The Long Road to a New Home: The Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) Program and Afghan & Iraqi Military Interpreters

On November 4, 2021, Hinshaw, as part of Hinshaw University, was pleased to present its annual CLE Veteran's Day special. This year's program featured Steve Miska, who previously served in the White House as Director for Iraq on the National Security Council.

Steve served as an officer in the U.S. Army for over 25 years until his retirement in 2015. During his second of three combat tours in Iraq, Steve led a team that established an underground railroad from Baghdad to Amman to the United States for dozens of foreign military interpreters who supported U.S. troops in country and wrote a book about the experience, Baghdad Underground Railroad. Former CIA Director, General David Petraeus, stressed that the book “should be on every American’s reading list.”

Since then, he has written extensively about the need to protect soft networks and has acted as an advisor to several non-profits that aim to support and protect foreign military interpreters, including No One Left Behind and the International Refugee Assistance Project. He is currently involved in extensive efforts to assist Afghan interpreters in light of the recent U.S. withdrawal.

He is the Founder & CEO of Servant Leader Citizen (SLC) Consulting, which exists to educate others about national security and counterterrorism issues in an increasingly global environment, executive director of the non-profit First Amendment Voice, a nonpartisan effort to reinvigorate civic awareness about First Amendment issues, and a member of the Pacific Council on International Policy. He has been interviewed extensively in broadcast and print media on the current state of affairs in Afghanistan and his experiences in Iraq. He has taught at West Point and lectures extensively on the subject.

A recording of the program is available below and on Hinshaw's YouTube channel.