Lawmakers and veterans supporting Afghans who worked for the U.S. during the country's longest war want aid to be restored to bring these individuals and their families to the U.S., especially with a ban potentially in the works on travel to America from certain countries.
New Hampshire Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee's ranking Democrat, wrote to Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Tuesday urging him to accelerate the immigration process for Afghan Special Immigrant Visa holders.
More than 5,700 SIV holders and applicants are currently in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Qatar and Albania, where they have been in limbo while the Trump administration attempts to cut funding for foreign aid programs and cracks down on immigration.
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According to Shaheen, the Afghan refugees lack access to routine medical care, necessities and services as a result of the funding freeze instituted in January. President Donald Trump and senior adviser and billionaire Elon Musk -- through his so-called Department of Government Efficiency -- have set about dismantling agencies, firing tens of thousands of federal workers, and dramatically slashing foreign aid around the world since the president's inauguration on Jan. 20.
"The United States government brought them [the visa program] as part of our promise to get them to safety. But they are now stranded," Shaheen wrote. "I respectfully urge you to continue the long-standing support for these individuals and take the necessary steps to lift the restrictions preventing Afghan SIV applicants and holders from traveling to the United States."
The SIV program was created by Congress in 2009 to help relocate Afghan nationals who put their lives at risk by working as interpreters, intelligence gatherers and administrative personnel with U.S. forces during the 20-year war in Afghanistan.
The program became even more essential following the American withdrawal when the Taliban resumed control of the country.
Lawmakers from both sides of the aisle, including Rubio, pushed for the program's expansion in the days, weeks and months after the rapid, chaotic fall of the Afghan government in 2021.
Since 2014, nearly 37,000 program visas have been issued and more than 53,000 completed applications are pending, according to the State Department's October 2024 quarterly report.
During his first days in office, President Donald Trump issued executive orders that suspended refugee admissions and froze foreign aid. The orders did not halt the SIV program, but they interrupted payments for travel, resulting in canceled flights and no funds for resettlement.
Shawn VanDiver, a Navy veteran and founder of #AfghanEvac, a coalition that helps Afghan allies immigrate to the U.S., said that, while a few have been able to come to the U.S. as a result of loans or private donations, most who have applied for the program have no way to pay for their own travel.
"This isn't sustainable," VanDiver said.
Complicating the effort is a potential ban on travel from certain countries, possibly including Afghanistan. Trump signed an executive order Jan. 20 that tasked his cabinet with identifying countries with "vetting and screening information so deficient as to warrant a partial or full suspension on the admissions of nationals."
A report is expected to the president this week, but a draft list of recommendations that is circulating within the federal government and has been viewed by The New York Times and Reuters, named 11 countries, including Afghanistan, from which travel would be restricted.
The reports have alarmed the SIV community, VanDiver said.
"We've heard there's a carveout [for Afghan allies], but we don't know," he said. "We need to make sure that our wartime allies are exempted. We owe it to these folks."
State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce, when asked about the list of countries during a press conference Monday, said it was not one "that exists here that is being acted on."
"What has been touted as something that is an item through the State Department just simply isn't the case," Bruce said. "When it comes to the nature of Afghanistan and those who have helped us, the arrangements we have made already in the past, getting as many people from that conflict here, certainly those who have assisted us and worked with us, that's been a policy and a dynamic that we've worked on from certainly even the previous administration, working to try to get that happening."
VanDiver said Bruce's response has led the SIV holders he is working with to believe that they will be fine, but he said the administration's actions -- halting flights and funding -- are troublesome.
"The State Department and the White House owe it to our wartime allies, to our veterans and other Americans supporting them to speak in plain language on this," VanDiver said in a statement on X.
Another concern that Afghan SIV holders and applicants face -- especially many who are in Pakistan -- is deportation from their current location. SIV holders are supposed to have a reprieve until September, according to a congressional aide who spoke on the condition of anonymity, but Pakistan plans to start deportations of Afghan refugees this month.
Shaheen urged the administration to lift restrictions on travel quickly for approved holders.
"They risked their lives and died for us and, in return, we promised to protect them and their families. We must stand by this promise," Shaheen wrote.
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