General David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker hosted a private event for the non-profit No One Left Behind on Capitol Hill this week to show support for the Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) program. SIVs are local Afghans and Iraqis who embed alongside our soldiers, diplomats, and intelligence professionals. The program enjoys wide bi-partisan support but is still plagued by years of administrative vetting.
Why It Matters: SIVs are one of the most bipartisan issues in Washington DC today, but the program still experiences an annual fight to appropriate enough visas for U.S. allies. Scores of U.S. service members have taken their own initiative to ask their members of Congress for help with this process. Many personally sponsor their translators like Pittsburgh Steelers #78 and Army Ranger Alejandro Villanueva did.
Ambassador Nikki Haley told this story during her confirmation hearing in January 2017:
"I will give a personal story in that my husband, when he was deployed to Afghanistan, there were two interpreters that kept his unit safe and they kept them without harm. When it was time for that unit to leave, those two interpreters staying they would have been killed. And so what the refugee program rightly does is it allowed them to go through and vet those interpreters, those interpreters are now in the United States, they are now having jobs and contributing members of society."
And then-Congressman Mike Pence said this in 2007:
"Protecting and assisting those who have helped the United States and coalition forces is a moral obligation of the American people... I think there is nothing more important than the United States of America saying to people in Iraq, or anywhere in the world, ‘If you stand by us, we will stand by you.’”
Background: A number of current military members of Congress served with translators in Afghanistan and Iraq including Senator Lindsey Graham, Rep. Mike Waltz (whose Afghan translator was beheaded), Rep. Brad Wenstrup, Rep. Jason Crow, and Rep. Steve Stivers. Senator Mark Warner has proposed a bill creating a SIV program for Syrian Kurdish allies - the third SIV program in the past 12 years - with Rep. Jason Crow and Rep. Mike Waltz co-sponsoring in the House. Rep. Earl Blumenauer has been proud to sponsor the Afghan Allies Protection Act for the last 10 years and Rep. Kinzinger has introduced the legislation the past few congresses. After Senator McCain passed, Senator Shaheen has led on SIV issues in the Senate.
Bottom line: In such a polarized political climate, it is rare to find even a national security issue that unites both parties, but this is one of them.