Team,
By Executive Order, the President has shut the door on thousands of foreign
interpreters, our wartime allies, who served alongside our military since
2001. As you know, without Janis, my Afghan translator, I would not be
speaking to you today. I would have been killed by two Taliban fighters
in the hills of Afghanistan and not fighting for interpreters’ rights
today. By enacting a four-month ban on ALL immigration of refugees, thousands
of our Afghan and Iraqi wartime allies will be left to languish and fend
for themselves against the very enemies we asked them to help us fight.
The Special Immigration Visa (SIV) program is considered a refugee program. The Afghans and Iraqis we allow to immigrate via this program count against the annual US immigration cap. The blanket ban on immigration prevents these allies from reaching safety here in America. Will you join us in calling for the President to exempt the SIV program from this ban?
An indefinite ban on Iraqi refugees leaves countless thousands to be hunted for their service to the United States. We now fail to keep our country’s promise to these Iraqi allies who've waited patiently for years for their visas.
If we commit to this, we will permanently harmed our national security. Our credibility will be forever neutered if not eroded. Why would any potential ally ever trust America to keep its word again? It pains me to think how many US soldiers will now die in future wars because we couldn't recruit the local support that is often the difference between life and death.
Moreover, this action imposes a lifetime moral injury on our Afghan and Iraq war veterans. Vietnam Veterans speak often of their half-century injury at having abandoned so many of our Vietnamese allies. Today, the President has cast the same injury onto the newest generation of American veterans.
No One Left Behind and our allies need your help!
CLICK HERE to write your Congressional leaders and fight for these veterans.
Our app allows you to send an immediate correspondence to Congress pleading for the President to exempt the SIV program from this Executive Order. I urge you, please take two minutes to be the positive change you want to see in the world. Our veterans deserve better.
In these past weeks, we’ve received messages from hundreds of Afghans and Iraqis currently trapped abroad, hunted by the Taliban and ISIS for supporting our war effort, desperate to get to safety, and terrified America will slam the door closed. We aim to keep our promise to them and vow we will continue to fight until we’ve reinstated the visa program.
Thus, if you want to make a difference and send a message that America stands with refugees and especially with its wartime allies - that we keep our promise - please donate. This is our most urgent hour. We need your help now more than ever.
Respectfully,
Matt Zeller
CEO and Co-founder
No One Left Behind