Congress dropped an amendment that would have created a pathway to residency for Afghan refugees from its $1.7 billion omnibus spending bill. Though the bipartisan measure was supported by numerous veterans groups, it was scuttled by GOP leaders.
evacuees who entered the United States under a temporary status known as “humanitarian parole” that will expire next summer. The legislation offered them the opportunity to receive green cards after undergoing additional vetting.McConnell indirectly addressed the failed measure, telling reporters Tuesday that it was important and should be a focus, but that other critical items also did not find a home in the spending bill.
“What we’re seeing is the Republicans are really in the way. And that’s disappointing, because a lot of them told us they would be with us,” said Shawn Van Diver, a Navy veteran and head of #AfghanEvac, a coalition of more than 180 nonprofits and other organizations that are supporting Afghan resettlement efforts.Van Diver and scores of other veterans have traversed Capitol Hill and the United States to push for the AAA’s inclusion in the spending bill.
The measure is a national security imperative, he said, because potential allies in future U.S. conflicts could recall the ordeal as a signal the United States won’t fulfill its obligations to its partners. “They stood for us for 20 years,” Van Diver said of the Afghans. “We told them, ‘We promise we’ll take good care of you.’ And we abandoned them.”
That sentiment was echoed in a letter to Congress published Saturday and signed by more than 30 retired officers, including three former chairmen of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. “If we claim to support the troops and want to enable their success in wartime, we must keep our commitments today. The AAA will go a long way,” the letter
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