# Trying To Get Visas For Former Interpreters



## Marauder06 (May 23, 2016)

Anyone have experience with this?  A friend of mine, former Ranger, has been trying to get his 'terp out of Afghanistan for years, but he keeps getting blocked by the State Department.  The latest wrinkle is the insurgents have marked him for death.  The State Department's solution:  "Move to Pakistan." (<--- that one was for you, @Freefalling ).


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## Ooh-Rah (May 23, 2016)

Sad story.  I was just reading "this" prior to checking the forum, thought it might be your friend but this guy is a Marine/Green Beret and yours is a Ranger.

Frustrating to read....

US veteran seeks asylum for Iraqi man who saved his life


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## AWP (May 23, 2016)

Marauder06 said:


> Anyone have experience with this?  A friend of mine, former Ranger, has been trying to get his 'terp out of Afghanistan for years, but he keeps getting blocked by the State Department.  The latest wrinkle is the insurgents have marked him for death.  The State Department's solution:  "Move to Pakistan." (<--- that one was for you, @Freefalling ).



My Hate Department solution: Bomb Pakistan.

Freefalling, Secretary of Hate.

----

The word is full of naïve people. Countries actually expect and trust the US to do "the right thing" by them? That's worked so well for the Hmongs, our Terps, and others my coffee-deficient brain can't recall. After the latest episodes what types of clowns will believe us when we say "help us and we'll take care of you?"

Our conduct at times is shameful and I wish other nations would start calling us on our nation's behavior. If they don't we'll keep ignoring the problem and abusing another group of people on our path to failure.


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## Bypass (May 23, 2016)

My interpreter and my friend was killed in Iraq after we left. Shot in the head in front of his wife and kids. He was a good man. Such a waste. I think anyone who choses to work for us should have the option of moving their family to the safety of America after we leave a country. They earned it.


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## DocIllinois (May 23, 2016)

Bypass said:


> My interpreter and my friend was killed in Iraq after we left. Shot in the head in front of his wife and kids. He was a good man. Such a waste. I think anyone who choses to work for us should have the option of moving their family to the safety of America after we leave a country. They earned it.



I recall my unit offering to figure out this process for the interpreter in Bosnia who worked with us on excursions outside Tuzla base.

His consistent reply was that it was his home and that he would never dream of leaving unless physically forced out before he died resisting.  A place really can become part of a person, at least psychologically.

This is even despite his motherland in '96 being a bombed out shit hole, to say the least, and his family torn apart by the civil war.


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## Bypass (May 23, 2016)

DocIllinois said:


> I recall my unit offering to figure out this process for the interpreter in Bosnia who worked with us on excursions outside Tuzla base.
> 
> His consistent reply was that it was his home and that he would never dream of leaving unless physically forced out.
> 
> This is even despite his motherland in '96 being a bombed out shit hole, to say the least, and his family torn apart by the civil war.


And then there is that. Yeah you can't make em leave even if it is for their well being.


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## Gunz (May 23, 2016)

edit


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## CQB (May 24, 2016)

Bypass said:


> My interpreter and my friend was killed in Iraq after we left. Shot in the head in front of his wife and kids. He was a good man. Such a waste. I think anyone who choses to work for us should have the option of moving their family to the safety of America after we leave a country. They earned it.



If my memory serves me well, we did it here with Iraqis and their families who helped us out without reserve.


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## RackMaster (May 24, 2016)

Canada has fucked over our terps from Afghanistan.  One recently was brought over but many are still there.


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## Ooh-Rah (Jun 1, 2016)

Figured I could tuck this story safely in this thread.  There is a lot of political bullshit (read lying) here, but my favorite is:

_Kazikhani, wife Yasmiin and infant daughter Roxanna have been living in camps for more than a year, fearful of being outed once again by fellow refugees, and steadily losing hope that their application for a U.S. visa will be approved. Now they have been told Afghanistan is "stable," and thousands of refugees from the war-torn country will soon be sent back."The German politicians are saying that Afghanistan is now a safe country,” _

Refugee translator denied visa despite helping US forces fears being sent to die at hands of Taliban | Fox News


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## AWP (Jun 1, 2016)

The Avengers couldn't stabilize Afghanistan. Considering the Germans were up north and allowed RC-N to become a safehaven....I think I'll ignore anything those clowns have to say about the country.


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## Ooh-Rah (Jun 30, 2016)

Senate panel grants more visas for Afghans who supported U.S.

Is this progress or just political babble?

This paragraph from the story game me much pause...
_The cost has worried fiscal conservatives, who said it is not clear more visas are needed when so many haven't been used. The program's critics also said allowing so many Afghans to exit the country will drain Afghanistan of much needed talent._

-  There seems to be a claim that the available visas are not being used? (is that because of unnecessary complicated 'qualifiers'?
-  will drain Afghanistan of much needed talent? :whatever:

Senate panel grants more visas for Afghans who supported U.S.

_WASHINGTON — A Senate panel decided Wednesday to provide an additional 4,000 visas to allow Afghans who sided with the American-led coalition and are at risk of being killed or injured by the Taliban to resettle in the United States.

The Appropriations Committee voted unanimously, 30 to 0, to approve a foreign operations spending bill that includes a provision granting the extra visas and extending the so-called special immigrant visa program for another year.

The Afghan civilians worked for the coalition as interpreters, firefighters and construction laborers. But the militants considered them traitors. The top American commander in Afghanistan, Army Gen. John Nicholson, urged Congress to extend the special immigrant visa program so they and their families could escape what he called "grave consequences."

Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., pushed for the program to be continued, telling her colleagues that many Americans who served in Afghanistan are alive today because of the support they received from Afghans willing to put themselves in danger.

_


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## pardus (Jun 30, 2016)

There should be no limits whatsoever on this program. If you helped a country USA?Canada/UK/OZ/NZ etc... you should be granted automatically the right to immigrate to that country.
We gives thousands of visas to random people every year, the fact that there needs to be debate over this is disgraceful. 
I'm amazing locals are still willing to help the USA et al after our track record of fucking over/abandoning locals that have helped us in the past.


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## moobob (Jun 30, 2016)

As with many things in life, the State Department is at fault.


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## Ooh-Rah (Jun 30, 2016)

moobob said:


> As with many things in life, the State Department is at fault.



How so? (not challenging you, just want a better understanding)


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## moobob (Jun 30, 2016)

They control the entire process and they basically suck at life.


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## moobob (Jun 30, 2016)

Watch a Jen Psaki or Marie Harf press conference, or Spies Like Us and you can get a sense of the typical employee.


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## AWP (Jun 30, 2016)

I think someone on here mentioned they wanted all of the authority downrange, but for SOF to pay for the privilege. All bluster, no budget.


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## Ooh-Rah (Dec 4, 2016)

Have not seen this topic brought up for a while, posting only because the writer of this editorial is not a Vet, but instead a college student.

U.S. has moral obligation to Afghan interpreters

_Promisingly, last Wednesday, Congress included provisions in the National Defense Authorization Act to reauthorize the Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) program for four more years. The SIV program to protect America’s Afghan wartime allies was set to expire by the end of December.

At a time when anti-immigrant rhetoric is running high and President-elect Donald Trump has consistently politicized immigration policy, the U.S. cannot afford to sidestep its commitment to wartime Afghan allies. Despite the reauthorization, the number of additional SIVs approved remains woefully short of the need._


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## Marauder06 (Dec 5, 2016)

I don't know why they invoked PE Trump's name, seems to me like these are exactly the kinds of immigrants he'd want to allow.


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## Gunz (Dec 5, 2016)

edit


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## Etype (Dec 10, 2016)

Marauder06 said:


> I don't know why they invoked PE Trump's name, seems to me like these are exactly the kinds of immigrants he'd want to allow.


Blaming Bush was prevalent into Pres Obama's second term, blaming Trump is now the norm before he is even inaugurated.

I'm still mad about the Lightning's loss to the Hurricanes. I'm not sure where Trump stands on the matter, but what I do know is that Trump won by 1.6% more in NC by means of the popular vote. One can only speculate that if he did have something to do with rigging the NHL system, it would be for the Hurricanes in this case.













See what I did there?


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## Centermass (Jan 27, 2017)

In the Senate confirmation hearing of President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for State Secretary, the former Exxon Mobil Corp. CEO Rex Tillerson outlined the importance of protecting the lives of foreign interpreters who helped American military forces during the war in Afghanistan.

“It’s important we protect those whose lives are at risk, whether military forces or other forces in Afghanistan,” Tillerson response from Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen question on Wednesday.

“And it’s also important to make this distinction, otherwise we miss losing it to let people come through the program that is not truly at risk,” Tillerson added.

Link



Let's continue to hope the process gains more exposure and those who deserve an SIV not be left behind, or left waiting forever.


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## Ooh-Rah (Jun 9, 2017)

Huh.

Semper Fi, Marine.

He Was A Terp For Recon Marines In Helmand. Now He’s Headed To The School Of Infantry

For three years, Mohammad Nadir served alongside infantry and reconnaissance Marines, police advisers, and coalition forces in volatile districts like Kajaki, Lashkar Gah, and Sangin in Helmand province, Afghanistan. As an interpreter for U.S. service members at the height of the war in Afghanistan, he considered himself the “ears and eyes of ISAF.”

Now, he’s a Marine, and he’s headed to the school of infantry to become a grunt. But it was a long road to get there, growing up in a war-torn country that few people are ever allowed to leave.


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