WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Chris Coons (D-Del.), Chair of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs (SFOPS), today sent a bipartisan letter to Senate leadership urging that the final SFOPS appropriations bill uphold our commitment to the Afghan Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) program and include the 20,000 additional SIVs contained in the SFOPS bill the Senate passed. U.S. Senators Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), Mike Rounds (R-S.D.), Ben Cardin (D-Md.), Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), Jack Reed (D-R.I.), Jerry Moran (R-Kan.), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Tim Kaine (D-Va.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Bill Cassidy, M.D. (R-La.), and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) joined Senator Coons on the letter.
In part, the senators wrote: “According to the Department of State, as of March 1, 2024, there are approximately 7,000 visas remaining, with 1,000 visas issued every month. 12,000 applicants have received Chief of Mission (COM) approval and are awaiting visa interviews and another 8,000 have COM approval and are collecting the necessary documents to become interview ready. This means that approximately 20,000 principal applicants will soon require visas.”
They continued: “There have been credible reports of hundreds of Afghans killed while waiting for the SIV application to be processed. Congress must ensure that the visas are available to bring every eligible SIV applicant – including the surviving spouse in cases where our Afghan ally has already been killed – to the United States.”
Full text of the letter can be found here.
Senator Coons has been a leader on efforts to protect Afghan allies in the wake of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan. Last Congress, he was an original cosponsor of the Afghan Adjustment Act, which would improve and expand the SIV process for Afghans who served alongside U.S. servicemembers. He reintroduced and has repeatedly fought to pass the Afghan Adjustment Act this Congress as well.