she s visited afghanistan many times. one of the big highlights from the report is the log jam for translators to obtain approval. the chief of mission has to okay from the state department, but only 11% of the current applicants have it. so why the hold up? most of them don t have papers because passports were burned by the embassy when kabul was falling. but they were left without any kind of credentials to prove they work for the state department. you re right. that s one of the major reasons that we haven t been able to get those afghans back to the united states. unfortunately, when the siv program was set up back in 2009, it was set up not as a permanent program, but it had to be reauthorized. the number of visas had to be redone, and that has really
fact, to simply approve their visas. they are still stuck there. they are still stuck there getting hunt down by the taliban today. throwing up new bureaucratic roadblocks is not going to help. part of the problem, i m told, is that the siv program was not set up for this kind of emergency evacuation. then it was completely dismantled under donald trump. it never had the infrastructure to deal with this. they are still using that rather than trying to adjust. this new on the surface of what i am reading here and what you just spoke to, it does sound like they are going to make it harder to get out. these are people with targets on their back. we will follow up with you. thank you so much, congressman. we get back into the details deeper into the doe tails. thank you, andrea. you bet. not holding back. serena williams dominating in what could be her last u.s.
frustrated that nobody is held accountable. why doesn t the state department say, you know what? we did a really good job on this and that. i know that they feel good about how many people they got out at the end there. we failed on this front and that front. for that reason, we have reassigned this person or this person is no longer played because it s their job to receive the siv program. there were failures in prior administrations. why is there no one held accountable for what happened, which is clear as you say to anybody that has eyes and watched this thing unfold? no, i totally agree with that. i mean, when you have mistakes at this level and obviously cost people s lives and we walked away from a country a ban donned we left american citizens in place and then tens of thousands who are many thousands are still there to this day. i absolutely believe and i said
nine months going back to march of 2020. the program was basically in a stall. within two weeks of taking office, we restarted the siv process in kabul. on february 4th, one of the first executive orders issued by president biden directed us to immediately review the siv program to identify causes of undue delay and find ways to process siv applications more quickly. this spring i directed significant addition at resources to the program. expanding the people in washington processing applications from 10 to 50, doubling the number of adjudicators in kabul in our embassy there. even as many embassy personnel began to return under ordered departure, we sent more officers to kabul to process siv applications. as a result of these and other steps, including working with congress, especially this committee, senator shaheen and
welcome afghans to the united states. let me just start with a question about visa status. senator sullivan and i wrote a bipartisan letter in mid-august urging expanded eligibility for the siv program. i m interested if how you are working to expand eligibility under the existing visa programs to include family members and support those the u.s. government supported and worked alongside but who were not direct employees? i want to start if i could, mr. secretary by asking you yes or no questions about three groups that other senators have mentioned. there are about 550 employees and family members from voice of america, radio free europe and radio liberty who were not evacuated. is the department prioritizing their evacuation? yes. they committed to getting our other partners and are they being prioritized