President Barack Obama has continued slow-walking a visa application from an Afghan translator who helped a Medal of Honor recipient save American lives, the Washington Free Beacon reports.
“Four years ago, an Afghan translator known as ‘Hafez’ [a pseudonym used to protect his true identity] charged into enemy fire to help Marine Corporal Dakota Meyer rescue wounded American soldiers during one of the most famous battles in the Afghanistan war,” the Free Beacon’s Alana Goodman wrote on Wednesday.
“Meyer received the Medal of Honor for his courage in the battle of Ganjgal–the first living Marine to receive the honor since the Vietnam war. But Meyer says his friend Hafez is still waiting to receive a U.S. visa he applied for years ago. The former translator remains in Afghanistan under daily threat from the Taliban while his application is caught in the bureaucratic limbo of the State Department.”
Meyer told Goodman that this Afghan translator helped save American lives during the Battle of Ganjgal, carrying American troops to safety while putting his own life at risk to save U.S. soldiers. Meyer also believes Taliban forces will undoubtedly kill “Hafez” if the Obama administration does not approve his visa soon.
“He stood next to me, by my side pretty much the entire time [during the Battle of Ganjgal],” Meyer said in an interview with Goodman. “He helped me carry my guys out. If we can’t help get this guy back who sacrificed so much to bring these Americans home, I’m sure he’ll be killed.”
Goodman notes that Bing West, the co-author of Meyer’s new book Into the Fire: A Firsthand Account of the Most Extraordinary Battle in the Afghan War, said that “Hafez” applied for a U.S. visa over three years ago, but U.S. authorities continue slow-walking the process. “The Taliban are looking for Hafez because he killed several of them in the Ganjigal fight,” West said in an interview with Goodman.
Though State Department officials have not approved the U.S. Visa application from “Hafez” despite glowing letters of recommendation from several senior U.S. military officials like Lt. Col. Dan Yaroslaski, Lt. Col. Anthony J. Healy, Gy. Sgt. R. M. Garza, Maj. William Jelks, and Capt. Timothy Chrisman, the Obama administration seems to have no problem granting asylum to a group of Mexican illegal immigrants and leftwing political activists who crossed the border last month to protest what they viewed as unacceptable U.S. immigration policy.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) rushed through what the Associated Press called on Tuesday a “highly unusual” move to grant asylum to seven of the group of nine who participated in the protest. That group of seven included some who were actually illegal immigrants from Mexico. The cases of the other two who participated in the protest are still being reviewed.
DHS granted the tentative asylum, which will ultimately be reviewed by a judge in a process that will likely take years to complete, in what makes the three years and counting “Hafez” is waiting in Afghanistan with his life on the line seem like an eternity: About two weeks.
DHS made the move to grant the political activists the exception after pro-amnesty advocate Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-IL) publicly pleaded with Obama: “I have heard about the DREAMers who attempted to return home to the United States today after deportation, including my constituent Lulu Martinez from Chicago,” Gutierrez wrote in a Facebook posting at the time of the incident in late July. “I hope the Obama administration will do the right thing and let them back in.”
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.