On Monday, October 28, Jeromy Pittmann, a U.S. Navy Reserve commander who was convicted by a federal jury in July in relation to a bribery scheme involving the Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) program for Afghans, was sentenced to 30 months in prison.
Pittmann was convicted on conspiracy, bribery, falsifying documents and money laundering charges on July 12 by a federal jury in New Hampshire.
According to federal prosecutors, Pittmann accepted bribes from Afghan nationals in exchange for writing and submitting more than 20 letters of recommendation attesting that he personally knew and had supervised the Afghan visa applicants when they worked as translators for the U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan. In the letters, the Department of Justice said, he claimed that the applicants lives were in danger and that “based on his personal knowledge of the applicants, he believed they did not pose any threat to the national security of the United States.”
“In reality,” the Department of Justice stated in a press release, “Pittmann did not know the applicants and had no basis for recommending them for SIVs.”
Pittmann, at the time of his arrest, was an officer in the U.S. Navy Reserves with around 20 years of service, including four deployments to Afghanistan and one to Iraq, according to Military.com. He joined the Navy in 2003.
In a press release announcing the sentence, Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Nicole M. Argentieri stressed the importance of the SIV program. “By protecting Afghan nationals who risk their personal safety to help the U.S. government, the SIV program is essential for the security of U.S. military and diplomatic personnel in Afghanistan,” Argentieri said. “Jeromy Pittmann, however, used his position of authority over the program to benefit foreign nationals who paid him bribes, falsely asserting that they had served the United States. Today’s sentence demonstrates that the Justice Department has zero tolerance for those who place their self-interest ahead of our national security.”
According to the indictment, from “at least” February 2018 through March 2021, Pittmann accepted bribes to write false recommendation letters. In one exchange, Pittmann’s co-conspirator confirms that for three letters, Pittmann would be paid $1,500.
The Special Immigrant Visa Saga
Starting in 2006, following provisions added by Congress to the Fiscal Year 2006 National Defense Authorization Act, certain Iraqi and Afghan citizens who had worked directly with U.S. forces as translators, as well as their spouses and children, became eligible to be classified as special immigrants. The Afghan Allies Protection Act of 2009 expanded the program, and subsequent legislation expanded the supply of available visas, from 1,500 annually from 2009 through 2012, up to a reported 38,000 by 2024. The annual caps are set by legislation, and therefore subject to the labyrinthine political calculus and machinations of Congress.
While the number of SIVs increased over the years, so did the burdens on Afghans to prove themselves eligible. The necessary documentation is difficult to provide for some Afghans, given the conditions in the country – conditions which only worsened for Afghans who cooperated with the U.S. and NATO after the Taliban’s return to power in August 2021. The very first step in the lengthy SIV process includes the submission of a letter of recommendation from a direct supervisor, intended to demonstrate the individual’s qualification for the visa.
“The process is challenging for a reason – security is, and should be, a priority,” Shawn VanDiver, president and board chairman of #AfghanEvac, told The Diplomat. “But the current system’s complexities and delays are inflicting unnecessary hardship on people we’ve pledged to protect. We’re talking about families who live in constant fear while wading through a swamp of red tape that can stretch years.”
#AfghanEvac administers a coalition of organizations “focused on deconflicting communications, effort, and systemic issues across the full enterprise of efforts focused on helping Afghans evacuate and resettle safely, swiftly, and within the bounds of the law.”
Staffing issues, interagency delays, documentation requirements and the lack of a centralized database served to slow down processing up through 2021, while the rapid collapse of the Afghan Republic following the U.S. withdrawal in August 2021 supercharged demand.
“Streamlining steps like background checks, bolstering inter-agency coordination, and digitizing records could expedite processing without compromising security,” VanDiver says.
In March 2024, the U.S. State Department warned that the program would hit its annual cap early, with spokesperson Matthew Miller stating in a briefing that “we need statutory approval to raise the cap.”
Miller said at the time that 117,000 SIVs had been granted since the passage of the Afghan Allies Protection Act in 2009, “and more than 30 percent of that number came in just the past 28 months.”
But, he added, “we are at this point where because we made these investments in our ability to more quickly process these visas, that we have been issuing them at this record number – somewhere around now over 1,000 a month – and we are nearing the annual cap.”
A $1.2 trillion spending bill approved in late March included a provision to approve an additional 12,000 SIVs for Afghans. But it’s not enough, advocates say. VanDiver says 50,000 additional SIVs are necessary to meet demand. “To fulfill our obligation to those who stood with us, Congress must act now,” he said
Responsibility and Risk
The SIV program was recently back in headlines due to what appears to have been an error in the initial Department of Justice press release on October 8 announcing charges against an Afghan national, Nasir Ahmad Tawhedi, for allegedly plotting a terrorist attack to coincide with Election Day. Tawhedi reportedly entered the U.S. in September 2021. The initial press release and the unsealed criminal complaint referred to him as having entered the U.S. on an SIV, a characterization which the State Department contested.
In an October 21 letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland and FBI Director Christopher Wray, Senator Chuck Grassley, a Republican from Iowa, outlined some of the conflicting information regarding Tawhedi, including citing an unclassified record which noted his visa class as “Operation Allies Refuge (Port of Entry Parole) – (OAR)) (OAR),” despite the Department of Justice’s criminal complaint citing Tawhedi as an SIV applicant.
Operation Allies Refuge, which took place between mid-July and the end of August 2021, airlifted at-risk Afghan civilians out of Kabul, primarily interpreters, embassy staff, and prospective SIV applications. Grassley criticized the Biden administration for what he termed a “failure to properly vet Afghan evacuees.”
The criminal complaint suggests that Tawhedi’s radicalization occurred after his arrival in the United States.
In response to The Diplomat’s questions regarding the Pittmann case, VanDiver of #AfghanEvac argued that instead if clearing obstacles, “Congress has too often created them.”
“Lawmakers like Senator Chuck Grassley, who frequently invoke faith in public life, have actively resisted reforms that would ease this process for vulnerable Afghans,” he said. “It’s a sad irony that someone who wraps himself in his faith is blocking pathways to safety for those fleeing violence – acting counter to the very principles of compassion and service he claims to uphold. This resistance has real human consequences, delaying or denying refuge to people in urgent need and forcing them into prolonged, dangerous limbo.”
The Pittmann case illustrates the lengths to which individuals will go to circumvent that prolonged, dangerous limbo, and the ways in which the unscrupulous can exploit such desperation.
Inspector General John F. Sopko of the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, whose agents investigated Pittmann along with the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, the Defense Criminal Investigative Service, and the Diplomatic Security Service, said following the sentencing that the case “shows how someone betrayed his sacred oath of office to commit crimes for personal gain, with no regard for how his actions could threaten U.S. homeland security and harm Afghans, who risked their lives to help the United States.”
Sopko added that it “also shows how a U.S. Government investigation – from initial tip to prosecution to conviction – can hold individuals accountable for their crimes.”
“The Pittmann case is a regrettable chapter,” VanDiver told The Diplomat. “It’s painful to see the betrayal of a system built to save lives by someone entrusted to serve it. While instances of fraud like these are rare, they erode public trust and provide ammunition to those who wish to paint all Afghans in a negative light. It’s important to underscore that fraud is the exception, not the rule. The vast majority of those seeking SIVs are individuals of integrity who only want to protect their families. We cannot let the actions of a few undermine the legitimacy of an entire program or fuel anti-immigrant narratives.”