Right this moment marks the primary anniversary of when Afghanistan’s capital Kabul fell to Taliban management, and U.S. troops withdrew from the nation. Tens of hundreds of Afghans have been evacuated from their nation because of this, notably these whose work with the U.S. authorities and navy made them potential targets of the Taliban.
However the course of was chaotic. Photographs from evacuation flights confirmed folks hanging from airplanes as they tried to take off. Many individuals beneath menace struggled to make it out of Afghanistan.
Invoice Richardson, a U.S. Marine veteran and former police detective who lives in Phoenix, says that was the case for a tactical platoon of Afghan ladies who, regardless of working alongside the U.S. navy, weren’t on among the many first precedence for evacuation. This time final 12 months, he and his daughter, a former member of the U.S. Army’s Cultural Help Group, which labored with the platoon, have been making an attempt to get about a number of dozen platoon members out.
“In actual fact, the FTPs (Feminine Tactical Platoon) weren’t even on anyone’s radar to be evacuated,” he stated. “They sacrificed loads to affix the military as a girl in Afghanistan, they’re a Hazara, which is a persecuted minority in Afghanistan. And so they not solely went into the military, they pursued a path of particular forces.”
The ladies arrived in Phoenix and across the nation final 12 months. Richardson says lots of them need to serve within the U.S. navy or in different authorities jobs.
However that is not potential now. Like many different Afghans, the platoon members got here to the U.S. on humanitarian parole — a short lived immigration standing granted on an emergency foundation. Holders of the standing can apply for asylum or in some circumstances, Particular Immigrant Visas, however not U.S. citizenship.
Richardson and different advocates are backing a invoice earlier than Congress that would change that. The Afghan Adjustment Act was launched this month with bipartisan help within the Senate and Home.
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