Political Quotes

“I am here this morning to urge my colleagues to support an amendment that I have offered to the National Defense Authorization Act to extend the Afghan Special Immigrant Visa Program, also known as the SIV Program. The SIV Program gives Afghans who supported the U.S. mission in Afghanistan and now face grave threats because of their willingness to help our service men and women on the ground in Afghanistan the ability to come to the United States. To be eligible, new applicants must demonstrate at least 2 years of faithful and valuable service. To receive a visa, they must also clear a rigorous screening process that includes an independent verification of their service and then an intensive interagency security review. People may ask: Who are these Afghans? Let me give a few examples of the extraordinary service they have provided. The first person I will talk about--and I can't use his name for privacy and security reasons--worked as an interpreter for U.S. Special Operations Command, SOCOM, from 2005 to 2016--11 years. He originally applied for a special immigrant visa in 2012 and continued to work for SOCOM during the interim. One of the applicant's direct supervisors, the commander of 1st Battalion, Third Special Forces Group, stated that the applicant's brother was murdered by extremists--probably Taliban-- due to the applicant's work for the U.S. Government, and the applicant himself has been wounded several times while serving.…”