We are morally obligated to come to their aid. as they have come to ours. In response to this obligation. Senator KENNEDY and I introduced The Refugee Crisis In Iraq Act last year to help bring translators and other Iraqis in peril to the United States. The act passed and was signed into law in January 2008. Unfortunately. more than 4 months later. key provisions of the law have not been implemented. The State Department and Department of Homeland Security have still not described how they plan to meet their new obligations. Incountry processing is not available for Iraqi translators and others who are persecuted but unable to get out of Iraq. Translators remain waitlisted. in spite of the fact that 5.000 new special Immigrant visas are supposed to be available to them. Instead. Iraqi translators remain in danger in the red zone. their path to safety still blocked by bureaucratic red tape. Many of the Interpreters who apply for these visas are living on borrowed time. actively hunted by an insurgency which has brutally murdered their friends and colleagues. The three families that Jason began helping with the application process in the fall of 2006 arrived in September 2007. January 2008. and March 2008. respectively.
Keywords matched
Refugee visas Immigrant