We apparently can’t process a couple thousand visas to protect the people who risked their lives to protect us:
The cases of thousands of Afghan interpreters who worked with the U.S. military and hope to relocate to the United States are in limbo because the government will soon run out of visas designated for the resettlement program, State Department officials said Thursday.
Worried about the welfare of linguists who are under threat for their affiliation with the U.S. government, State Department officials are asking Congress to allow the issuing of more visas during the remainder of the fiscal year and to extend the Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) program, which is set to expire in September.
About 6,000 applicants are in the pipeline, including about 300 whose cases have reached the final stage of the process. Congress set a cap of 3,000 visas for 2014. The State Department expects to have issued that many visas within days, well ahead of the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30.
“We owe these people this opportunity to be out of harm’s way,” Heather A. Higginbottom, the deputy secretary of state for management and resources, said in an interview. “This program and our commitment to them is incredibly important.”
I have no idea why any one in the world takes us at our word. Dealing with the United States must be like the old joke I remember from those Truly Tasteless Joke Books in the early 80’s:
Q: How do you say fuck you in Los Angeles?
A: Trust me.
*** Update ***
I’m really pissed off about this. Christ, I have a spare bedroom. Shawn and I both benefited from native interpreters, and we’ll take a guy in. Anyone know anyone at the state department? Tell them if the process a guy who needs a place, my email is on the right. And you can bet your ass there are tens of thousands of Americans who would do the same. We owe these guys just like we owe our veterans. Fer fuck’s sake. Why does this even need to be said?
*** Update #2 ***
I’ve been informed in the comments and via email I am lashing out at the wrong people. I should have known this was not about the State department, but our casually indifferent Congress. Figures.