This act could drain this country of our very best civilian

"For the past few months, we have been seeing an alarming number of Afghan SIV applicants denied by Embassy Kabul for allegedly 'not facing a threat,' " said Becca Heller, director of the Iraqi Refugee Assistance Project, which represents Iraqi and Afghan clients."These are people being hunted down by Taliban forces because of their work with the United States," she said. "Many of them have been shot at or kidnapped, and others have hard evidence in the form of death letters and death lists from the Taliban."Some worry that the United States is denying the visas to prevent talented, English-speaking interpreters from leaving Afghanistan. Those men and women would be assets to any long-term American presence in the country, some U.S. officials have said.

"This act could drain this country of our very best civilian and military partners: our Afghan employees," then-Ambassador Karl Eikenberry wrote in a February 2010 cable to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton that was obtained a year later by the Associated Press. He warned that the program could "have a significant deleterious impact on staffing and morale, as well as undermining our overall mission in Afghanistan. Local staff are not easily replenished in a society at 28 percent literacy."Interpreters whose visa applications have been denied say they are puzzled by the standards being used."What's a serious ongoing threat for them? Do they need someone to bring in my decapitated head?" said another interpreter, who also spoke on the condition of anonymity for security reasons.

"The Taliban posted a letter on our house saying next time I come inside my house, they will kill my whole family. That's still not good enough?"A federal investigation into visa use by Infosys, the Indian technology outsourcing giant, has brought to light widespread abuses in the industry and prompted investigations into other foreign outsourcing firms, federal officials said Wednesday. In the largest settlement ever in an immigration case, Infosys admitted no visa violations but agreed Wednesday to pay $34 million to resolve claims made by federal prosecutors in Texas.