Hundreds of veterans, others urge Trump to continue resettling at-risk Afghans

WASHINGTON: Hundreds of veterans and current and former US officials want President-elect Donald Trump to preserve US special visa and resettlement programmes for Afghans at risk of retribution for working for the United States during the 20-year war against the Taliban, according to a letter reviewed by Reuters.

The letter, signed by the veterans, officials and others, will be sent to Trump and congressional leaders and was organised by #AfghanEvac, the leading coalition of groups that work with the US government to help Afghans start new lives in the United States.

“Many of us have worked closely with Afghan interpreters, soldiers and families who risked everything to protect and guide us,” said a draft of the letter.

“To abandon them now would be a betrayal of the values we fought to defend and the trust built through years of shared struggle and sacrifice.”

The letter calls on Trump and congressional leaders to continue funding the reasettlement of at-risk Afghans and their families and for Congress to approve an additional 50,000 Special Immigration Visas (SIVs).

The current cap of 50,500 SIVs is expected to run out late this summer or early fall. The Trump transition team did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Shawn VanDiver, the head of #AfghanEvac, said the letter reflected concerns that Trump will curtail the SIV and resettlement programmes as part of his promised crackdown on immigration.

“There’s a real fear that President Trump and Stephen Miller will once again erect bureaucratic barriers that slow down or even stop the SIV and refugee resettlement programmes, abandoning our Afghan allies once more,” VanDiver told Reuters.

Miller was the architect of Trump’s first-term hardline immigration policies and is expected to maintain that role as deputy chief of staff when Trump is sworn in for a second time on Jan 20.

Former US officials and immigration advocates say Miller instituted during Trump’s first term bureaucratic hurdles, including “extreme vetting,” that contributed to a slowdown in SIV processing and a massive application backlog.

However, Trump’s incoming national security adviser, Michael Waltz, a former US special forces officer who served in Afghanistan, has fiercely advocated for the SIV and resettlement programmes.

Trump made immigration a major issue of his presidential campaign, promising to ramp up border security and deport record numbers of illegal immigrants. He tried during his first term to restrict legal immigration.

He planned to send the letter to the Trump transition team on Friday and hand-deliver it to Republican and Democratic congressional leaders next week.