With the unprecedented wave of executive orders signed in the first week of his second administration, U.S. President Donald Trump dealt a devastating blow to an already embattled group of American allies: Afghans.
Among the executive orders signed on the day of Trump’s inauguration was an immediate and total freeze on U.S. aid. The order – “Reevaluating and Realigning United States Foreign Aid” – immediately paused all assistance to “foreign countries and implementing non-governmental organizations, international organizations, and contractors” pending review. The order parrots conspiratorial language alleging that U.S. foreign aid serves “to destabilize world peace by promoting ideas in foreign countries that are directly inverse to harmonious and stable relations internal to and among countries.”
A second inauguration day executive order – “Realigning the United States Refugee Admissions Program” – suspended the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP) as of January 27, broadly ending all refugee admissions and applications with the absurd claim that the United States “lacks the ability to absorb large numbers of migrants, and in particular, refugees, into its communities in a manner that does not compromise the availability of resources for Americans, that protects their safety and security, and that ensures the appropriate assimilation of refugees.”
The cascade of effects from these two orders has led to the effective suspension of the Afghan Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) program in addition to the freeze on USRAP. Immigration to the United States has long been an arduous process, but now Afghans already approved for SIVs have been left stranded by the executive orders at various stages in the process.
The executive orders have “turned a bureaucratic decision into a humanitarian catastrophe. Thousands of Afghans who stood by the United States are now stranded — without food, without medical care, and without a way forward. The U.S. made a promise to these people. Right now, we are breaking it,” Shawn VanDiver, the president and board chairman of #AfghanEvac, said.
In an email to #AfghanEvac’s coalition partners, and shared with The Diplomat, VanDiver laid out the effects of Trump’s executive order on Afghans in the SIV pipeline.
The freezing of foreign aid, in particular, has hamstrung NGOs that assist Afghans in the resettlement process. These groups welcome Afghans on arrival, help them find housing and jobs, assist them in enrolling their children in school, find healthcare, and broadly help them integrate into American life.
The secretary of state has the authority to grant waivers for specific programs, but so far Marco Rubio has not issued any such waivers. Only foreign military assistance to Israel and Egypt has been exempted from the aid freeze.
“Secretary [Marco] Rubio has the power to restart these services immediately, yet thousands remain in limbo while the administration stalls,” VanDiver wrote.
According to #AfghanEvac, more than 2,400 Afghans, including SIV holders, refugees and more than 1,100 children have lost access to basic necessities like food, medical devices, clothing, and hygiene products, as well as access to English language classes. Programs providing informal education to women and girls still stranded in Afghanistan – where the Taliban regime bans them from education and most work – have also been stopped.
The executive orders have triggered a breakdown in resettlement programs, with #AfghanEvac stating that the International Organization for Migration (IOM), a U.N. organization, is now “unable to issue flight loans, which are a crucial mechanism for helping [evacuees] book travel to their final destinations.”
“Almost universally, travel to the U.S. for SIVs has stopped due to the lack of flight loans and absence of resettlement support services upon arrival,” #AfghanEvac said. That leaves Afghans already approved for resettlement in the United States “effectively trapped” in their current country of residence.
“If an Afghan evacuee somehow manages to self-fund their way to the U.S., they are met with silence. No resettlement services, no housing assistance, no job placement support — just uncertainty and hardship,” VanDiver noted. “The infrastructure to help is there, but it’s been turned off. We can fix this, but only if we act now.”
The Trump administration has not commented on the plight of Afghans who put their lives at risk helping the United States over the course of Washington’s 20-year war in Afghanistan.
Before the inauguration, there were hopes among some Afghans with whom I’ve spoken that Trump’s pick of Michael Waltz — an Afghan War veteran — for his national security adviser signaled an intention not to abandon U.S. commitments to its Afghan allies.
In an early November 2024 interview with CNN’s Jack Tapper regarding Trump’s promises to crack down on illegal immigration, Waltz brought up Afghans and criticized the Biden administration for leaving them behind.
“The most upset immigrant I’ve ever talked to is one that came legally, waited years, did everything they were supposed to, and then just watched a government — especially the Biden-Harris administration — turn a blind eye, as those — as they just break the law and skip the line,” he said. “And first and foremost is, of those that are upset, are the Afghans who are left behind, who were willing to fight and die with us and are still stuck over there.”
Now Trump is president and the United States’ Afghan allies are still stuck.