…from the Washington Post…..
Mohammad signed off with “Best Regards” and his full name, along with his visa application case number, details that could put him at additional risk of retribution from the Taliban. The Washington Post is using his first name and last initial for his safety.
President-elect Joe Biden will inherit a backlog of tens of thousands of such cases from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan — and a bureaucratic tangle that refugee advocates say President Trump ignored or made worse.
“We have a moral obligation to those who served shoulder to shoulder with our men and women on the ground and who put their security and the security of their family members at risk,” said retired Gen. David H. Petraeus, who commanded U.S. forces in both Iraq and Afghanistan.
The backlog includes about 17,000 Afghan translators and others who helped U.S. forces or diplomats and who are seeking special visas to resettle in the United States. With immediate family members who would come too, those applications represent an estimated 70,000 Afghans. The number for Iraqis is estimated at about 100,000.
Many claim harassment or death threats, and the danger may increase as Trump plans to withdraw additional U.S. forces from war zones where Americans have been deployed for nearly 20 years…..
image…U.S. Marine Sgt. Isaac Tate, left, and Cpl. Aleksander Aleksandrov, center, interview a local Afghan man with the help of a translator from the 2nd MEB, 4th Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion on a patrol in Qwual-e-now, in the volatile Helmand province of southern Afghanistan on Dec. 11, 2009. (Kevin Frayer/AP)