the siv program which is one of the routes that many people have taken over the last several weeks through relocation flights is plagued with backlogs. there are somewhere around 20,000 people who are at some stage in the process in the siv program, and the newly announced program just last week requires afghans to get out of afghanistan and get to the third country, which as you can imagine right now is impossible, so, yes, these programs need to be scaled up, and fixed, but there also needs to be solutions in the region. the united states should be negotiating agreements with the surrounding nation, and we should also be leaning on other wealthy nations to drive aid to the country. well, look, as you know, the politics of migration has taken an ugly turn in some parts of the country including in some, in some parts of this country,
you know, the families here that have already been resettled, the afghan families that have already been resettled through the siv program are definitely very worried and concerned about their families back in afghanistan. they re also, i think, a little bit confused, as am i, to be honest, about why there wasn t a more orderly process in place. you know, the u.s. government has been working with these folks for decades, many of them. so they re known to the u.s. military. the u.s. military has a lot of biographical data about those folks because they had to get clearance to work with the military so it seems that that would help to provide more quickly departure. but we re helpful that that will still happen. jane, sources tell politico that the white house let political fear of gop attacks make them act too cautiously on relocating afghans to the u.s.
our own time line was september 11th. i don t frankly understand that as a timeline when that sort of is not what you normally try to do when you re in a situation with a known enemy. so there are lots and lots of questions that i think we should all be asking the answers for and hold ourselves accountable for what the answers to those questions are. and you were among those warning them and trying to speed up the siv program that was legislation last month. there was, and again, i question why was it that the congress was asking the dod? why was it that congress was asking the white house what do you need to make sure that we can get all of these people out who have been so helpful to us? tens of thousands of people in need of evacuation and protection. why it s the congress job to answer to those kinds of questions and not necessarily to be asking those kinds of questions and it s, i think,
staff. americans, allies, and other partners from kabul to their onward destinations. secretary established the crisis action group in early july the, and we ve been working very chosely with the department of state as a lead agency since that time. partnered with the department of homeland security, our initial focus was to relocate the sivs, finalize their visas and resettle them into the united states with the help of our nongovernmental organizations. to date nearly 2,000 afghans have passed through this process, joining more than 70,000 that have participated in the siv program since 2005. our military has done an outstanding job supporting this effort. u.s. north com and u.s. army north operating predominantly from fort lee, virginia, have provided housing, food, medical treatment, medical screening, and other services to these afghans. our military embrace the opportunity to recognize their contributions to combined
the department of defense enters into this in support of the state department. and the state department has, for many years, as you know, executed the siv program. the addition of the u.s. military support to that program was new, and it was generated by guidance to try accelerate and help the process due to the timed delays inherent within getting them through. so we were asked by the state department to provide support to their operation. that s not a suggestion that that is when sivs became a priority for the government. that has been for many years. it was just the contributions that the defense department could make using our installations in the united states as an example where we could do this in a very orderly setting free of distractions without them coming individually or scattering to multiple locations. we could centralize the resources and contribute our