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The friends we left stranded in Iraq

American troops have come home from Baghdad, Fallujah and Mosul, but many of the Iraqis who risked their lives to aid U.S. forces are still waiting for their tickets out of danger. Hundreds of American allies, who worked as interpreters or provided valuable intelligence, are caught in a bureaucratic morass at the departments of State […]

Mark Doss writes for the Wall Street Journal:

American troops have come home from Baghdad, Fallujah and Mosul, but many of the Iraqis who risked their lives to aid U.S. forces are still waiting for their tickets out of danger. Hundreds of American allies, who worked as interpreters or provided valuable intelligence, are caught in a bureaucratic morass at the departments of State and Homeland Security.

In 2008 Congress created the Iraqi Special Immigrant Visa to help these brave men and women. Since then 6,378 applicants have received visas to resettle in the U.S. But more than 1,800 applicants have ended up stuck in limbo, told neither “yes” nor “no,” their applications endlessly pending. All the while, they face the constant threat of retaliation for having assisted the U.S. mission.