Averting Loss of Life and Injury By Expediting Sivs Act of 2021

Floor Speech

Mr. Speaker, this bill is the culmination of 20 years of policy failures in Afghanistan, and it comes at the same time that our southern border has been recklessly opened to the world. This measure's only redeeming feature is that the alternative is even worse.

Let's begin with the debacle occurring on what, until January 20, was our southern border; finally secured by President Trump's policies.

On his first day in office, President Biden reversed those policies. He stopped the ``remain in Mexico'' protocols that required asylum claimants to remain there while their claims could be adjudicated. He stopped all construction on the nearly completed border wall, leaving construction gaps that make it all but useless. And he ordered our enforcement agencies not to faithfully execute the law.

The result is that over a million foreign nationals have illegally entered our country this year, with a projection of 2 million by the end of the year. Now, that is the entire population of Wyoming, Alaska, and Vermont combined. And the Gallup organization warns that based on its polling, there are 42 million people just in Latin America and the Caribbean who intend to follow. And this occurs at the same time that 20 years of failed policy in Afghanistan is culminating.

The attack on September 11, 2001, was our generation's Pearl Harbor. It was conducted by al-Qaida, which was acting as an agency of the Taliban government of Afghanistan, which gave it support and protection.

Now, the day after the attack on Pearl Harbor, Congress pledged the entire resources of the country to the war and the President pledged to win through to ``absolute victory.'' Days after the attack on New York and Washington on September 11, Congress voted a tepid Authorization for the Use of Military Force--whatever that is--and the President told us to go shopping.

For 20 years, we dithered, twiddled, postured, hesitated. We attacked Iraq, that had nothing to do with 9/11, and put a lot of brave troops in harm's way without giving them the support that they needed and without our leaders ever having a clear objective, much less any will to win.

You know, it was from that very podium in this Chamber that General Douglas MacArthur warned that in war there is no substitute for victory. That is a lesson our leaders have failed to learn time and again. So this debacle is now coming to its sad, shameful, and sorry conclusion.

The Taliban again threatened to seize this ill-fated country, imperiling the thousands of Afghans who assisted our troops in various ways. To encourage their help, we passed the Afghan Allies Protection Act of 2009, which created a special immigrant visa, or green card program, for Afghan nationals who worked with the United States Government for at least a year, and who face retribution from the Taliban. This program also provides green cards to their spouses and their children.

Now, during the 20 years that our troops have been in Afghanistan, tens of thousands of Afghans have worked for or on behalf of the U.S. Government in one capacity or another, and to date, over 15,500 green cards have already been issued to the principal applicants. And then additionally, for each principal applicant, an average of 3.5 green cards have been issued to spouses and children. That is about 70,000 that we have already taken in. That is a city the size of Bowling Green, Kentucky. But many more are still there.

So we have before us H.R. 3985, the ALLIES Act. It makes changes to the Afghan special immigrant visa program to accommodate the accelerated withdrawal that the President has ordered.

The emergency created by this order means that we will not be adequately vetting arrivals under this program. Those already admitted have had to meet eligibility requirements. They have had to undergo security and background checks. If we had been able to develop this legislation the old-fashioned way, through real face-to-face meetings and good-faith discussions, I think we could have produced a process that protected both the American people and the Afghan families who sided with our government. But alas, that was not to be under this majority.

Instead, H.R. 3985 authorizes 8,000 more green cards on top of the 10,000 authorized but still unclaimed. Now, given that 15,500 principal green cards have been processed over the 20-year life of this program, the odds of processing a like number in a matter of months is pretty slim; unless, of course, the administration cuts processing and vetting corners, which I think is a given.

H.R. 3985 also increases the eligibility pool for the Afghan special immigration visa program in two ways.

First, it removes the requirement that Afghan nationals who worked with the U.S. coalition forces must have performed ``sensitive and trusted'' activities for U.S. personnel. This provision was added several years ago with the understanding that there must be limits on the number of people who come to the U.S., and in an attempt to ensure that the limited number of green cards available actually go to those Afghan nationals who are most in danger.

Now, we have asked the administration how many individuals may be eligible once this language is removed from the statute. Their answer? They don't know. And they don't care.

Second, this bill extends program eligibility to Afghans whose employers received grant funding from the U.S. Government or were in cooperative agreements with the U.S. Government and who ``contributed to the United States mission in Afghanistan.''

Well, I am concerned that we do not know exactly what can be considered as contributing to the United States mission in Afghanistan or how many people to whom this could apply.

The bill also eliminates the requirement that an applicant has experienced an ongoing, serious threat as a consequence of his or her qualifying employment. This requirement is one of the main reasons for the creation of the program; to help ensure the safety of those in danger because of working with the U.S.

This means that among the worthy asylum seekers, we are likely to see those without merit, or worse, those who seek to do our country harm, because the vetting process is effectively abandoned by this bill. And this comes at a time when the asylum process is being made a mockery by thousands of meritless claims a day showing up on our southern border and being admitted into our country.

I wish we could have had an honest and open discussion about the wisdom of eliminating this requirement in committee. Unfortunately, the Democrats chose to bypass the committee process. But with the American withdrawal fast approaching, we are left with this deeply flawed bill on the one hand, or the very real prospect of watching Afghan patriots being hunted down and seeing them and their families hung by construction cranes. So I will support this bill as the least bad option that the Democrats have left us.

Mr. JACOBS of New York. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 3985, the ALLIES Act.

For almost two decades, American troops have fought the war on terror in Afghanistan. Over the course of the war, thousands of native Afghans put their lives on the line to support our American servicemembers. They served as translators, guides, contractors, and more. Their support was critical to the safety of our servicemembers and the success of our operations.

They showed true bravery and risked their lives in pursuit of an end to the Taliban's regime and a free nation. Now, their decision to help Americans is seen as traitorous by the Taliban, and many of these Afghans and their families have been marked for death.

This danger has only been compounded by the Biden administration's hasty withdrawal from Afghanistan. No plans were originally put in place to help these individuals evacuate, and now, many face dire consequences.

We have a moral imperative to support those who served alongside our men and women in uniform and cannot leave them behind. While the administration has announced plans to evacuate some of our Afghan allies, they should not have been an afterthought.

I call on the administration to expeditiously process SIV applicants and expand their efforts to get these individuals and their families out of harm's way immediately.

In addition to those efforts, I am pleased the House is considering this critical legislation today. It expands and amends the Special Immigrant Visa program to better support our Afghan allies and their families. These combined actions are the least we can do to help them for their service to us.

Anyone who puts their life on the line to stand alongside American servicemembers deserves not only our gratitude, but they deserve our protection. That is why I am proud to vote in favor of the ALLIES Act of 2021, and I urge my colleagues to do the same.

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Mr. McCLINTOCK. Mr. Speaker, I continue to reserve the balance of my time.

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Mr. McCLINTOCK. Mr. Speaker, I continue to reserve the balance of my time.
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Mr. McCLINTOCK. Mr. Speaker, I continue to reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, this is a tragedy in so many ways; the loss of so many of the best and brightest of our youth because of political and military leaders who were willing to put them in harm's way but without a commitment to victory and without the willingness to back them with the full might of the United States.

For Afghanistan, it means the best and brightest of that country, the very people who were willing to risk their futures for freedom are the ones who are now being forced to flee, depriving Afghanistan of the most patriotic citizens who could otherwise have formed the core of a free government if we had finished the job we started.

It is to be greatly hoped that like the Iranian diaspora, they will focus their energy from abroad to support the resistance movement that is sure to emerge under the yoke of Taliban oppression. It is to be greatly hoped that our Nation will finally return to a tradition that served us well for nearly 200 years; that there is no substitute for victory and no excuse for waging war without the absolute commitment to swiftly win it.

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