美国国家公共电台 NPR--A bipartisan bill in Congress to grant legal status to Afghan refugees is blocked

A bipartisan bill in Congress to grant legal status to Afghan refugees is blocked

Transcript¹

Tens of thousands of Afghans came to the U.S. after the 2021 Taliban takeover, but they don't have legal status. A bipartisan bill in Congress to grant that status has been blocked.

LEILA FADEL, HOST:

American forces brought tens of thousands of Afghans to the U.S. after the Taliban takeover in 2021. But the majority still don't have legal status here. A bipartisan bill in Congress to fix that was blocked by immigration hard-liners this week. We're joined now by NPR's Quil Lawrence, who has been following this story. Good morning, Quil.

QUIL LAWRENCE, BYLINE²: Hey. Good morning, Leila.

FADEL: So I understand you spoke³ with one prominent Afghanistan war veteran about this - Jack⁴ McCain, son of the late Senator John McCain.

LAWRENCE: Right. Yeah. And McCain is a - he's a fairly private person, but he's been out in the public on this issue. He's a Navy pilot. He went to Afghanistan in 2018 on a mission to train Afghan pilots to fly American-made Black Hawk⁵ helicopters. And while he was there, he kept a very low profile for his own safety and the safety of everyone around him as a well-known figure. So in August of that year, though, he went home for five days for his father, John - Senator John McCain's funeral. And then the secret was out. And McCain, Jack McCain, the younger McCain says that the danger was very clear.

JACK MCCAIN: If one of them had wanted to make a high-profile target out of me, they could have - would have been extremely easy. I believe that they protected me or at least kept the secret. I can't overstate how important that is to me.

LAWRENCE: You know, so he got very close to these Afghan Black Hawk pilots in the next eight months left on his deployment⁶, trained up dozens of them to fly the chopper. And he said he saw those pilots rescue Afghan and American troops under fire in ways that were worthy⁷ of the highest combat medals.

FADEL: Worthy of the highest combat medals. So what's happened to these pilots just three years later when the Taliban took over Afghanistan?

LAWRENCE: Well, they kept flying missions, some of them, even after Kabul fell, trying to help the resistance. But it was seen as very important to bring them in. They and their helicopters, then, were very high-value targets to the Taliban. And so McCain and others were part of this massive digital Dunkirk trying to get everybody out. They - about 120,000 people were airlifted out of Kabul during those two weeks in August of 2021.

FADEL: Yeah. And many of them were flown to bases in the U.S. But almost a year and a half later, their status isn't clear, right?

LAWRENCE: Right. I mean, many - most of them are here on an emergency immigration status that will probably run out sometime next year.

FADEL: OK.

LAWRENCE: There was a bill in Congress this week called the Afghan Adjustment Act to help them normalize their immigration status. But - and it had bipartisan support. It had a growing list of former generals and ambassadors supporting it and a yearlong campaign by Afghanistan veterans. But it was blocked by Republican Senator Chuck Grassley because of concerns about security vetting⁸ of these Afghans. And so now they're in limbo⁹. I spoke with one of the pilots that Jack McCain says helped keep him safe in Afghanistan. The pilot's name is Colonel Salim Faqiri. He put it this way.

SALIM FAQIRI: All the peoples - they come during the evacuations, and they don't know what will happen to them. The U.S. government will return them back to the - for the Taliban. But everybody's waiting for the Congress to pass the Afghan Adjustment.

LAWRENCE: Faqiri himself is in Phoenix¹⁰ right now. He's with his wife and three daughters. He has another reason to want the act to pass - because it would actually help him get a green card so that he and all these other pilots can fly helicopters again, which is what the U.S. trained them to do.

FADEL: So he said everybody's waiting for Congress. Does the bill have a chance in the next Congress?

LAWRENCE: It probably will have a harder time getting through the Republican-controlled House, but it's not a strictly¹¹ party-line vote. And many Republicans, especially Republicans who served at war, did support this bill.

FADEL: NPR's Quil Lawrence, thanks so much.

LAWRENCE: Thanks, Leila.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

1 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

2 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

3 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

4 jack   

n.插座，千斤顶，男人；v.抬起，提醒，扛举；n.（Jake）杰克

参考例句：

• I am looking for the headphone jack.我正在找寻头戴式耳机插孔。
• He lifted the car with a jack to change the flat tyre.他用千斤顶把车顶起来换下瘪轮胎。

5 hawk   

n.鹰，骗子；鹰派成员

参考例句：

• The hawk swooped down on the rabbit and killed it.鹰猛地朝兔子扑下来,并把它杀死。
• The hawk snatched the chicken and flew away.老鹰叼了小鸡就飞走了。

6 deployment   

n. 部署,展开

参考例句：

• He has inquired out the deployment of the enemy troops. 他已查出敌军的兵力部署情况。
• Quality function deployment (QFD) is a widely used customer-driven quality, design and manufacturing management tool. 质量功能展开(quality function deployment,QFD)是一个广泛应用的顾客需求驱动的设计、制造和质量管理工具。

7 worthy   

adj.(of)值得的，配得上的；有价值的

参考例句：

• I did not esteem him to be worthy of trust.我认为他不值得信赖。
• There occurred nothing that was worthy to be mentioned.没有值得一提的事发生。

8 vetting   

n.数据检查[核对，核实]v.审查（某人过去的记录、资格等）( vet的现在分词 )；调查；检查；诊疗

参考例句：

• Scripts had to be submitted to Ministry of Information officials for vetting. 必须把脚本提交给信息部官员审查。 来自互联网
• Their purpose in clicking deeper into a site is one of vetting. 他们深入点击网站的目的是一种诊疗。 来自互联网

9 limbo   

n.地狱的边缘；监狱

参考例句：

• His life seemed stuck in limbo and he could not go forward and he could not go back.他的生活好像陷入了不知所措的境地，进退两难。
• I didn't know whether my family was alive or dead.I felt as if I was in limbo.我不知道家人是生是死，感觉自己茫然无措。

10 phoenix   

n.凤凰，长生(不死)鸟；引申为重生

参考例句：

• The airline rose like a phoenix from the ashes.这家航空公司又起死回生了。
• The phoenix worship of China is fetish worship not totem adoration.中国凤崇拜是灵物崇拜而非图腾崇拜。

11 strictly   

adv.严厉地，严格地；严密地

参考例句：

• His doctor is dieting him strictly.他的医生严格规定他的饮食。
• The guests were seated strictly in order of precedence.客人严格按照地位高低就座。