On this file photograph from 2024, Taliban navy helicopters fly to have fun the third anniversary of Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan, on the Bagram Air Base, in Bagram, Parwan province on August 14, 2024. President Trump banned the arrival of Afghan nationals to the U.S. with exceptions for many who have particular immigrant visas.
Ahmad Sahel Arman/AFP by way of Getty Photographs
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Ahmad Sahel Arman/AFP by way of Getty Photographs
President Trump enacted a journey ban on residents from a dozen nations Wednesday, together with Afghanistan, the place U.S. troops have been stationed for almost 20 years.
Although the president’s journey ban applies to Afghanistan, it does embody an exception.
Afghans who served with the U.S. in the course of the battle can nonetheless pursue what’s referred to as a Particular Immigrant Visa. For the reason that chaotic navy withdrawal of U.S. troops in August of 2021, round 200,000 Afghans have resettled within the U.S., many underneath that visa program.
As well as, greater than 200,000 Afghans stay exterior the U.S. whereas awaiting varied phases of the applying course of, together with many who labored with the Individuals.
These figures are from U.S. officers and personal teams helping Afghans who wish to transfer to the U.S., together with AfghanEvac, an advocacy group which maintains statistics on the variety of Afghan nationals making an attempt resettlement.
The president’s proclamation additionally carves out exceptions for people already within the U.S. looking for asylum. Whereas it doesn’t deal with refugee resettlement, the U.S. has paused nearly all refugee packages underneath one other govt order.
Many Afghans looking for SIVs and refugee standing say they worry for his or her security underneath Taliban rule within the nation.
Trump cited the necessity to deal with the specter of terrorism because the catalyst for the journey ban, with the White Home truth sheet noting particularly about Afghanistan: “The Taliban, a Specifically Designated World Terrorist (SDGT) group, controls Afghanistan. Afghanistan lacks a reliable or cooperative central authority for issuing passports or civil paperwork and it doesn’t have applicable screening and vetting measures.”
The administration additionally cited visa overstay statistics in its reasoning for Afghanistan’s inclusion.
A separate program giving Afghan nationals momentary protected standing within the U.S. expired in Could, with ultimate termination scheduled for July 14. In a information launch on the time the tip of that standing was introduced, Secretary of Homeland Safety Kristi Noem acknowledged: “Afghanistan has had an improved safety state of affairs, and its stabilizing economic system now not forestall (Afghans) from returning to their residence nation.”
The discharge additional defined that Noem “decided that allowing Afghan nationals to stay quickly in the US is opposite to the nationwide curiosity of the US.”
The pinnacle of AfghanEvac, Navy veteran Shawn VanDiver, known as the journey ban a “betrayal.”
“This ban does nothing to guard Individuals. It punishes Afghan allies, members of the family, college students, professionals, and humanitarian parolees—lots of whom have been already promised a pathway to security,” he stated in a press release.
