1. United States
2. Ariz.
3. Letter

Congress must act immediately to ensure the 1,100 fully vetted Afghan refugees stranded in Qatar are resettled in the United States as promised. These families risked everything to help American forces during the war, and we owe them the safety we guaranteed. Hasina Nasimi's family was scheduled to fly to Denver on January 27 to reunite with relatives already here. Her brother was shot by the Taliban in 2018 because their eldest son worked as a translator for US forces. After being fully vetted and cleared for travel, their trip was cancelled one week before departure. Now the Trump administration wants to send them to the Democratic Republic of the Congo instead, a country in active conflict that already hosts over 600,000 refugees and lacks the infrastructure for resettlement. These families have been living in containers at As-Sayliyah camp for over a year. Their movements are restricted and their lives are bleak. Women have had premature births from the trauma. Children have been diagnosed with anxiety and depression, and are now being medicated. Children who were forced out of school by the Taliban have now been kept out of school for four years by our own policies. The work these families’ fathers, husbands, brothers, sons, and uncles did for American forces in Afghanistan was crucial to the mission. That work made their whole families Taliban targets when American forces left. America made a promise to these allies. Congress must pass legislation overriding the executive order suspending refugee processing and bring them home to the United States.