In the wake of the Taliban”s takeover of Afghanistan, an Indian-American Congressman urged the Biden administration on Monday to use all feasible diplomatic and military tools to ensure safe evacuation of Americans and Afghan partners.
Taliban insurgents swept Kabul on Sunday after the US-backed Afghan government collapsed and President Ghani fled the country, bringing an unprecedented end to a two-decade campaign in which the US and its allies had tried to transform the war-ravaged nation.
“As a senior member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, I strongly urge the Biden administration to use all feasible diplomatic and military tools to ensure the safe evacuation of Americans and our Afghan partners,” Congressman Ami Bera said.
He said his Congressional district Sacramento County is home to the most Afghan immigrants in the entire country.
Many of these individuals are Special Immigrant Visa recipients who bravely risked their own safety to serve alongside the troops in combat as translators, interpreters and contractors, Bera added.
“I have pushed the administration for months to expedite the Special Immigrant Visa process and evacuate our Afghan partners out of the country. The time has passed for this to happen,” Bera said.
“We must now move rapidly to get these men and women safely out of Afghanistan, or they will be hunted down and killed by the Taliban. I will continue to urge the Biden administration, both in public and private, to meet the commitments we made to our Afghan partners who risked their lives to serve alongside our troops,” he said.
