Trump shuts the door on men and women who have sacrificed for America
With his latest executive order and immigration ban, President Trump has shut the door on thousands of foreign interpreters, our wartime allies, who have served alongside our military since 2001. As a combat veteran who has served in the U.S. Army, this action deeply disappoints and angers me. I shouldn’t be alive today. I am only here writing this piece because of my Afghan Muslim translator, Janis. He shot and killed two Taliban fighters who nearly ambushed me in a firefight in Afghanistan in 2008.
The president’s actions on Friday are troubling for so many reasons. First, the sweeping ban doesn’t take into account that our allied military translators are quite possibly the most vetted individuals aligned with our military. The stringent background checks begin long before they are cleared to work alongside Americans in a combat zone. Then the process for granting the Special Immigrant Visa (SIV), which allows them to resettle in the United States, is even more painstaking. To even apply for the SIV, one must meet ALL of the following criteria:
Be a national of Iraq or Afghanistan; and
Have worked directly with U.S. armed forces or under Chief of Missions authority as an interpreter for at least 12 months; and
-more-
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/global-opinions/trump-shuts-the-door-on-men-and-women-who-have-sacrificed-for-the-us/2017/01/28/17a0e0b4-e5a3-11e6-a453-19ec4b3d09ba_story.html?tid=hybrid_collaborative_2_na&utm_term=.e0a82045720c
