees from Vietnam to America. We sent the refugees to Guam where the waited in safety for their screening to be completed. This entire process of the relocation of over 140,000 refugees only took 4 months.

There is no reason in the world why we shouldn’t be replicating this process with interpreters in Afghanistan. Some argue that this is to cost inefficient and that it isn’t realistic. Let’s compare, Vietnam had 140,000 refugees and we have 5,000 interpreters, it took 4 months to complete the process in Guam and it takes us over 3 years to complete each case in Afghanistan.

My fellow Americans, please help us make progress in the fight to liberate the language interpreters. Call your Congressmen and tell them that you want to extend the Iraqi Special Immigrant Visa program. Next call both of your Senators, tell them the same thing and ask them to send letters to other officials as well as the president demanding the reissuing of these interpreters visas. Each call will only take a minute. If you would like to contribute even more you can donate to No One Left Behind, the Iraq Refugee Assistance Project or my non-profit, Forgotten Brothers.

Our friends have been waiting too long already. If we don’t end their struggles with coming to the United States, then the Taliban will end them.