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- Title
Wasting My Time in the Waiting Line: Solutions for Improving the Afghanistan and Iraq Special Immigrant Visa Programs.
- Authors
ABRAMSON, NADIA
- Abstract
Thousands of U.S. Army allies in Afghanistan and Iraq are in serious danger. As American soldiers leave the Middle East, the local men and women who supported the War on Terror are left behind: Characterized as traitors, these Afghan and Iraqi allies are being threatened, tortured, and in some instances killed. The U.S. Congress, under the leadership of former Senator Edward Kennedy, attempted to rectify this dire situation by creating Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) programs. The Afghan Allies Protection Act and the Refugee Crisis in Iraq Act, both of which were recently amended, grant refugee status to Afghan and Iraqi allies experiencing an ongoing serious threat as a consequence of their association with the U.S. forces. Empirically, the laws have failed to fulfill their intended purpose. With onerous documentation requirements and increased national security protocol in the post-September 11th era, some applicants do not survive the bureaucratic hurdles of the American immigration system. The plight of U.S. allies in Afghanistan and Iraq is a humanitarian crisis, yet scholarship on the SIV programs is seriously lacking. This Note is the first legal work to analyze the amended Afghan Allies Protection Act and Refugee Crisis in Iraq Act, and to propose practical legislative solutions that would improve the SIV programs without compromising national security.
- Subjects
UNITED States; VISAS; REFUGEES in the Afghan War, 2001-2021; IRAQ War, 2003-2011; IMMIGRATION law; STATE statutes (United States); WAR on Terrorism, 2001-2009; KENNEDY, Edward Moore, 1932-2009; UNITED States. Congress; LEGAL status of refugees; WAR &; society; REFUGEES; POLITICAL attitudes
- Publication
Virginia Journal of International Law, 2015, Vol 55, Issue 2, p483
- ISSN
0042-6571
- Publication type
Article