Good morning. Welcome to Axios today. It's Thursday, August 5th. I'm Nyla Budu. Here's

what you need to know today. The Mexican government sues U.S. gunmakers. Plus, a new mandate

for vaccine passports in New York City. But first, today's one big thing. An Afghan

translators struggle to come to America. The Biden administration is close to meeting

its accelerated deadline for troop withdrawal from Afghanistan. But it's leaving behind thousands

of translators and interpreters who are waiting for special immigrant visas designed for

people who worked with U.S. troops. On Monday, the State Department said it was expanding

eligibility for refugee status for at-risk Afghans. The change came as more than 200 Afghans

who worked with U.S. troops in some capacity arrived in Virginia. But there are thousands

still waiting. Najib is one of those translators in Limbo. He worked with U.S. Special Forces

in Afghanistan for more than a decade. And he's been waiting since 2017 for a chance for

him and his family to come to the U.S. For their safety, we're just using Najib's first

name. He spoke to me yesterday via Skype from Afghanistan. And I asked him what he thought

when he first heard the U.S. was going to be definitely withdrawing from the region.

I thought thinking about my family, about me and my family safety. The city is going down

and situation getting worse and worse. The Taliban, they are going after each of the

person who worked with the U.S. warmen and they're going after them and they killed

them. So that's my worry about my family.

Najib started the visa application process for him and his family a decade ago in 2011.

I got approved in 2017 and since then I've been waiting for them. I did my interview

in 2019. I submit my passport in 2019 in August and this last June, they returned my

passport and they didn't do anything.

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