After #Kabul fell to the #Taliban in August 2021, President Joe #Biden’s admin moved to resettle #Afghans who had worked for the #US government through the Special Immigrant #Visa (#SIV) program, which grants lawful permanent resident status & a pathway to US #citizenship. As of April, about 25k Afghans had received an SIV, & another 160k had pending applications, said Adam Bates, an attorney with the International #Refugee Assistance Program who analyzed #State Dept data.
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As the admin seeks to fulfill #Trump’s pledge to carry out the largest #deportation op in #US history, attys for the men say their clients — #Afghans who fear retribution from the #Taliban for their work assisting the US in its 20-yr war in #Afghanistan — have found themselves in the crosshairs of #ICE. The attys provided WaPo with #military #contracts & certificates, #asylum & #visa applications, recommendation letters & other records that described both men’s work on behalf of #USmilitary….
After #Kabul fell to the #Taliban in August 2021, President Joe #Biden’s admin moved to resettle #Afghans who had worked for the #US government through the Special Immigrant #Visa (#SIV) program, which grants lawful permanent resident status & a pathway to US #citizenship. As of April, about 25k Afghans had received an SIV, & another 160k had pending applications, said Adam Bates, an attorney with the International #Refugee Assistance Program who analyzed #State Dept data.
But the #Trump admin is rolling back programs created to assist >250k #Afghans — including the #allies who worked for #US forces & other #refugees who fled after the #Taliban takeover. And while admin officials say #SIV processing will continue, advocates for Afghans who served with US troops fear the curtailment of programs they depend on, along with Trump’s ambitious #deportation plan, jeopardizes those still vying for SIV protection.
They point to the arrests of Zia, 36, and Sayed Naser, 33, whose attorneys argue they followed proper #immigration processes. The Post agreed to withhold the last names of both men because of the ongoing threats to their lives from the #Taliban.
“Zia is not an outlier,” his attorney Lauren Cundick Petersen said during a news conference last month. “We’re witnessing the deliberate redefinition of legal entry as illegal for the purpose of meeting enforcement quotas.”
Matt Zeller, an #Army veteran whose #Afghan interpreter saved his life in a 2008 firefight, co-founded the nonprofit No One Left Behind to help resettle #Afghans. He said he fears the #immigration crackdown will unwind that effort.
“The #Trump administration knows what’s going to happen to these folks. They’re not stupid. They understand that the #Taliban is going to kill them when they get back to #Afghanistan,” Zeller said. “They just don’t care.”
Zia worked as an #interpreter & cultural adviser at Camp Mike Spann in Mazar-e Sharif, #Afghanistan, from about 2005 until 2009, Petersen, his attorney, told The Post.
Because of his work, Zia “suffered & continues to suffer threats to the life & property of himself & his family members by enemy forces & criminal elements,” says a recommendation letter from a supervisor who oversaw Zia’s interpreter work.
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