DHS Secretary: Only 3 Percent of 60,000 Afghan Evacuees in U.S. Have Special Immigrant Visas

(Via The National Review)

Department of Homeland Security secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said in congressional testimony on Tuesday that “approximately three percent” of the 60,000 Afghan evacuees already brought to the United States “have been individuals who are in receipt of the special immigrant visas.”

Afghans who qualified for Special Immigrant Visas included those who worked for the American military as interpreters and thus placed themselves in greatest danger of being murdered if the Taliban ever came to power.

When the U.S. military recruited Afghans to assist U.S. forces, “part of that pitch when asking Afghans to trust us and put their lives on the line for us was that if this day ever came, we would do right by them and bring them out,” Congressman Peter Meijer of Michigan, a veteran of the Iraq War, told National Review in an interview. “That was part of that promise — that we will not leave you behind. That was implicit in the legislation [establishing Special Immigrant Visas for Afghan allies], and that was conveyed by [U.S. military] folks on the ground to those who chose to work with us.”