What the U.S. must do is clear: We need to evacuate our interpreters, as well as other key Afghan partners and family members threatened by the Taliban. And if we can’t do that by our September 11 withdrawal deadline, then our withdrawal will not be complete. Ali spent three years trying to get his U.S. visa. He had to gather letters of recommendation from past supervisors, submit to interviews, and undergo a medical evaluation. Currently, the State Department has more than 18,000 unprocessed applications for such visas, far too many to complete in the next three months. “There is clearly no way to get this done under SIV,” Representative Seth Moulton told me. He is a co-chair of a working group comprising 21 members of Congress, many of whom are veterans. On June 4, the group delivered a letter to the Biden administration calling for an evacuation plan. The U.S. has managed such evacuations before. As the Vietnam War was ending, the U.S. evacuated 111,000 Vietnamese to Guam in Operation New Life. America also evacuated Iraqi Kurds to Guam in the 1990s. Once the evacuees were there, the State Department vetted their applications for asylum in the U.S. The Afghans deserve a similar process. This would require extensive airlifts out of Afghanistan as well as temporary housing on the military base at Guam. Michael San Nicolas, the current delegate from Guam, has committed to such an effort, despite concerns among his constituents about an influx of refugees fueling the spread of COVID-19. He is among the signatories of the White House letter.