We’ve never needed your help more - it’s an all hands on deck moment. Congress left Washington, DC at the end of last week having failed to hold a vote on the Afghan Special Immigrant Visa program. As a result of their unconscionable inaction, the State Department will run out of visas on 1 October 2016 (the start of the new fiscal year). The current backlog of visas is roughly 10,000 applicants (when one includes family, we estimate the true number of applicants is 35,000+). Thanks to Congress, our country will now break its promise to our Afghan translators and other wartime allies – who will continue to wait in limbo, in hiding, afraid that any moment might be the one where the Taliban or ISIS’s death squads finally find them. How many will die before Congress does their job (votes to renew the program and authorize and issue more visas to the State Department) and honors our nation’s promise? To help highlight the national security implications of this issue and the importance of protecting the honor of the American military, veterans, and credibility, we organized a Letter to Congress, which we delivered on 6 September 2016. Hundreds of thousands of veterans, representing every branch of service in every American conflict dating back to World War II joined Medal of Honor recipients from Vietnam to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, former Chairmen and members of the Joint Chiefs, numerous wartime commanders, and other general and flag officers in adding their signatures to the letter - you can read it here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9eVxgGidT3UTXFyM0ZhTHZkUXJNOVpENHhCSXJMZTlURHZJ/view In addition to the letter, I sat down with Wall Street Journal’s Editorial Board to urge them to write about the importance of the visa program. This past weekend, the Journal (http://www.wsj.com/articles/trump-and-the-translators-1474065628) joined the New York Times (http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/18/opinion/dimming-hope-for-afghan-translators.html) and the Washington Post (http://www.refugeerights.org/the-washington-post-congress-should-extend-the-special-visa-program-for-afghans/) in urging the Congress to renew and properly fund the program – the nation’s three leading newspapers are rarely this unified on matters of policy. This is the 11th hour. The State Department will run out of visas in 11 days. Unless we build a movement and demand Congress renew the program immediately, it will likely die an unceremonious death, lost as an obscure program that got drowned out by the intense rhetoric of the 2016 election. Help us prevent this tragedy by doing two things. Forward this email to 10 friends and urge them to join the fight by signing up at www.nooneleft.org/savethesiv. and Share the following on Twitter and Facebook: Keep our obligation to our #Veterans. Tell Congress to #SaveTheSIV. nooneleft.org/savethesiv https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GwmMviIBpwg Thank you for being a part of our team. We're honored to have you with us. Together, we will keep America's promise. -Cheers, Matt