DHS engineered the Operation Allies Welcome Program to facilitate the resettlement of thousands of vulnerable Afghan Refugees into the United States. DHS required contractor support to assist with Phase 2 of Operation Allies Welcome, which included initial coordination efforts for guests upon arrival in the US at the pre-designated US Government-operated facility, the Safe Haven (Leesburg National Conference Center), prior to being connected with resettlement organizations for placement into communities.
On a Prime contract, AMSG provided multiple services, including general administrative support, planning capabilities, resource specialists, data analysis, and communications support. We provided a core management team of 7 members in Camp Springs, MD to support government decision-making, providing deliverables to command staff such as Incident Action Plan (IAP), Situational Unit Update, Daily Dashboard, Senior Leadership Brief (SLB), Daily Agenda, Force Laydown, and the Snapshot Personnel Tracker. AMSG also provided 95 staff members at the Safe Haven in Leesburg, VA, to execute day-to-day support 7 days a week. During the project in 2021, nearly 43,000 Afghans were welcomed to 46 states across America. As of September 2022, about 86,000 Afghan nationals were resettled within the United States.
References:
6 Ways to Welcome Our Afghan Allies | The White House
US ending Operation Allies Welcome, shift to new Afghan refugee help (militarytimes.com)
“One of the things I miss about the military is the concept of service to my community. A few months ago, an opportunity presented itself to support DHS with the Afghan refugee project called Operation Allies Welcome. As we are coming up on the 1-year anniversary of the US withdrawal from Afghanistan, I have been struggling with how to articulate both the heartbreak and the sense of pride that I have gotten from working on such a rewarding project. These refugees have been through so much, but they come to the US with such hope.”
