Hi Everyone, Muhammad and his family are in an increasingly critical situation. USCIS is making the absurd claim that Muhammad and his entire family are a threat to national security, so they refused to even give a one-year visa to Muhammad’s two-year-old daughter because they said she, too, is a threat. We have now exhausted all legal options for appeal. However, USCIS has been pressured into approving previously denied cases of US military interpreters before, so there is hope. But we need your help to pressure USCIS. Please help us with the following (template letters included below): 1. Mail and/or email the USCIS Humanitarian Affairs Branch. 2. Call or write your representatives in Congress and ask them to support this case. 3. Contact local or regional media (newspapers, radio, or TV) and ask them to cover this story. Please contact me at save.aysha@gmail.com if you have any questions. Templates for letters for USCIS and your members of Congress are below. Here is a link to look up your representative. https://www.house.gov/representatives/find-your-representative Here are links to the three published articles about Muhammad’s case. The Sacramento Bee: http://www.sacbee.com/news/local/article187680333.html The Ithaca Voice: https://ithacavoice.com/2017/06/former-afghan-interpreter-hopes-find-sanctuary-u-s-help-cornell-student/ No One Left Behind’s blog: http://nooneleft.org/2017/12/12/4221/ *USCIS Letter Template* Email to: HumanitarianParole@uscis.dhs.gov And/or mail to: DHS/USCIS/IO/Humanitarian Affairs Branch (HAB) Attn: Director John Bird 20 Massachusetts Ave., NW, 3rd Floor HAB Mail Stop 2100 Washington, DC 20529 Subject: Attn: Director John Bird re: Muhammad Kamran case Dear Mr. Bird, I am writing to you regarding your recent denial of Muhammad Kamran, a former US military interpreter, and his entire family for humanitarian parole. The Sacramento Bee recently wrote a story detailing your denial of Muhammad's entire family despite the efforts of Cornell University PhD student, Kristen Perano, and her family. Muhammad Kamran is a heroic US military interpreter who worked for several branches of the US military, including Special Forces, over the course of nine years. He had a stellar career and was a highly trusted and highly valued interpreter who directly saved American soldiers' lives. Nonetheless, you denied him and his entire family, claiming that they are a threat to national security. This is despite the testimony of Karsten Daponte, one of his former military supervisors who is vouching for Muhammad's trustworthiness. To claim Muhammad is a threat to national security implies that a highly trusted ally who worked extensively with the US military for a almost decade was actually a terrorist sympathizer, and the military didn't even realize it. Your denial of this family is effectively a death sentence. With increasing hostilities between Pakistan, where Mr. Kamran and his family are living in hiding, and both the US and Afghanistan, it is only a matter of time before Mr. Kamran's true identity is discovered and he is tortured and murdered by the Pakistani military or turned over to the Taliban to be killed. His wife and young daughters will have no way to support themselves and could end up in human trafficking. Yet you have left this whole family behind to die because you claim they are a threat to national security despite Muhammad's long career with the US military. You refused to even save his young daughters by allowing them to come live with their aunt and uncle in the US, saying that they are also a threat to national security. That is absurd to deny a one-year visa to a two-year-old child on national security grounds. This is a grievous injustice. I am part of a national effort to request you and your department to re-open and approve this entire family's cases. I am calling all of my representatives in Congress and asking them to investigate you and your department. I am also contacting my local and regional media and asking them to cover this story. [Your name (First and Last)] [Your City, State] *Congressional Letter Template* [Date] [The Honorable (First Name, Last Name) United States House of Representatives/United State Senate Office Address City, State, Zip] Subject: Save Afghan US Military Interpreter and his Young Family in Imminent Danger Dear Representative/Senator ______________: My name is [ ]. As your constituent, I am asking for your assistance in helping save a former Afghan US military interpreter, Muhammad Kamran, and his wife and four young daughters. The Sacramento Bee recently published a story about a Cornell University PhD student, Kristen Perano, and her family's efforts to save the Kamran family. Mr. Kamran worked for nine years for several branches of the US military, including Special Forces. He was a highly valued interpreter, and he directly saved American soldiers' lives on multiple occasions. Because of his service to the US military in Afghanistan and his active recruitment of other interpreters, the Taliban tried to kill him several times. Mr. Kamran was eventually forced to flee Afghanistan and start living in hiding Pakistan in 2014. Unfortunately, in his rush to escape the Taliban, Muhammad left behind critical contact information for his US military supervisors and, consequently, lost all contact with the US military. Since the active support of a US military supervisor is needed for an SIV visa application, Muhammad was unable to start an SIV case, so he filed a refugee case with the United Nations in Pakistan on his own. The UN eventually forwarded his refugee case to the US, only for the US to deny his refugee case for “discretionary security reasons.” The legal standard of evidence for “discretionary security reasons” is very low so can be anything including having a distant relative who is deemed a security threat. Mr. Kamran requested legal help with the appeal to his refugee case from the non-profit No One Left Behind. Ms. Perano saw his request and started assisting with his refugee case but soon found out that the appeal had been denied also. She and her family decided to sponsor the Kamran family for humanitarian parole in a last-ditch effort to save their lives. The Perano family hired an experienced immigration attorney, Danielle Rosché, to file the case, reconnected with a former Navy Lieutenant, Karsten Daponte, who had personally worked with Muhammad, and collected over 12,000 signatures on a Change.org petition. But it was to no avail. USCIS first misplaced the cases for three weeks then denied the cases two days after starting to work on them. USCIS admits the family meets all the criteria for humanitarian parole. They denied the Kamran family's humanitarian parole cases for “discretionary reasons” simply because Mr. Kamran had been denied before as a refugee. This denial was also despite former Lieutenant Daponte's strong support for the Kamran family's humanitarian parole cases and his offer to meet with USCIS officials to tell them why he is confident of Muhammad’s trustworthiness. The lawyer for the case, Ms. Rosché, appealed to the director of the Humanitarian Affairs Branch of USCIS, John Bird, and asked him to personally review the cases. Since humanitarian parole requires a separate application for each family member, she asked Mr. Bird to at least let Muhammad's four young daughters, ages 2 to 9, come live with their aunt and uncle in the US, but he refused. Mr. Bird wrote an email to the lawyer making the absurd claim that the entire family is a threat to national security. Thus, USCIS has denied a one-year visa to a two-year-old child on national security grounds. Leaving this family behind is effectively a death sentence. With increasing hostilities between Pakistan, where Mr. Kamran and his family are living in hiding, and both the US and Afghanistan, it is only a matter of time before Mr. Kamran's true identity is discovered and he is tortured and murdered by the Pakistani military or turned over to the Taliban to be killed. His wife and young daughters will have no way to support themselves without him and could end up in human trafficking. I am asking [Congressman/woman/Senator ] to personally contact Mr. Bird and request that he re-open and approve all of the family's cases. And I want [Congressman/woman/Senator] to demand answers from Mr. Bird on (1) how Mr. Bird can think that Mr. Kamran, who faithfully served the US military and saved American lives for 9 years, could possibly be a threat to national security (2) why Mr. Bird does not value the testimony former Lieutenant Daponte who personally knows Mr. Kamran and strongly supports his case, and (3) how Mr. Bird can possibly justify his claim that giving a temporary visa to a toddler is a threat to national security. Such policies mean that Muhammad's children were literally born with a death sentence. For more specific information on Muhammad and his family’s cases, please contact my friend, Kristen Perano, whose family is sponsoring Muhammad and his family for humanitarian parole. Kristen can be reached at save.aysha@gmail.com. Karsten Daponte is also available to speak to or meet with any members of Congress interested in hearing why Mr. Daponte strongly supports Muhammad and family’s cases based on his interactions with Muhammad when they served together in Afghanistan. Sincerely, [Your name Your address Your City State, Zip Your phone number and/or e-mail]