Sen Duckworth To Defense, State: Move Swiftly on Employment Verification for Afghan Refugees
Some 2,500 refugees are on their way to the United States
The Biden administration this week announced that some 2,500 Afghan nationals were on their way to the United States for resettlement under what the White House has dubbed “Operation Allies Refuge.”
Although the United States has been taking in for more than 10 years Afghan nationals who have rendered translation and other assistance to American diplomats and troops since US forces first arrived in Afghanistan nearly 20 years ago, the group set to arrive this week is the first since US forces began their complete withdrawal, as ordered by President Biden in April.
And Sen Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill) is helping their resettlement by prodding the Pentagon and State Department to move swiftly on the employment verifications for the refugees.
Specifically, Duckworth, member of the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC), wrote to Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin to immediately take action to develop and implement additional means of employment verification for applicants in the Afghan Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) program.
“Given the urgent threat facing Afghan nationals who served alongside members of the U.S. Armed Forces and other United States Government personnel deployed to Afghanistan – which includes danger to interpreter family members – I strongly encourage State and DoD take swift action to provide an alternative means of employment verification in the Afghan SIV program,” wrote Duckworth, who also is a combat veteran who lost both legs when the helicopter she was piloting in Iraq was hit by incoming fire.
She continued: “Keeping our word to Afghan nationals who upheld American values and bled alongside our troops in combat – which includes family members of interpreters killed in action – must be a diplomatic and national security priority. […] As a combat Veteran, a United States Senator and simply as an American, I am deeply committed to doing right by those Afghan nationals who did right by our troops – often at great danger, cost and sacrifice to themselves and their loved ones.”
Full text of the letter can be found here.
The Afghan refugees coming for resettlement have been subject to background checks and COVID-19 screening. But the White House is offering no further details about them out of respect for privacy.
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