WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Representative Peter Meijer (R-MI), a member of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, participated in a press conference highlighting the urgent need to evacuate our Afghan partners to a safe location, such as Guam, while they await visa processing.
The text of Rep. Meijer’s remarks as delivered is below:
“I want to thank Ranking Member McCaul and the wonderful group of bipartisan folks who have shared their stories. I think one of the challenges we are dealing with is this interagency process, meaning one agency passes the buck or blame to another, and nobody is accountable.
“That is why I firmly support the initiative to have a single point of contact, a single person, who is responsible for this effort within this administration.
“We must immediately, not only do the legislative work we are working on — and I’m confident will pass on strengthening the SIV, but also get those people out. Things go bad slowly at first and then all at once, and when they are going bad all at once we will be prioritizing the force protection of our diplomats and otherwise.
“Now is the time to focus on evacuating those who have served our country, and now is the time to actually act and make a difference before it’s too late. We are already figuring out what to do and how to get out the families of those interpreters who were killed while they were in the SIV process. Delay is deadly. And that is the enemy we are fighting.
“I appreciate our leaders here who are doing everything they can to bring attention to this, and I plead with the Biden Administration to do the right thing and focus on solving this issue.”
Original source can be found here.
