A federal judge in the United States has ruled unlawful the delay of thousands of visas for Iraqis and Afghans who assisted the US in its war efforts in the two countries.

The Iraqis and Afghans, many of whom served as translators or even cooks for US military members, have applied for visas under the Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) programme, a legal pathway for US allies in foreign conflicts to move to the US.

Some of the applicants in the court case, Afghan and Iraqi Allies v. Pompeo, have been waiting for years in dangerous conditions while their SIV applications are being processed.

The judge found the “delays experienced by the plaintiffs and class members similarly situated to them were unreasonable and unlawful”, according to a statement by the International Refugee Assistance Project (IRAP), a New York-based group that offers direct legal assistance to refugees and displaced persons and represented the Iraqis and Afghans along with Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer US LLP.

The court ordered the government to submit a plan for deciding on the delayed applications quickly. The plan is due within thirty days after a final ruling on class certification for the plaintiffs is decided by the court.

“This ruling could finally bring relief to these men and women and their families who have been waiting in fear for far too long” Deepa Alagesan, the supervising attorney at IRAP’s Litigation Department, said in a statement delivered to TRT World.

“They served bravely in support of our missions abroad, and we promised them a pathway to safety in return. This ruling ensures that we keep our promise.”

Long wait

The SIV programme was signed into law in 2008 to “allow local allies in Iraq and Afghanistan, who are threatened by anti-US forces due to their work with the US government, to safely and expeditiously resettle in the US”, IRAP said.

Championed as a heroic gesture at the time, those entitled under the SIV programme have long faced significant delays.

Applicants must remain in their countries of origin while the application process continues, which can place them in danger of reprisal from armed groups and terrorist organisations targeted by US war efforts.

The anonymous Afghans and Iraqis serving as plaintiffs in the case “represent a class of individuals who, despite real and significant personal risk, aided the United States in its time of need and now look to the United States for protection for themselves and their immediate family members”, the court order on the case said.

According to the order, the plaintiffs submitted applications in 2013, 2014, and 2016. “Plaintiffs claim that at the time they filed this action on June 12, 2018, none of their SIV applications had received a final decision”, the court said.

The delay appears to violate rules approved by US lawmakers. Congress mandated in 2013 that SIV applicants “should receive a decision within nine months of submitting their application”, IRAP said in their statement.

“These applicants can reasonably expect to spend more than four years waiting in the SIV application process before they are ever issued a visa”, the group continued.

Contradictions

SIV applicants have faced serious delays across the administrations of both former President Barack Obama and President Donald Trump.

However, the scope of the problem came into focus in June, when the case against the Justice Department previously produced government data which showed virtually all SIV applicants have been waiting longer than nine months.

The four-year waiting period to receive a decision or a visa decried by IRAP was discovered by the data.

This data contradicted quarterly reports on the SIV programme delivered to Congress to ensure the government is complying with the congressional mandate of a nine-month adjudication period. 

Shannon Leitner, an associate at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer US LLP, one of the firms representing the SIV plaintiffs, said in a statement delivered to TRT she hopes “that this ruling will force Defendants to comply with their Congressional mandate.

 “The delays that people applying for SIVs have experienced are unacceptable.