Congressman Mike Garcia, R-Santa Clarita, joined KHTS for a special interview Wednesday to discuss issues related to the ongoing Afganistanian evacuation efforts, illegal immigration, and veterans issues.

Since the decision for the United States to pull out of Afghanistan earlier this year, Garcia’s office has assisted in the evacuation and visa processes for more than 400 Americans, as well as potentially thousands of special immigrant visa candidates, which includes translators and other Afghan people who worked alongside the U.S. government over the last 20 years.

Garcia contrasted the current ambivalence in terms of continued media coverage of the ongoing evacuation efforts in Afghanistan to the 2010 Chilean mining incident, wherein 33 men were trapped underground for over three months in a harrowing tale that “enthralled the world.”

“We bent over backward, spent a lot of money and a lot of effort and a lot of emotion and passion hoping that these gentlemen got out of the coal mine,” Garcia said. “And frankly we’re not even showing that level of resolve  or interest in the fact that  we still have hundreds of Americans —  still very much in harm’s way — stranded in Afghanistan.”

Over the past several months Garcia’s office has assisted 108 people out of Afghanistan and into the United States

Besides the efforts to assist in legal immigration, Garcia also discussed current issues relating to illegal immigration into the United States, specifically via the nation’s southern border.

Garcia joined 146 fellow lawmakers in introducing the Illegal Immigrant Payoff Prohibition Act, which would prevent the U.S. Attorney General from making settlement payments to individuals and families who entered the United States illegally.

“First of all that amount of money is absurd,” Garcia said. “That’s actually more money that we give illegal immigrants than we give family members of surviving veterans, veterans who are killed in combat receive less money  than what this president is proposing.”

Garcia noted that the practice of separating families at the border is not atypical, but usually occurs in situations where an alleged familial relationship between a minor and accompanying adult is in question, or the adult is discovered to break another law, such as carrying a weapon or drugs, while entering the country illegally.

“It’s similar to getting a DUI in the United States,” Garcia said. “If you’re pulled over for a DUI, clearly intoxicated and you’ve got an infant in your backseat, they’re gonna separate the child from the parent in that case and go figure out how to take care of that child and who to give custody of that child while the parent is being processed.”

See Related: Drunk Canyon Country Mother Arrested After Driving With 2-Year-Old In Car

In the past, Garcia has pointed out that failure to secure the U.S.-Mexico border has negative implications for Americans across the country, including in California’s 25th District where transnational illegal marijuana operations have blossomed.

In light of Veterans Day, Garcia also explained his recent sponsorship of a peer-to-peer veteran support program, that would provide training and resources for veterans and active service members to better equip them in providing assistance to other current and former service members.

“Right now the biggest problem is that a lot of these veterans don’t even want to talk, they’re just silent,” Garcia said. “We call it ‘sui-silence’ because they literally go to their graves without ever talking to someone for help in many cases.”

For more information on Mike Garcia and California’s 25th Congressional District,, click here.

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