Trump's refugee ban is impacting Afghans who risked their lives to help the United States
Advocate calls the decision 'unconscionable,' calls for exception for Afghans and their families
Thousands of Afghans who stood up to the Taliban or have ties to the U.S. are stuck in limbo thanks to President Donald Trump's executive order suspending the relocation of refugees to the United States — including some who already had their security clearances approved, and their flights booked.
"We're talking family of U.S. service members; judges and prosecutors that put away the Taliban; partner forces, including women pilots from the Afghan military — all of whom trained alongside us, fought alongside us, bled alongside us," U.S. military veteran Shawn VanDiver told As It Happens host Nil Kӧksal.
"It's unconscionable. And we hope that was a mistake."
VanDiver, who served in Iraq, is the founder of AfghanEvac, an organization that works to get U.S. allies and their families out of Afghanistan.
His organization is calling on the Trump administration to carve out an exception to the new refugee ban for Afghans fleeing Taliban rule. Other advocacy groups are pleading with the government to reverse the ban altogether.
Cancelled flights for those already cleared
More than 10,000 Afghans are in Pakistan waiting for their applications to be approved under a U.S. program created to resettle Afghans after the Taliban seized control of the country in 2021, VanDiver says, and tens of thousands more are in the pipeline.
The program is for people who "may be at risk due to their U.S. affiliation" but who fall outside the scope of the U.S. Special Visa program for Afghans who were employed by the U.S.
The status of those applications is now uncertain after the Trump's administration announced the suspension of the U.S. The Refugee Admissions Program for at least three months, pending a report from the secretaries of state and homeland security.
"Over the last four years, the United States has been inundated with record levels of migration, including through the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program," the order reads.
It comes eight years after Trump, during his first term as president, issued executive orders barring people from six Muslim-majority countries from entering the country in 2017
As of Wednesday, all refugee arrivals were indefinitely suspended, all previously scheduled travel was cancelled and new refugee applications, as well those in process, were suspended.
Among those impacted are about 1,600 Afghans who were already cleared to relocate to the U.S., with flights booked for January, February and March.
"Unfortunately, those flights aren't going to move now. People are going to lose their tickets. They're going to lose their seats," VanDiver said. "It's just absolutely heartbreaking."
'Many of us risked our lives to support the U.S. mission'
A coalition called Afghan USRAP Refugees, named after the U.S refugee program, wrote an open letter to Trump, members of Congress and human rights defenders calling for the ban to be reversed.
"Many of us risked our lives to support the U.S. mission as interpreters, contractors, human rights defenders, and allies," it reads. "The Taliban regard us as traitors, and returning to Afghanistan would expose us to arrest, torture, or death."
Hadisa Bibi, a former student in Kabul who fled to neighbouring Pakistan last month, said she read in newspapers that Trump suspended the refugee program.
"Prior to restrictions on women's education in Afghanistan, I was a university student," she said. "Given the risks I face as a women's rights advocate, I was hoping for a swift resettlement to the United States. This would not only allow me to continue my higher education but also offer a safer and brighter future."
She said she witnessed several Afghans arrested by Pakistani police, which left her in fear, "confined to my room like a prisoner."
The news is also worrying people in the U.S. trying to reunite with their families in Afghanistan, like Fazel Roufi, a former Afghan army officer who came to the U.S. on a student visa, joined the U.S. military, and obtained citizenship.
Roufi was in Kabul when the U.S. pulled troops from the country in 2021, working as an adviser and translator for the commanding U.S. general. He says he helped to rescue Americans, U.S. embassy staff and others.
His wife, recently flown by the U.S. State Department to Doha, Qatar, for refugee visa processing, now sits in limbo in a U.S. military base.
"If my wife goes back, [the Taliban] will just execute her and her family," he said.
'Looking forward to working with the administration'
VanDiver says AfghanEvac has always had a strong working relationship with lawmakers, including Trump security adviser Mike Waltz, who has been vocally critical of former U.S. president Joe Biden's decision to pull troops from Afghanistan in 2021, paving the way for a Taliban takeover and putting U.S. allies in jeopardy.
Trump has also been critical of the withdrawal, frequently mentioning it during presidential debates, though the plan to remove troops from the country was initially his idea.
But VanDiver says he's heard crickets from the U.S. government since he delivered a letter — signed by more than 800 people, many of them U.S. military veterans — asking for Afghans to be exempt from the refugee ban.
Still, he remains hopeful that he can work with the new administration to sort things out.
"President Trump values negotiation," he said. "We're going to try to make sure that we can move the ball forward with him."
Just last week, VanDiver says he was at the airport in Newark, N.J., watching an Afghan man reunite with his family, including his three-year-old child who he had not seen since infancy.
It's the kind of touching moment he hopes to see more of.
"The way he clung to that baby was exactly the way that I would have clung to my baby. I have a four-year-old, right. I can't imagine not being here for her," he said.
With files from The Associated Press and Reuters. Interview with Shawn VanDiver produced by Leslie Amminson
