[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 89 (Monday, June 2, 2008)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4890-S4891]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  COMMENDING CHECKPOINT ONE FOUNDATION

  Mr. SMITH. Mr. President, today I wish to commend the work of the 
Checkpoint One Foundation, a nonprofit organization based in Oregon. 
Checkpoint One assists Iraqis who have served as translators with the 
U.S. military. Under recent legislation authored by myself and my 
distinguished colleague Senator Kennedy, many of these Iraqis are 
seeking refuge in the United States from persecution in Iraq.
  Checkpoint One was founded by Jason Faler, one of many Oregonians 
drawn to public and humanitarian service. Jason served as a military 
intelligence officer with the Oregon Army National Guard in Iraq, where 
he worked with many brave Iraqis who risked their lives assisting U.S. 
troops. These Iraqis are far more than just people who translate Arabic 
to English; they are cultural advisers and loyal friends who help our 
soldiers survive in every dangerous and unfamiliar corner of Iraq. They 
stand shoulder to shoulder with Americans, facing the same bullets and 
bombs, but often without the same protections. In the face of death 
threats and attacks on them and their families, these Iraqis provide 
invaluable service to coalition forces. We are morally obligated to 
come to their aid, as they have come to ours.
  In response to this obligation, Senator Kennedy and I introduced The 
Refugee Crisis in Iraq Act last year to help bring translators and 
other Iraqis in peril to the United States. The act passed and was 
signed into law in January 2008. Unfortunately, more than 4 months 
later, key provisions of the law have not been implemented. The State 
Department and Department of Homeland Security have still not described 
how they plan to meet their new obligations. In-country processing is 
not available for Iraqi translators and others who are persecuted but 
unable to get out of Iraq. Translators remain waitlisted, in spite of 
the fact that 5,000 new special immigrant visas are supposed to be 
available to them. Instead, Iraqi translators remain in danger in the 
red zone, their path to safety still blocked by bureaucratic red tape.
  Many of the interpreters who apply for these visas are living on 
borrowed time, actively hunted by an insurgency which has brutally 
murdered their friends and colleagues. The three families that Jason 
began helping with the application process in the fall of 2006 arrived 
in September 2007, January 2008, and March 2008, respectively. One 
family was kept waiting in Jordan for

[[Page S4891]]

over 5 months, and never given a sufficient explanation of the delay in 
their case.
  This is an unacceptable way for the United States to treat Iraqis who 
have loyally served with our soldiers at great personal risk. Groups 
like the Checkpoint One Foundation are invaluable in helping the United 
States repay our debt to those Iraqis translators to whom we owe so 
much. Jason Faler, the Checkpoint One Foundation, and similar 
organizations should be highly commended.

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