The Ongoing Betrayal of Our Afghan Allies

Tens of thousands of Afghans are stuck in legal limbo as the Trump administration makes it more difficult for them to arrive in the United States and resettle.

Five years ago this month, when the U.S. military withdrew from Afghanistan and Kabul fell to the Taliban, Sayed Sadat was out of the country earning his master’s degree at a university in Germany. Having worked with the American government as a lawyer in Afghanistan, Sadat believed it would be relatively easy for himself and his wife to apply for asylum in the United States.

Despite beginning his application in 2021, he did not arrive in the U.S. until 2024. Because his wife was included in his asylum application, he expected that she would join him shortly after he arrived. She had previously been informed by the United Nations International Office of Migration in Jordan that she would be able to receive a visa, then be evacuated first to the United Arab Emirates and the United States. But conditions changed before she could leave Afghanistan: President Donald Trump took office in January of 2025.

It wasn’t long before she heard the bad news. Sadat’s wife received word that the Trump administration had suspended resettlement of refugees. As a result, she would be unable to leave Afghanistan for an indefinite period of time. Sadat has not seen his wife in five years.

Along with halting the refugee resettlement program, the Trump administration has suspended visas and immigration requests for all Afghan migrants, and included Afghanistan in a travel ban that makes it nearly impossible for any Afghan—including family members of asylum seekers already in the country—to enter the U.S. Even for those relatives who have seen their petitions approved, the State Department refuses to issue travel documents in accordance with the travel ban.

“Every day, when she’s calling me three times a day, she’s asking me six times a day: ‘Is the travel ban over, and is the family reunification open now? When is the time that we’re going to be reunited?’ I don’t have an answer for her,” said Sadat. Meanwhile, he has been unable to obtain his green card because of the pause on visa processing.

Sadat’s situation is common for Afghans living in the U.S., nearly 200,000 of whom arrived in the wake of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan. Tens of thousands were admitted through humanitarian parole, a temporary legal status for evacuees. Others arrived as holders of Special Immigrant Visas, or SIVs, reserved for allies who assisted the U.S. military during the war in Afghanistan. To Afghans and their supporters in the U.S., including many American veterans with whom they worked alongside—an alliance that puts those who assisted U.S. forces at risk now that the Taliban has resumed control—the administration’s policies and congressional inaction are a betrayal of trust.

Speaking in a press call, Sharif Ali, the president of the International Refugee Assistance Project, a legal aid and advocacy organization that represents refugees said, “As we take stock of whether the U.S. has lived up to its obligations and promises to the Afghans who worked and served alongside American military personnel........

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