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Chicago Tribune
17-05-2025
- Politics
- Chicago Tribune
‘I think it's here': Uprooted Afghan family settles in Chicago after being rescued ahead of refugee program suspension
The route to Kilmer Elementary School is about a mile and a half each way for Hamid Azizi, who heads out every afternoon to walk his daughters home. What would seem like a mundane activity for most is a joyous occasion for the father of seven, who arrived in Chicago a little more than a month ago. The 30-minute walk has been Azizi's easiest journey in many years. At the start of the summer of 2021, his family fled its village in Afghanistan, moving quickly and often to evade the Taliban, which swiftly took control after United States armed forces began withdrawing from the region following a 20-year war. 'We were very, very worried about our situation,' Azizi, who speaks Dari, told the Tribune through a translator on a recent Tuesday afternoon at his apartment in the North Side neighborhood of West Ridge. 'Once the Americans left, we could not live in our own city where we grew up or in the other cities that I went to (with U.S. troops) because if anybody knew me and saw me, just to get some credit, they would tell the Taliban, 'This man worked with Americans.' I had to keep moving.' Azizi, 41, is one of thousands of Afghans who were waiting to resettle in the U.S. after being promised safety and relocation for serving alongside American troops as a member of the National Mine Removal Group, or NMRG. He assisted U.S. special forces in various zones in Afghanistan from 2017 until 2021, and received a Special Immigrant Visa, or SIV, intended to facilitate the resettlement of individuals who have risked their lives by collaborating with the U.S. government. Despite the stamp cemented in his passport for years, Azizi and his family had to find help on their own, and be rescued by organizations such as No One Left Behind after President Donald Trump's inauguration added a sense of urgency. Days after taking office, Trump signed an executive order that suspended the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program, pausing foreign aid and ending operations of U.N. organizations such as the International Organization for Migration that were vital for processing refugees. The administration also suspended government programs that buy flights for refugees who have SIVs. 'We found ourselves in this interesting situation where you had Special Immigrant Visa holders who were still being processed, but there were no flights for them to travel on because they basically had to buy their own flights,' said Andrew Sullivan, executive director of No One Left Behind, a nonprofit focused on evacuating Afghan and Iraqi SIV applicants to safety. 'For many of these folks, they left their lives behind in Afghanistan. Many of them have been sitting on a State Department processing platform in either Albania or Qatar. It's not like they can work there. They really just don't have the finances to buy flights.' Sullivan said the executive order thwarted thousands of families' prospects for resettlement, a process that often takes years. And many of those families, like Azizi's, have been on the run. Within a month of U.S. troops leaving, Azizi had to flee from Parwan, his home province where the U.S. military had a significant presence. His wife and six daughters —his son, the youngest of seven children, wasn't yet born — kept a few essential items and hid in homes of various relatives in nearby provinces and villages, staying mere weeks or days at a time. '(The relative whose home we were staying in) would say 'don't leave, because (the Taliban) are all over the village. Don't go out, because they're going to get you. You're safe in the house until they find you,'' Azizi recalled. 'But after that, (the relative) said we couldn't stay anymore because it was dangerous for them, and then in two, three days, we went to another relative's house, which was by the river.' With the Taliban rapidly taking over rural areas, Azizi said his family went to the bordering city of Kabul, the country's capital, 'because it had not fallen yet.' Azizi's wife, Fahima, knew a family in Kabul who took them in for a couple months. But on Aug. 15, 2021, the Taliban seized control of Kabul, signaling a full recapture of Afghanistan. Civilians soon swarmed Kabul's main international airport hoping to evacuate. Azizi said his family attempted to get on a plane out of Kabul. 'We were one of the people that went to the airport. They were flying everywhere and there were barriers and everything. But my younger daughter, Zhra, stayed behind. I couldn't take it that my daughter won't have a family, won't have a father, a mother. I can't just go and leave her behind,' Azizi said. 'We all went back from the airport. We got her, and from there we stayed but at that time we knew the Taliban said, 'We have forgiven everybody, blanket forgiveness — but not for people who worked for the Americans.'' Will Reno, a professor at Northwestern University, said the images out of Kabul's airport were a stark representation of America's frantic departure from a country it occupied for 20 years. 'That first day or two was chaos when there were people on the airfield grabbing onto the landing gear of the aircraft — that got that very bad, politically, pictures like that,' said Reno, who was a contractor for the Department of Defense while the U.S. was involved in Afghanistan. Reno said in the days following the U.S. withdrawal and the Taliban takeover, there was a rush to get high-priority groups such as military intelligence and Afghan special forces that trained American soldiers onto evacuation aircrafts. He explained that President Joe Biden's administration was late in getting a system in place that would effectively vet and process all SIV holders and their families, leaving many, like Azizi, to flee, as the situation with the Taliban became increasingly dangerous for them. Despite the desperate circumstances, Azizi shared fond memories of working with U.S. troops. 'Those times were our best memories; they were like our brothers,' Azizi said. 'We will eat together, either on the floor, or if we find a table, we'll all sit together. If, God forbid, one of us got injured or something like that, we all would get together, be around him like a family. So the relationship was very nice, very beautiful and brotherly.' As a member of the National Mine Removal Group, Azizi's team was the first line of defense for American soldiers, clearing hazardous devices off a battlefield and seeking out snipers trying to target U.S. troops. Azizi said there were several teams of NMRG personnel stationed across the war zone. One of his friends was a guard with the NMRG and immigrated to the U.S. on an SIV years before the war ended, when the U.S. still had an embassy in Afghanistan. In Kabul, Azizi's family continued moving around, hiding in homes of friends and acquaintances. This went on for several months, Azizi said. The family finally found a reason for optimism after connecting with the 1208 Foundation, a nonprofit providing immigration assistance to the surviving members of the NMRG. The organization helped the Azizi family cross into the last leg of its tireless run and eventually paved the way for No One Left Behind to link up with Azizi's family. Eventually, Azizi's family left Kabul for Islamabad, Pakistan, where they lived for 11 months. Through a website launched by No One Left Behind, Azizi was able to fill out an online form to share his visa status and resettlement plans. They didn't have much in terms of money or food, 'but plenty of hope,' Azizi said. Life on the run was especially hard on Fahima, who gave birth to her son, Mohamad, at home without medical care, all while caring for her six other children. In January, No One Left Behind helped Azizi and his family fly to Doha, Qatar, where the organization had sent many Afghans and Iraqis who have already immigrated to the U.S., many through the SIV program, to help facilitate the process. The endgame was America, but Azizi said he knew the 'situation with Trump' was not ideal for refugees seeking asylum. Anticipating even more upcoming limitations for Afghans, and the looming threat of the Trump administration introducing a travel ban that could restrict their entry, No One Left Behind urgently started tapping into existing infrastructure and raised money to buy flights for families and individuals in places such as Albania and Qatar. Between Feb. 1 and March 17, the group said it successfully booked flights for 659 Afghans. And since they began this 'all-out sprint,' Sullivan said, No One Left Behind has spent $1.5 million on 1,300 flights for stranded Afghans with a U.S. visa. 'Life is not easy for people who just come from one place to another place, especially for kids,' Azizi said, looking around his new home. 'We were very, very happy when they told us, especially when we're leaving the (hotel) room and there was a bus to take us to the airport. It was a different feeling … we are really going right now.' After 50 days in Doha, Azizi's family got on a flight to Chicago. No One Left Behind covered the cost of their one-way flights from Doha International Airport to O'Hare International Airport. 'When they told us we are going to take you all, buy tickets for all of you, and you don't have to pay it back — wow, (we asked) how is that going to be possible?' Azizi said. 'We couldn't believe it.' In West Ridge, a volunteer from No One Left Behind comes by weekly to help the family with chores or tasks that require an English speaker. She carries around an English/Dari phrasebook and flips through it regularly, but uses the Google Translate app for faster communication. She helped set up Azizi's three-bedroom apartment off Devon Avenue, furnished with just enough: two comfortable couches, a dining table with six chairs, a bookshelf fashioned into a shoe rack stacked with tiny sandals and sneakers. There isn't a TV, so Azizi's cellphone is typically where his youngest children, Mohamad and Hfsah, watch cartoons on YouTube. Azizi laughed that his phone is not his anymore. Although No One Left Behind offers resettlement assistance to several of the refugees it helps, Sullivan said the group prefers sending its families and individuals to cities in America where they know someone — even just a friend. If there isn't any contact person, the group will send Afghans to areas with a higher volume of Afghan refugees, such as Sacramento, San Francisco or the greater Washington, D.C., area, so there's a sense of community and shared language. In Azizi's case, he got in touch with his friend from the NMRG who resettled in Chicago while the U.S. was still in Afghanistan. The friend invited the family to stay at his home for a couple weeks, then borrowed $3,000 to give to Azizi to secure a month's rent for their apartment. The No One Left Behind volunteer set up a GoFundMe for Azizi's family to help raise money that could go toward rent and basic necessities. The situation for Afghans has become more fragile in some of the places where many have temporarily sheltered, like Azizi's family did in Pakistan. Having hosted millions of refugees, Pakistan has recently increased deportations. And an agreement that made Albania a way station for Afghans expired in March, Sullivan said. Sullivan said for individuals like Azizi who have SIV status, going back to Afghanistan was not an option. 'If they got deported, they would, by definition, go back to a Taliban-controlled immigration checkpoint and fly back into Kabul, where they would be greeted by Taliban immigration authorities who would see their passport and see a U.S. visa in it,' he said. 'We very much worry that it would very much open them up to questioning at the very least, and at the worst, detention, torture and possibly murder from the Taliban.' During the final months of U.S. military operations in Afghanistan, an American documentary film crew followed the intimate relationship between American Green Berets and the Afghan officers they trained. Since its release in 2022, the film 'Retrograde' faced criticism for failing to protect the identities of its subjects, leading to the killing of one of the Afghan men by the Taliban. Earlier this month, the Hollywood Reporter wrote that the man's family is suing the producers and distributors of the documentary, including Disney and National Geographic, faulting them for the man's death. Azizi said he was also featured in the film and knew of the man who was killed by the Taliban. Had he not found his way out, Azizi said, he might have faced a similar fate, or would have had to endure the harsh restrictions of Taliban rule. Fahima would not be allowed to work or move freely, and their six daughters wouldn't be allowed post-secondary education. When he drops his daughters off at school and picks them up — both times on foot — he said he often thinks about all the what-if's. His 14-year-old daughter Surya has dreams of becoming a doctor. His youngest daughter, Hfsah, 4, wants to be a hairstylist. Roya, 13, would love to be a teacher. When the girls enrolled at Kilmer, the culture shock and language barrier made going to school dreadful. But now, Azizi said, he watches them run up to their teachers in the morning and looks on as they're immediately enveloped in a hug. 'I'm super proud and full of happiness,' he said. While fleeing from place to place, Azizi said, the family often took pictures to capture the memories of being in each location. Even though circumstances were far from ideal, he said they were together, safe, healthy. It was worth capturing. They have pictures in Pakistan, in Doha, and now in Chicago, as they traverse the new neighborhood curiously. A few weeks ago, Azizi said, as he was taking a selfie with his children, his daughter Sarah, 7, turned to him and asked, 'Baba, where are we going next?' Azizi wiped his tears as he recounted that moment. 'Because we were leaving every city, going to different places, my little girl was thinking maybe America is not home as well,' Azizi said. 'I said, Sarah jaan, we are not going anywhere. I think it's here.'
Yahoo
29-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Veterans groups urge Trump admin to continue Afghan ally support program amid budget cut concerns
A leaked budget proposal sent on April 10 from the White House Office of Management and Budget to the U.S. State Department highlighted the Trump administration's posture toward Afghan allies, particularly those awaiting transportation to the U.S. through the Coordinator for Afghan Relocation Efforts (CARE) as part of Enduring Welcome. The OMB budget proposes ceasing additional funds to CARE and using the program's $600 million balance "for the orderly shutdown of the CARE program by end of [fiscal year] 2025." The National Security Council and State Department did not answer Fox News Digital's questions about whether these funds would be used to transport additional Afghans in the Special Immigrant Visa and the suspended U.S. Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP) pipelines to the U.S., or simply to disassemble processing platforms in the Philippines, Qatar and Albania. Exclusive: As Afghan Christians Face Deportation, Faith Leaders Urge Trump Administration To Reconsider But a State Department spokesperson did tell Fox News Digital, "The Department is actively considering the future of our Afghan relocation program and the Office of the Coordinator for Afghan Relocation Efforts (CARE). At this time, no final decisions have been made. CARE continues to provide support to Afghan allies and partners previously relocated to our overseas case processing platforms." Veteran experts told Fox News Digital that the shutdown of CARE would be a problem for America's reputation and for the allies who believed in U.S. promises of safety. Read On The Fox News App U.S. Navy veteran Shawn VanDiver, founder and president of the #AfghanEvac, told Fox News Digital that Operation Enduring Welcome is "the safest, most secure legal immigration pathway our country has ever seen" and allows well-vetted Afghans "to show up in our communities and start businesses and become job creators… in a time when we have a labor shortage." VanDiver noted areas where Trump could improve on the Biden administration operation, which was carried out "so slowly that people have been left behind in Pakistan, in Afghanistan, in 90 countries around the world… for three and a half years." Particularly in Pakistan, the Biden administration promised the Pakistani government "that it would process Afghans quickly," VanDiver said. "We haven't been keeping up our end of the deal; 10,000 people are stuck in Pakistan right now because President Biden couldn't house them fast enough." VanDiver emphasized that "President Trump has an opportunity to be a hero to veterans and our wartime allies, and demonstrate that when the United States makes a deal, it keeps its promise." In an open letter sent on April 23 to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, and national security advisor Michael Waltz, #AfghanEvac states that "over 250,000 Afghans remain in the relocation pipelines." Andrew Sullivan, executive director of the nonprofit No One Left Behind, told Fox News Digital that his organization supported congressional authorization in 2024 for the three-year appointment of a Coordinator for Afghan Relocation Efforts, which had "wide bipartisan" and "wide bicameral support." Retired Army Captain Dedicates His Medal Of Honor Award To Fellow Soldiers In Afghanistan "Our belief is that Congress spoke for a reason and CARE should exist," Sullivan said. "We have a moral obligation and a national security imperative to ensure that we're continuing the facilitation of movement and safe refuge for our wartime allies." Ending Operation Enduring Welcome and the CARE program "just spits in the face of veterans like myself, who've been working to try and keep our promise to the Afghans who fought with us for 20 years," Sullivan said. In addition to two Iraq deployments, Sullivan deployed to Zabul, Afghanistan, as a U.S. Army infantry company commander in 2013. In February, he "deployed forward" with No One Left Behind to processing platforms in Tirana, Albania, and Doha, Qatar, after a Jan. 20 executive order reassessing foreign funding, thus ending government-funded flights for SIV applicants. Thanks to "robust American support that comes from across the political spectrum," No One Left Behind received sufficient donations to fund travel for more than 1,000 Afghans. "In Albania, I met someone that had been paralyzed by the Taliban after being shot twice," Sullivan said. "I met someone that had been tortured and shackled, hands and ankles together, for over a week before his release was secured by village elders." Both individuals were moved from Afghanistan in December 2024, which Sullivan says proves Afghans are still "facing brutality, absolutely facing death, if they remain in the clutches of the Taliban." Sullivan says that "those same things could happen" to tens of thousands of Afghans left behind by the Biden administration. This includes "10,000 principal [SIV] applicants and their families," who, according to State Department quarterly reports, have already received Chief of Mission approval, the SIV program's first hurdle. With no word about the fate of allies, many worry about Taliban retribution. So do numerous Afghans in the U.S. who learned in April that their parole has been revoked or their temporary protected status (TPS) was terminated by Secretary Noem. Questions sent to the Homeland Security were not immediately returned. Bill Roggio, editor of the Long War Journal and a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told Fox News Digital that sending allies to Afghanistan "would be a death sentence for many." "The Taliban have demonstrated that they have – and continue to – ruthlessly hunted down Afghans who worked with the U.S. and former Afghan government," Roggio said. "Thousands have been murdered or tortured. The Taliban cannot be trusted in any way, shape or form. Their past actions, such as openly flaunting the failed Doha agreement and allowing al Qaeda safe have, or refusing to negotiate with the now defunct Afghan government, demonstrate this."Original article source: Veterans groups urge Trump admin to continue Afghan ally support program amid budget cut concerns
Fox News
29-04-2025
- Politics
- Fox News
Veterans groups urge Trump admin to continue Afghan ally support program amid budget cut concerns
A leaked budget proposal sent on April 10 from the White House Office of Management and Budget to the U.S. State Department highlighted the Trump administration's posture toward Afghan allies, particularly those awaiting transportation to the U.S. through the Coordinator for Afghan Relocation Efforts (CARE) as part of Operation Enduring Welcome. The OMB budget proposes ceasing additional funds to CARE and using the program's $600 million balance "for the orderly shutdown of the CARE program by end of [fiscal year] 2025." The National Security Council and State Department did not answer Fox News Digital's questions about whether these funds would be used to transport additional Afghans in the Special Immigrant Visa and the suspended U.S. Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP) pipelines to the U.S., or simply to disassemble processing platforms in the Philippines, Qatar and Albania. But a State Department spokesperson did tell Fox News Digital, "The Department is actively considering the future of our Afghan relocation program and the Office of the Coordinator for Afghan Relocation Efforts (CARE). At this time, no final decisions have been made. CARE continues to provide support to Afghan allies and partners previously relocated to our overseas case processing platforms." Veteran experts told Fox News Digital that the shutdown of CARE would be a problem for America's reputation and for the allies who believed in U.S. promises of safety. U.S. Navy veteran Shawn VanDiver, founder of the #AfghanEvac coalition, told Fox News Digital that Operation Enduring Welcome is "the safest, most secure legal immigration pathway our country has ever seen" and allows well-vetted Afghans "to show up in our communities and start businesses and become job creators… in a time when we have a labor shortage." VanDiver noted areas where Trump could improve on the Biden administration operation, which was carried out "so slowly that people have been left behind in Pakistan, in Afghanistan, in 90 countries around the world… for three and a half years." Particularly in Pakistan, the Biden administration promised the Pakistani government "that it would process Afghans quickly," VanDiver said. "We haven't been keeping up our end of the deal; 10,000 people are stuck in Pakistan right now because President Biden couldn't house them fast enough." VanDiver emphasized that "President Trump has an opportunity to be a hero to veterans and our wartime allies, and demonstrate that when the United States makes a deal, it keeps its promise." In an open letter sent on April 23 to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, and national security advisor Michael Waltz, #AfghanEvac states that "over 250,000 Afghans remain in the relocation pipelines." Andrew Sullivan, executive director of the nonprofit No One Left Behind, told Fox News Digital that his organization supported congressional authorization in 2024 for the three-year appointment of a Coordinator for Afghan Relocation Efforts, which had "wide bipartisan" and "wide bicameral support." "Our belief is that Congress spoke for a reason and CARE should exist," Sullivan said. "We have a moral obligation and a national security imperative to ensure that we're continuing the facilitation of movement and safe refuge for our wartime allies." Ending Operation Enduring Welcome and the CARE program "just spits in the face of veterans like myself, who've been working to try and keep our promise to the Afghans who fought with us for 20 years," Sullivan said. In addition to two Iraq deployments, Sullivan deployed to Zabul, Afghanistan, as a U.S. Army infantry company commander in 2013. In February, he "deployed forward" with No One Left Behind to processing platforms in Tirana, Albania, and Doha, Qatar, after a Jan. 20 executive order reassessing foreign funding, thus ending government-funded flights for SIV applicants. Thanks to "robust American support that comes from across the political spectrum," No One Left Behind received sufficient donations to fund travel for more than 1,000 Afghans. "In Albania, I met someone that had been paralyzed by the Taliban after being shot twice," Sullivan said. "I met someone that had been tortured and shackled, hands and ankles together, for over a week before his release was secured by village elders." Both individuals were moved from Afghanistan in December 2024, which Sullivan says proves Afghans are still "facing brutality, absolutely facing death, if they remain in the clutches of the Taliban." Sullivan says that "those same things could happen" to tens of thousands of Afghans left behind by the Biden administration. This includes "10,000 principal [SIV] applicants and their families," who, according to State Department quarterly reports, have already received Chief of Mission approval, the SIV program's first hurdle. With no word about the fate of allies, many worry about Taliban retribution. So do numerous Afghans in the U.S. who learned in April that their parole has been revoked or their temporary protected status (TPS) was terminated by Secretary Noem. Questions sent to the Homeland Security were not immediately returned. Bill Roggio, editor of the Long War Journal and a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told Fox News Digital that sending allies to Afghanistan "would be a death sentence for many." "The Taliban have demonstrated that they have – and continue to – ruthlessly hunted down Afghans who worked with the U.S. and former Afghan government," Roggio said. "Thousands have been murdered or tortured. The Taliban cannot be trusted in any way, shape or form. Their past actions, such as openly flaunting the failed Doha agreement and allowing al Qaeda safe have, or refusing to negotiate with the now defunct Afghan government, demonstrate this."
Boston Globe
13-03-2025
- Politics
- Boston Globe
Veterans race to bring Afghan allies to US before Trump travel ban
Advertisement 'We have been engaged in high-intensity, frenetic work,' said Andrew Sullivan, a military veteran and the executive director of No One Left Behind, a nonprofit whose team has been working marathon days to raise money and arrange flights. Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up Amid the chaotic pullout from Afghanistan in August 2021, the US military helped evacuate 78,000 Afghans who worked as interpreters and in other capacities during the war. Tens of thousands of others who aided US forces are still trying to reach the United States. The wartime allies can apply for a Special Immigrant Visa, which allows them to travel to the United States with their families and receive permanent residence. Many have been waiting for months or longer in neighboring Pakistan and in Albania and Qatar to complete processing by US authorities. In his first term, Trump initially sought to bar nationals from seven majority Muslim countries — Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen — from entering the United States. This time, Afghanistan is among the countries whose citizens could be categorically blocked, according to US officials. The officials said that Cuba and Venezuela could also be added. If Trump includes Afghanistan in a new travel ban, Afghans who helped the United States could be stranded indefinitely. After his inauguration, the president also signed an executive order that paused funding for refugee resettlement, suspending travel to the United States for thousands of people around the world who had been screened and approved for entry. Advertisement Afghans who had obtained Special Immigrant Visas were not barred from relocating to the United States. But in shutting down refugee admissions, the State Department canceled the contracts that had also covered the costs of transporting the Afghan allies. Suddenly they had to pay their own way, and many could not afford the cost. 'People with visas in their passports saw their pathway to safety stripped away overnight,' said Sonia Norton, advocacy director for No One Left Behind, which is based in Arlington, Va. The organization's main role had been to supplement government support by providing Afghan families with loans to buy cars, further their education and adjust to the United States. After the executive orders, it quickly pivoted to an emergency fund-raising campaign. About 37,000 Afghans, and their families, have been issued Special Immigrant Visas since 2009, when the program began. The Taliban, which rules Afghanistan, regards those Afghans as traitors. Thousands have faced retaliatory violence and hundreds have been killed for assisting the United States, according to a 2022 report by No One Left Behind. At the time that Trump signed the executive orders in January, some 1,000 Afghans and their family members had visas to come to the United States. Returning to Afghanistan is not an option for them, Sullivan said. 'There's a very real chance that they could get kicked back to the Taliban with a US visa in their passport, and that could be deadly to these allies,' Sullivan, 38, who was an Army infantry company commander in Afghanistan, said in an interview from Doha, Qatar, where his team was on the ground in recent days. Advertisement 'If we don't know what's going to happen with immigration policy, we're not going to sit idly by,' he said. 'We're going to come and support them.' The White House did not respond to request for comments on the impact of the executive orders or the effects of a potential travel ban on Afghans who supported the US mission. Aman Jafari, who interpreted for Navy SEALs, arrived in Portland, Ore., from Albania on March 5 with his wife and four young children. 'When Mr. Trump canceled flights, we didn't have money to book our own flights to America,' said Jafari, 33. 'We just worried terribly what would happen next.' Then No One Left Behind stepped in, he said. On Tuesday, Sullivan arrived in Los Angeles from Doha to meet potential donors. Evelyn Moore, 67, who has no military connections, said she had donated to the organization's effort because Trump's policies could have 'dire consequences' for those who risked their lives for the United States. 'We must keep our allies on a path to the U.S., as promised,' she said. By the end of this week, No One Left Behind hopes to have flown to the United States every Afghan who already has a visa. It must also help them get on their feet in their adopted country. Trump's executive order halted funding to nonprofits like the International Rescue Committee and HIAS, which used to provide services such as rental assistance and job placement to refugees and Afghan allies for at least 90 days after their arrival. No One Left Behind has partnered with community organizations and volunteers in cities like Portland, Rochester, N.Y., and Sacramento, Calif., to fill the void. Advertisement Jafari's family is living in an Extended Stay America hotel outside Portland while he waits for an apartment to be leased for his family. Rent will be paid by No One Left Behind and a local group, the Afghan Support Network, until Jafari becomes self-sufficient. 'I am so glad that I arrived in America,' he said. 'I want to work hard for my family to have a good and bright future.' This article originally appeared in
New York Times
13-03-2025
- Politics
- New York Times
Veterans Race to Bring Afghan Allies to U.S. Before Trump Travel Ban
The fate of thousands of Afghans waiting to reach the United States after serving with American troops was thrown into limbo after President Trump took office. Now military veterans are scrambling to bring as many of them as possible to the country before the administration introduces a travel ban that could restrict their entry. In an executive order on Jan. 20, Mr. Trump instructed cabinet members, including the secretary of state, to compile a list of countries 'for which vetting and screening information is so deficient as to warrant a partial or full suspension on the admission of nationals from those countries.' The order called for the list to to be completed within 60 days. As that deadline nears, supporters of the Afghan allies have accelerated efforts to bring those eligible to the United States. 'We have been engaged in high-intensity, frenetic work,' said Andrew Sullivan, a military veteran and the executive director of No One Left Behind, a nonprofit whose team has been working marathon days to raise money and arrange flights. Amid the chaotic pullout from Afghanistan in August 2021, the U.S. military helped evacuate 78,000 Afghans who worked as interpreters and in other capacities during the war. Tens of thousands of other who aided U.S. forces are still trying to reach the United States. The wartime allies can apply for a Special Immigrant Visa, which allows them to travel to the United States with their families and receive permanent residence. Many have been waiting for months or longer in neighboring Pakistan and in Albania and Qatar to complete processing by U.S. authorities. In his first term, Mr. Trump barred nationals from seven majority Muslim countries — Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen — from entering the United States. This time, Afghanistan is among the countries whose citizens could be categorically blocked, according to U.S. officials. The officials said that Cuba and Venezuela could also be added. If Mr. Trump includes Afghanistan in a new travel ban, Afghans who helped the United States could be stranded indefinitely. After his inauguration, the president also signed an executive order that paused funding for refugee resettlement, suspending travel to the United States for thousands of people around the world who had been screened and approved for entry. Afghans who had obtained Special Immigrant Visas were not barred from relocating to the United States. But in shutting down refugee admissions, the State Department canceled the contracts that had also covered the costs of transporting the Afghan allies. Suddenly they had to pay their own way, and many could not afford the cost. 'People with visas in their passports saw their pathway to safety stripped away overnight,' said Sonia Norton, advocacy director for No One Left Behind, which is based in Arlington, Va. The organization's main role had been to supplement government support by providing Afghan families with loans to buy cars, further their education and adjust to the United States. After the executive orders, it quickly pivoted to an emergency fund-raising campaign. About 37,000 Afghans, and their families, have been issued Special Immigrant Visas since 2009, when the program began. The Taliban, which rules Afghanistan, regards those Afghans as traitors. Thousands have faced retaliatory violence and hundreds have been killed for assisting the United States, according to a 2022 report by No One Left Behind. At the time that Mr. Trump signed the executive orders in January, some 1,000 Afghans and their family members had visas to come to the United States. Returning to Afghanistan is not an option for them, Mr. Sullivan said. 'There's a very real chance that they could get kicked back to the Taliban with a U.S. visa in their passport, and that could be deadly to these allies,' Mr. Sullivan, 38, who was an Army infantry company commander in Afghanistan, said in an interview from Doha, Qatar, where his team was on the ground in recent days. 'If we don't know what's going to happen with immigration policy, we're not going to sit idly by,' he said. 'We're going to come and support them.' No One Left Behind, established in 2014, has raised millions of dollars in a matter of weeks from veterans and other Americans to buy airplane tickets for Afghan families who had already been cleared to travel to the United States from Albania, Qatar and Pakistan. Several veteran groups, including Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, have voiced concern for the fate of the Afghan allies. Three Republican members of Congress said in a letter to President Trump that his executive orders had resulted in the 'immediate shutdown' of Afghan relocation efforts. 'These are not random applicants or illegal migrants who've crossed the southern border,' said the March 4 letter signed by Michael Lawler of New York, Michael McCaul of Texas and Richard Hudson of North Carolina. 'For many Afghans in the pipeline, staying in Afghanistan is a death sentence,' they said. The White House did not respond to request for comments on the impact of the executive orders or the effects of a potential travel ban on Afghans who supported the U.S. mission. Aman Jafari, who interpreted for U.S. Navy Seals, arrived in Portland, Ore., from Albania on March 5 with his wife and four young children. 'When Mr. Trump canceled flights, we didn't have money to book our own flights to America,' said Mr. Jafari, 33. 'We just worried terribly what would happen next.' Then No One Left Behind stepped in, he said. On Tuesday, Mr. Sullivan arrived in Los Angeles from Doha to meet potential donors. Evelyn Moore, 67, who has no military connections, said she had donated to the organization's effort because Mr. Trump's policies could have 'dire consequences' for those who risked their lives for the United States. 'We must keep our allies on a path to the U.S., as promised,' she said. By the end of this week, No One Left Behind hopes to have flown to the United States every Afghan who already has a visa. It must also help them get on their feet in their adopted country. Mr. Trump's executive order halted funding to nonprofits like the International Rescue Committee and HIAS, which used to provide services such as rental assistance and job placement to refugees and Afghan allies for at least 90 days after their arrival. No One Left Behind has partnered with community organizations and volunteers in cities like Portland, Rochester, N.Y., and Sacramento to fill the void. Mr. Jafari's family is living in an Extended Stay America hotel outside Portland while he waits for an apartment to be leased for his family. Rent will be paid by No One Left Behind and a local group, the Afghan Support Network, until Mr. Jafari becomes self-sufficient. 'I am so glad that I arrived in America,' he said. 'I want to work hard for my family to have a good and bright future.'
