Dem Rep. Gallego: ‘Probably Close to 10-20,000 SIV Applicants and Recipients’ Still in Afghanistan

On Tuesday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “Andrea Mitchell Reports,” Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) said there are “probably close to 10-20,000 SIV applicants and recipients” that are still in Afghanistan.

Gallego said that while people in Afghanistan need humanitarian aid, “we can’t trust the Taliban government yet, when it comes to these types of funds and this type of money.”

He continued, “And also, the last thing is, we need to hold some leverage, right? We still need to hold some leverage in Afghanistan and aid is one of them. And we still have to make sure that — there’s probably close to 10-20,000 SIV applicants and recipients, our special immigrant visas, our interpreters that we still want to get out of the country. And they need to let them go so that we can start seeing if there’s any measure of goodwill that we can start working together.”

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