Much has been written in recent weeks and months about the plight of the brave Afghan nationals who served with U.S. forces as translators and other support personnel in Afghanistan over the past two decades. Today, as U.S. forces complete their final withdrawal from Afghanistan, we leave in our wake nearly forty thousand translators, support personnel, their wives, husbands and children. Their service was predicated, in part, on a promise from the United States government that they would be granted Special Immigrant Visas (SIV’s) and be allowed to come to the United States, safe from extremist violence and ready to begin a new life with their families.
Regardless of whether or not you support America’s presence in Afghanistan, no one can question the bravery and sacrifice that these individuals and their families have shown in the dangerous job of supporting individual freedom, education, women’s rights and a host of other values that we all share.
While more than five thousand SIV’s have been granted over the past seven years, the scale of the problem and the danger to human lives is obvious. Schultz & Williams is proud to be working with No One Left Behind, the only U.S. based nonprofit that works solely to advocate for the immediate issuance of SIV’s to all Afghan’s who served with our forces and that provides support to those families once they come to the U.S.
This summer, President Biden and congressional leaders on both sides of the aisle have made strong statements of support for our SIV families still in Afghanistan. We at S&W fully support immediate action on behalf of these American patriots. In the meantime, we will continue to work closely with No Left Behind to ensure a welcoming and supportive community here in the U.S. for these individuals and families that continue to risk so much for us.
