Afghanistan Peace CampaignRe “Congress Ends Visas for Afghan Partners, Closing a Path to the U.S.” (news article, Feb. 6):
By allowing the Special Immigrant Visa program for Afghan wartime partners to quietly lapse, Congress has placed America’s credibility, and thousands of vetted Afghan families, in jeopardy.
At Global Refuge, where we have resettled thousands of Afghan allies, we see the human toll of this uncertainty every day: in every child who lies awake at night worrying about parents still in hiding, in spouses separated by continents and in fractured families unsure if they will ever hold their loved ones again.
That they remain stranded overseas, vulnerable precisely because of their ties to the United States, reflects a monumental failure to uphold the commitments we made to our allies in America’s longest war.
This inaction also comes amid a broader dismantling of humanitarian protections for Afghans, including unprecedented cuts to refugee admissions, the termination of Temporary Protected Status and Afghanistan’s inclusion in sweeping travel and visa bans.
At the same time, the administration’s continuing “re-review” of lawfully admitted refugees is poised to throw even previously vetted Afghans into renewed uncertainty about their status.
Taken together, these decisions send a troubling message about whether our government intends to keep its word. America’s promise to those who stood alongside our service members was never merely symbolic.
For thousands of Afghan families and the countless Americans who stand in solidarity with them, it was a commitment that must still be honored.
Timothy Young
Baltimore
The writer is the director of public relations for Global Refuge, a national refugee resettlement nonprofit.