More than 200,000 Afghans previously eligible to apply for asylum in the United States now find themselves without options or answers from the U.S. government, community advocates said.
On President Trump's first day back in office in January, he ordered a halt to all refugee travel. That included Afghans and their families screened and approved by the State Department to relocate to the United States.
"They're just being abandoned," said Jessica Bradley Rushing, who worked as a deputy director in the Department's office of the Coordinator for Afghan Relocation Efforts, or CARE.
When the U.S. fought a 20 year war in Afghanistan, thousands of those Afghans fought alongside them. They served as interpreters, engineers, and in other roles - and many now face the threat of retribution from the Taliban.
The U.S. promised to help those Afghans come to America, but many are now caught up in President Trump's immigration crackdown. Thousands are still housed at U.S.-run sites in third-party countries, such as one in Doha, Qatar.
"I know people, literally personally, whose cases were right at the finish line on Jan. 20," Bradley Rushing said. "And now their families are stuck in Afghanistan, and they don't know when or if they'll ever be reunited."
The January suspension of refugee resettlement was followed by a travel and VISA ban that included Afghanistan and the end of Temporary Protected Status for Afghans. In July, the State Department closed the CARE office. And the White House plans to end Operation Enduring Welcome - the Biden Administration's Afghan resettlement initiative - Sept. 30.
Mohammad Rahimi worked as an attorney with the U.S. Army in Afghanistan and later served in the Afghan government. He immigrated to the U.S. more than a decade ago and is now a U.S. citizen. Living in El Cajon, California, he serves as executive director of nonprofit Afghan Family Services.
He said many of the more than 100,000 Afghans who made it to the U.S. since August 2021 came alone, hoping to bring their spouses, siblings, parents or children later.
"Unfortunately, with this travel ban ... this president killed that hope," Rahimi said. "So now, the majority of these Afghans who came to the United States but left part of their families in Afghanistan — they are hopeless, they are voiceless, and they're unsupported."
A State Department spokesperson said the functions of the CARE office were assigned to another office, part of a reorganization to make the department "more efficient and more focused on an America First foreign policy."
A senior Trump Administration official said Special Immigrant Visas for Afghans are still being processed with hundreds of decisions per week.
"President Trump has a humanitarian heart, and the Trump Administration remains committed to protecting those who supported our mission, while ensuring rigorous security standards," the official said in an email. "These measures make certain that refuge is provided only to those credibly at risk while maintaining broader U.S. national security priorities."
Shawn VanDiver is president and co-founder of #AfghanEvac, a nonprofit that helps Afghans with relocation. During the Biden Administration, he worked with the State Department to craft Operation Enduring Welcome.
"Enduring Welcome is, by miles and miles, the safest, most secure legal immigration program in our country's history," VanDiver said. "We wanted to build this thing to stand the test of time and stand any sort of security scrutiny. And we did."
VanDiver said the current administration sees Afghanistan as a "political problem."
"They want to wipe their hands of it," VanDiver said in an interview.
With roughly a quarter-million Afghans somewhere in the relocation pipeline, VanDiver said his organization will continue to press Congress to pass legislation to restart relocation.
Meanwhile, Rahimi said arrests of Afghan refugees at routine immigration appointments — one at immigration court in San Diego — have Afghans across the country afraid and feeling targeted.
"They are asking me ... how can they go to their appointments, finish the appointment and leave the courthouse safely without being detained?" Rahimi said. "We have no answer."
In San Diego this summer, more than a dozen U.S. military veterans showed began a volunteer effort, showing up in court to support an Afghan at his immigration hearings.
Marine Corps veteran Jonathan Liu served with Afghans as a fire support officer during the war. He said the courthouse effort was a continuation of that service.
"These were people who fought for us — they put their lives on the line," he said. "We shouldn't be turning our backs on them."
Several major veterans groups are supporting bi-partisan legislation in Congress that would provide a path to permanent residency for many Afghans already in the U.S. It also would expand and extend the opportunities for more Afghans to come here.
The Enduring Welcome Act builds upon several policy goals previously brought before the House under the Afghan Adjustment Act. Together, the bills would provide a legal pathway for former U.S. allies in Afghanistan to relocate to the U.S. and offer those already in the country a legal path toward residency.
"It's reprehensible that we're failing our Afghan allies now," said California Democrat Rep. Scott Peters, one of the bill's co-sponsors. "Even Afghans who made it to the United States are at risk of losing the stability and security that they have found here."
This story was produced by the American Homefront Project, a public media collaboration that reports on American military life and veterans.
