STATEMENT: LIRS Reacts to the Biden Administration’s Lack of a Detailed Plan for the Evacuation of Afghan Allies

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

July 8, 2021

Contact: Marc Soloweszyk | msoloweszyk@lirs.org | 443-960-5522

Washington D.C. – Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service is deeply involved by the Biden administration’s lack of an in depth plan for the evacuation of our Afghan allies who served the U.S. mission for over 20 years.

The remarks solely repackaged what President Biden first vowed three weeks in the past – that Afghans who helped the U.S. navy had been “not going to be left behind,” even because the U.S. continued accelerated withdrawal from Afghanistan. Nevertheless, the administration has taken little motion since to make sure the protection of our allies.

On July 2, administration officers leaked an inner dialogue outlining the administration’s doable plans to evacuate Afghan allies to 3 Central Asian international locations: Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. These studies rapidly generated apprehension amongst consultants and advocates that allies wouldn’t be protected in neighboring international locations. Additional, the Biden Administration has constantly stated it can solely evacuate 9,000 of the 18,000 Particular Immigrant Visa candidates, leaving half of our allies beneath risk. Whereas President Biden famous a State Division job power is focused on the trouble, he didn’t point out inter-agency plans, regardless of previous evacuations having closely relied on the speedy creation of an Interagency Process Drive to arrange and deploy assets throughout departments.

President and CEO of Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, provided an announcement, imploring the Administration to urgently seize its authorized authority to guard our Afghan allies and to supply an in depth evacuation plan:  

“The President’s failure to supply concrete particulars on the protected evacuation of our Afghan allies is a shameful abdication of ethical duty.

Tangible motion to evacuate all 18,000 Afghan allies and their members of the family to Guam or one other American territory, the place they will safely proceed their SIV course of, has but to be seen. Any much less and anyplace past U.S. soil solely intensifies the safety and humanitarian dangers for each our nation and our allies. Let’s be clear; we have now evacuated U.S. wartime allies up to now, and our authorities companies can pursue parole authorization into U.S. territory – realities that counter President Biden’s claims this afternoon.

Biden famous himself that “velocity is security” – whereas our troops have safely left, our allies stay behind and in peril. We’re listening to increasingly more studies of SIV candidates and their members of the family changing into victims to anti-American violence. For a lot of, full evacuation is a matter of life-and-death. Is abandonment the American norm for the way we deal with those that protected us? Are we prepared to repeat the identical errors we made in Vietnam half a century in the past? At this time, President Biden renewed his promise to evacuate those that protected us, however we can’t let that promise stay protracted, unmet and unspecified.”

##

Based in 1939, Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service (LIRS) is among the largest immigration and refugee resettlement companies in the USA. LIRS is nationally acknowledged for its management working with and advocating for refugees, asylum seekers, unaccompanied youngsters, immigrants in detention, households fractured by migration and different weak populations. By way of 80 years of service and advocacy, LIRS has helped over 500,000 migrants and refugees rebuild their lives in America.