Maine Vets for Afghans

Advocacy

Congress will be considering including provisions of the Afghan Adjustment Act (AAA) in the legislation that it will be voting on this coming December 2022. The Afghan Adjustment Act is important for the 260 plus Afghan refugees that arrived in Maine over the next year. It streamlines the path to permanent residency while ensuring a robust security and vetting process takes place during the application process for a Green Card.

A group of Maine veterans have come together to seek the support of the Maine Congressional delegation. Thus far Senator King, Representative Golden, and Representative Pingree have expressed their support for the AAA. Senator Collins is 'considering' the merits of the AAA.

This legislation is a bipartisan effort to support those Afghan refugees who were evacuated on U.S. military aircraft from Kabul in August 2021, housed and processed (medical, security, biometrics) on U.S. military bases in the Middle East and Europe, flown to the United States on U.S. State Department chartered aircraft, spent several months on U.S. military installations across the country undergoing additional processing, and then finally resettled in communities across the United States. A few hundred, many of them former Afghan Air Force, Special Mission Wing, and Afghan SOF, are now living in Maine.

An important provision of the AAA would give former Afghan Commandos, Special Mission Wing, and Afghan Air Force members Special Immigrant Status (SIV). This would allow them relocation from Afghanistan to a U.S. military installation in the Middle East for processing, and then resettlement in the United States. Many of these men are currently being hunted by the Taliban and suffering from beatings, imprisonment, or death.