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WASHINGTON — Earlier than her nation and her life had been out of the blue and essentially modified in 2021, Mahnaz Akbari was the trailblazing commander of the Afghan Nationwide Military’s Feminine Tactical Platoon, an all-female squad that accompanied elite U.S. Particular Operations troops as they carried out daring mountain missions, hunted ISIS combatants and freed captives from Taliban jails.
Ms. Akbari, 37, and her troopers did so at nice private threat. One girl was shot by means of the neck, struggling a fractured cranium. One other was killed shortly earlier than the autumn of Kabul. And after the Taliban took over the nation, many members of the platoon had been compelled to flee to the US.
Now, Ms. Akbari and different members of the Feminine Tactical Platoon are embarking on one other mission: working to persuade Congress that their service in Afghanistan has earned them the precise to remain in America completely.
“Our missions had been for large targets: a Taliban commander or a Da’ish chief,” Ms. Akbari mentioned, utilizing one other identify for ISIS throughout a current interview at her Silver Spring, Md., condominium.
On Thursday, Ms. Akbari and a gaggle of different girls from the Feminine Tactical Platoon met with lawmakers on Capitol Hill to attempt to revive stalled laws to deal with their and different Afghans’ precarious immigration standing. The troopers are in the US below a two-year humanitarian parole that’s set to run out in August. That might finish the ladies’s work permits, forcing their new employers to terminate their jobs and leaving them in a authorized limbo.
The conferences on Thursday ran the gamut from liberal to conservative lawmakers.
Senator Ted Cruz, a Texas Republican who has backed hard-line immigration insurance policies, left his encounter with the ladies sounding impressed and sympathetic.
“Courageous Afghans risked their lives to maintain American troopers protected, and we now have a duty to them,” Mr. Cruz mentioned after the assembly.
That sentiment was echoed by Consultant Michael Waltz, a Florida Republican who simply endorsed former President Donald J. Trump for re-election however has been a champion of serving to Afghan refugees who aided American troops through the decades-long warfare in Afghanistan.
“You’re all fellow troopers; all of us fought collectively,” Mr. Waltz, a former Inexperienced Beret, informed the ladies at a gathering hosted by Consultant Seth Moulton, a Massachusetts Democrat who served within the Marines. “What’s ingrained in us and in each soldier is you by no means go away a fellow soldier behind — ever. So we’ll preserve combating for many who had been left behind.”
Senator Amy Klobuchar, Democrat of Minnesota, mentioned she was taking the lead on a revision of the Afghan Adjustment Act, which died within the final Congress for lack of Republican help.
That invoice, which might have created a authorized pathway for everlasting residency for Afghans who had risked their lives to assist Individuals through the battle in Afghanistan — as translators, drivers and fixers — stalled out amid Republican issues about vetting. About 82,000 Afghans had been evacuated to the US after the autumn of Kabul. Since then, most have been dwelling in authorized limbo, with no long-term authorization to stay.
The measure, which required extra safety checks, was modeled off legal guidelines enacted after different humanitarian crises, just like the Vietnam Battle. Comparable statutes had been additionally enacted after crises in Cuba, Nicaragua and Iraq.
It additionally would have created a pathway to everlasting authorization for 4 particular teams: the Afghanistan Nationwide Military Particular Operations Command, the Afghan Air Pressure, the Particular Mission Wing of Afghanistan and the Feminine Tactical Groups of Afghanistan.
Ms. Klobuchar is engaged on an replace of the invoice with hopes of gaining sufficient allies on the precise to move the laws. She mentioned she had spoken a number of instances with former President George W. Bush about his help of the hassle.
“Within the Senate we now have rising Republican help,” Ms. Klobuchar mentioned. “They’ll’t be in limbo for this lengthy. These girls are a part of tens of 1000’s of Afghans who stood with our nation.”
Ought to the hassle fall brief, nonetheless, some proponents mentioned Congress might take into account a narrower invoice that may assist simply the handfuls of ladies within the particular forces squad keep in the US.
Throughout a gathering with the ladies, Erin Chapman, senior counsel to Ms. Klobuchar, mentioned the laws already contained adjustments requested by Republican senators final Congress for “extra vetting” of the Afghans to be performed by the Protection Division.
Mary Kolars, an Military captain who led the Cultural Assist Staff in Afghanistan and labored carefully with the Afghan girls, requested Ms. Chapman about security issues for the members of the family of the platoon, most of whom had been left behind in Afghanistan.
“These girls, their households are being focused — their siblings, mother and father,” Ms. Kolars mentioned.
As his assembly with the troopers received underway on Thursday, Consultant Greg Stanton, Democrat of Arizona, was attempting one other tactic. Mr. Stanton had despatched a letter to Alejandro Mayorkas, the secretary of homeland safety, asking him to personally be certain that members of the Feminine Tactical Platoon would have their asylum instances promptly adjudicated by means of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Companies.
Solely three of almost 45 feminine troopers have up to now been granted asylum, Mr. Stanton mentioned, and he raised issues that they had been being handled otherwise due to their gender.
“I’m involved that this group of brave girls is receiving disparate therapy out of your division,” Mr. Stanton wrote to Mr. Mayorkas. “In spite of everything, many male Afghan troopers, together with pilots, have obtained their asylum inside the 180-day time interval.”
The trouble to get the ladies a pathway to everlasting residency is in some methods merely closing a loophole, their allies say. Contractors corresponding to translators and fixers who labored instantly for the U.S. authorities are eligible for Particular Immigrant Visas, whereas troopers who had been paid instantly by the Afghan authorities should not.
The story of how the Feminine Tactical Platoon was created, after which evacuated from the nation, goes again greater than a decade.
About 10 years into the warfare in Afghanistan, the U.S. navy decided it wanted feminine troops to help because it patrolled rural villages within the nation.
It was thought of culturally insensitive for the male troopers to speak to Afghan girls in some elements of the nation, so Ms. Akbari and her troops would lead the conversations. They carried weapons in case they encountered enemy combatants, but additionally chocolate, in case they encountered youngsters.
Whereas they had been primarily serving as cultural ambassadors, the work positioned them in nice hazard. When one platoon member was conducting a search, the girl she was looking pulled out a gun and opened fireplace, wounding her badly. Throughout some firefights between U.S. troops and ISIS, the sky would gentle up with what regarded like fireworks, Ms. Akbari recalled.
“These had been actually harmful missions with high-value targets at stake,” Ms. Kolars mentioned. “Once we speak about why they deserve our assist, it’s very private to me, as a result of Mahnaz may as properly be my sister. They’ve sacrificed for his or her nation and for ours. The bond between our two items is fairly inseparable.”
Many of the girls are Hazara, an ethnic minority that has confronted violent persecution below Taliban rule. Dwelling as a Hazara in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan doubles the danger posed by having feminine members of the family who labored with U.S. troops. Ms. Kolars mentioned most of the platoon members have had kin killed, tortured or threatened by Talibs.
After the autumn of Kabul, the Taliban confiscated the ladies’s paperwork so the group might observe down their households, Ms. Kolars mentioned, however the info remained in Afghan authorities recordsdata as a result of the ladies had been so totally vetted.
A community of principally feminine American troopers rallied to assist the Afghan girls evacuate from the nation rapidly.
Now, members of the feminine platoon discover themselves working at Chick-fil-A, as baristas and in grocery shops.
“In a single night time, they went from being these highly effective, unimaginable troopers with a direct function to out of the blue, within the Taliban’s eyes, you’re barely human,” Ms. Kolars mentioned.
They’re scattered by means of the nation, however many want to as soon as once more enter the sphere of fight.
Ms. Akbari mentioned on Thursday that she was able to do it yet again. If she is granted her inexperienced card, she mentioned, she’s going to be part of the U.S. Military.
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