Afghans and those who have spent years trying to help them since the fallout of the U.S. withdrawal from the country are reeling after a series of punitive actions taken by President Trump in the wake of a deadly shooting against National Guardsmen.
The killing of 20-year old National Guardsman Sarah Beckstrom allegedly by an Afghan evacuee was the catalyst for a number of far-reaching immigration moves that will impact migrants from all 19 countries listed on Trump’s travel ban.
But among the pauses on many forms of immigration is an order to halt processing of any visas for Afghanistan, all but closing the door to the thousands of allies who helped the U.S. with efforts during its 20-year war.
“When this happened, we were flooded — very similar to the way we were flooded when Kabul collapsed — with people desperately asking, ‘Is this true? What does it mean?’ Outlining their extensive service to the U.S., outlining the danger they’re facing, or the fact that they’re hiding, and asking us as Americans, ‘What do I do?’” said Joseph Azam, board chair of the Afghan-American Foundation.
“Unfortunately, the response is, ‘I don’t know, because this is such a quickly devolving situation, and very little of it follows any kind of rational blueprint.’ And so it’s hard to advise them or even give them comfort, because the truth is we’re not in a position to do either of those things.”
Like those from the other 18 travel ban countries, all Afghans already in the U.S. will see their immigration petitions paused, whether for asylum or any other change in their immigration status. Trump has also suggested he might even revoke green cards — a rarely used tool to unwind what it otherwise considered permanent residency.
For Afghanistan specifically, the U.S. has blocked processing of visas, effectively ending the Special Immigrant Visa program designed to help those who aid during U.S. military conflicts immigrate to the U.S.
“There’s 265,000 people that were trying to come here. They are feeling quite helpless,” said Shawn VanDiver, president of #AfghanEvac, a group that works to resettle Afghan refugees.
“There are 200,000 people that came here … but every one of them is afraid that [U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement] is going to show up to their door one day and snatch them. Every single one of them.”
Trump’s orders set the stage for doing so. Even before the shooting, he ordered a review of all 200,000 refugees let into the country under the Biden administration, a group that includes many Afghans.
And by pausing immigration cases, some risk falling out of status, while those who have green cards are also fearful Trump will make good on his pledge to revoke them.
“We’re hearing a lot of fear, and that’s coming from people here who are on temporary statuses and don’t have permanent residency. We’re hearing that from U.S. citizens, actually, because, you know that apparently doesn’t count for much in certain quarters in this country anymore,” Azam said.
“I’m also hearing fear from non-Afghans who are friends and allies of our community, and certainly those who resettled Afghans who are seeing years and years of their work, of their heart, of their funds, their efforts crumbling or being dismantled in a matter of days.”
Many Afghans have been in a precarious state since arriving in the U.S.
The swift nature of the evacuation uprooted thousands and placed them in a country where some struggled with a language barrier or were unable to rely on hard-earned credentials that aren’t accepted in the U.S., leaving many struggling to find work.
The alleged shooter, Rahmanullah Lakanwal, was apparently flagged by those close to him as having mental health issues, reportedly withdrawing from his family and spending time isolated and struggling as he was unable to find work in the U.S.
In Afghanistan, the 29-year-old had served as part of Zero Unit, an elite CIA-backed counter-terrorism squad during the war.
“He was hurting from the invisible wounds of the war that we asked him to fight on our behalf,” VanDiver said.
“But this is not a story about how Afghans are bad. This is a story about how America’s foreign policy always forgets to finish the job, which means we take care of our veterans, service members, the diplomats and frontline civilians and our wartime allies when the war is done.”
What’s happening now is viewed by many as collective punishment.
“Many of these people helped us; they’re very close to members of our military,” said Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.).
“And when they put their lives at risk trying to help us, and [if] they go back to Afghanistan, they’re going to get killed. And to treat an entire group of people in this way, people that helped the United States of America because of something one guy did — that’s un-American.”
Several said they saw parallels with the internment of Japanese Americans in the 1940s.
“I think it’s been one of the most clear examples of collective punishment, not just against Afghans, but against all immigrants in this country that I can think of, certainly since the times of the Chinese Exclusion Act and Japanese internment,” Azam said.
Refugees and immigrants are already thoroughly vetted in the process of coming to the United States, undergoing repeated background checks and reviews.
VanDiver stressed that Lakanwal alone should be held accountable for his actions, saying the matter wasn’t a failure of vetting.
Lakanwal was thoroughly vetted before entering the country and was approved for asylum under the Trump administration. He had received what is known as Chief of Mission approval from the State Department verifying his ties to U.S. military efforts.
Even before the shooting, lawmakers had resisted taking up an “adjustment act” bill for Afghans that, like previous groups of evacuees, would put them on a pathway to citizenship.
Following the shooting, Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) made a pitch for the bill, saying that would ignite more thorough vetting while Trump’s pause on immigration application just leaves people in limbo without any review.
“The across-the-board vetting, which involves in-person interviews — gold standard — using biometrics, but also when you do it with the entire group of people that came over, you can collect more information. That’s why I hope this will actually be an impetus to pass our bill and put the resources into it that we need to do the vetting across the board,” she said last Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
But Azam argued resistance to the bill is based on animus — not legitimate concerns over vetting, as any widespread adjustment of status would trigger another round of rigorous vetting, including terms added to address GOP priorities.
“The people who wouldn’t be satisfied with it are also the people who wouldn’t be satisfied with anybody, because, frankly, we don’t want anybody here from Afghanistan, full stop. And so I think it’s a fool’s errand to try to convince those people that more vetting is going to help, because that’s not what they’re looking for,” he said.
“I think the administration is — at the risk of giving them too much credit — doing an effective job of flooding the zone with fear and anxiety and outrageous reactions to this horrific crime. But the truth is, day-to-day Americans really still understand the commitment that this country made to Afghans, so I’m just wondering when that’s going to resurface.”