Visa bill for Afghans hired by U.S. advances to Senate

The House voted overwhelmingly Thursday to allow in thousands more Afghans who worked alongside Americans in the Afghanistan war, citing the urgency of protecting those allies from Taliban retaliation as the U.S. military withdrawal enters its final weeks.

Vietnam war veteran Rep. Neal Dunn, R-Fla., evoked the scenes of the U.S. military withdrawal from Vietnam, which left many Vietnamese who’d worked with American forces fearing — and sometimes meeting — death and detention.

“We cannot do this again. We must not do this again. We must bring back … all the people who were so important to us in combat,” Dunn said, urging fellow lawmakers to vote for the bill. “Please do not abandon friends of America again.”

The bill by Rep. Jason Crow, D-Colo., a former Army Ranger who fought in Afghanistan, allows 8,000 more visas for translators and others who worked with U.S. government troops and civilians in Afghanistan. It also eases some requirements for the visas.

Currently, 26,500 of the special Afghan visas are allocated.

The Biden administration says there are 20,000 applicants so far, half of whom have not completed initial stages of review for the visas. The United States is also allowing former Afghan employees to bring in close family members.

The House passed the new measure 407-16, sending it to the Senate. All of the no votes were from Republicans.

Rep. Tom McClintock, R-Calif., said the bill would add to what he said would be too-hasty screening and processing as the U.S. rushes to get the Afghans out. He pointed to security risks for the U.S.

“We will not be adequately vetting arrivals under this program,” McClintock said.

Other lawmakers called it essential to future U.S. military endeavors to prove that Americans would stand by local battleground allies. Some urged the U.S. government to open the door wider still to the Afghans who worked with Americans.

“Don’t stop here. Let’s keep going,” said Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas, “These are our friends.”

About 70,000 Afghans have settled in the United States on the special visas since 2008, Tracey Jacobson, the director of the administration’s Afghanistan task force, said Wednesday.

Currently, the Biden administration plans to start flying 750 of the Afghans furthest along in the visa processing from Kabul to the U.S. next week, along with their immediate families, Jacobson said.

President Joe Biden decreed an end to the U.S. military role in Afghanistan by Sept. 11. That will close a U.S. military effort that early on succeeded in its main goal of crushing the Afghanistan-based al-Qaida plotters of the 2001 attacks on the U.S., but struggled to quell Afghanistan’s former Taliban rulers and stabilize a Kabul-based elected government.

The Pentagon says the U.S. withdrawal is 95% finished and will be completed by Aug. 31.

The U.S. military launched several airstrikes this week in support of Afghan government forces fighting Taliban insurgents, including in the strategically important province of Kandahar, officials said Thursday.

The strikes demonstrate U.S. intentions to continue supporting Afghan forces with combat aircraft based outside the country, at least until the scheduled conclusion of the U.S. military withdrawal on Aug. 31. The Biden administration has not said whether it will continue that support after the pullout is complete.

The U.S. has a variety of combat aircraft based in the Middle East within range of Afghanistan, including warplanes aboard an aircraft carrier in the region and fighters and bombers in the Persian Gulf area.

“In the last several days we have acted, through airstrikes, to support the ANDSF,” Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said, using an acronym for the Afghan national defense and security forces. “But I won’t get into technical details of those strikes.”

These are the first known U.S. airstrikes in Afghanistan since Gen. Scott Miller, who had been the top U.S. commander in the country, relinquished his command and left the country last week.