Hi Everyone, We need your help NOW in contacting your Congressman/woman (template letter included) and telling them about our bipartisan sign-on letter to re-open Muhammad and his family's case. My parents' Republican Congressman Tom McClintock and Democratic Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal from Seattle are co-leading a bipartisan sign-on letter asking the Department of Homeland Security to re-open and re-evaluate Muhammad and his family's case in light of the critical danger they are in and the failure of USCIS to take Muhammad's military service into account before denying his refugee case on nebulous and unstated “discretionary concerns.” USCIS went on to claim their “information” about Muhammad also makes his 2- and 4-year daughters a security concern, should the girls be allowed to live with their aunt and uncle in the US. We are thrilled to have strong bipartisan support for the sign-on letter, and we have already have SEVEN members of Congress PERSONALLY involved with the case (four Democrats and three Republicans) and over TEN more offices interested in joining the sign-on letter. So we need your help contacting YOUR representative and telling them to join the sign-on letter, which will be ready for signatures in a week or two. And don't forget to watch and share our 2-min video of Aysha and her family https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLFBRd47rz7x9SHaJxEOH6IRXEgYg19L9D . Please share the video with hashtags #SaveAysha and #SaveOurAllies. Please share the following letter (template below) with your representative in Congress, and please let me know if you contacted your representative so we can follow up with them in a week or two when the letter is ready. If you email them, you may also want to call their Washington, D.C. office and ask the office which staff member would be responsible for reviewing the letter (someone who handles immigration and/or military issues) and to put you in contact with that person. If you send a letter via US mail, please mail the letter to their WASHINGTON, DC office. If you need help finding contact information for your Representative, use this link: https://www.house.gov/representatives/find-your-representative **Letter Template** [Date] [The Honorable (First Name, Last Name) United States House of Representatives/United State Senate Office Address City, State, Zip] Subject: Please Join a Bipartisan Sign-on Letter to Save Afghan US Military Interpreter and his Young Family in Imminent Danger Dear Representative ______________: My name is [ ]. As your constituent, I am asking Congressman/woman [ ] to join a bipartisan sign-on letter co-lead by Congressman Tom McClintock and Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal to request DHS to re-open the refugee case for Muhammad Kamran, a former Afghan US military interpreter, and his wife and four young daughters. Mr. Kamran was recently denied Refugee status and Humanitarian Parole as a matter of discretion and without proper consideration for his seven years of faithful to service to the US military. This bipartisan sign-on letter will ask DHS to (1) re-open and review Muhammad’s case for a possible abuse of discretion and disclose the reason for the denial to Congress and (2) supply Congress with data on how many other Afghan and Iraqi interpreters have been denied as a matter of discretion. Mr. Kamran worked from 2004 – 2014 for the US Navy, US Army, DAI under US AID, and later the United Nations. He was trusted by his supervisors who praised his work ethic and dedication to serving the US mission in Afghanistan. After receiving multiple threats from the Taliban and an assassination attempt which nearly killed his brother and nephew, Mr. Kamran fled Afghanistan and went into hiding. Mr. Kamran filed a refugee case which was denied by the USCIS Refugee Affairs Division in February 2016 as a matter of discretion for unstated “security concerns.” The denial shows that USCIS accepts Mr. Kamran's documentation of his work for the US military and that his life and his family's lives are in imminent danger as a result of that work. That it was denied as a matter of discretion for security concerns is a matter of grave concern because the Immigration and Nationality act contains numerous explicit grounds under INA § 212(a)(2) & (3) to find refugees inadmissible and therefore ineligible for resettlement due to either criminal or security related concerns. Discretion, which has a very low standard of evidence and is not subject to judicial review, should very rarely be used to deny a refugee applicant much less someone with seven years of faithful service with the US military. After denying Mr. Kamran’s refugee application, USCIS compounded their denial of his refugee application by denying a request for Humanitarian Parole of not only himself but his wife and daughters, the youngest of whom is only five years, stating that even she was a security concern. USCIS also disregarded the testimony of former Navy Lieutenant Karsten Daponte, who strongly supports the Kamran family’s case based on his interactions with Mr. Kamran when they served together in Afghanistan. Since the denials of their Refugee and Humanitarian Parole applications, Mr. Kamran and his family have suffered severely. They are living in hiding in a hostile country, where they face regular police raids searching for undocumented Afghans. During these raids he and his wife are regularly beaten in front of their children. Mr. Kamran’s six-year-old daughter was almost kidnapped by a neighbor recently and only returned after an eight-hour search and the intervention of his landlord who threatened to call the police to search the neighbor’s home. Mr. Kamran was also attacked and nearly killed by armed robbers a couple of months ago while out of his house attempting to avoid a raid. Mr. Kamran’s case has attracted significant public attention with over 47,500 people signing a petition in support of re-opening his case, and over 25 Congressional offices expressing interest in the bipartisan effort to save this family. I am asking Congressman/woman [ ] to join this bipartisan sign-on letter to save the Kamran family from being killed by the same terrorists that Mr. Kamran fought alongside US troops in Afghanistan. His case is an example of a larger systemic problem. Abandoning our US military interpreters not only breaks our promise to them but also jeopardizes American troops, who will no longer be able to get the help they need from local nationals. For more specific information on Muhammad and his family’s cases or a copy of the draft sign-on letter, please contact my friend, Kristy Perano. Kristy can be reached at save.aysha@gmail.com. Sincerely, [Your name Your address Your City State, Zip Your phone number and/or e-mail]