Afghans who helped US war effort feel betrayed by Trump’s travel ban

When President Donald Trump’s issued a proclamation on Wednesday evening that citizens from Afghanistan, along with 11 other nations, would be blocked from coming to the United States, it added even more fear, uncertainty and for some, a sense of betrayal, for vulnerable Afghans.

When President Donald Trump issued a proclamation last week blocking nationals from Afghanistan and 11 other countries from traveling to the United States, it added to the fear, uncertainty and sense of betrayal that some vulnerable Afghans were already feeling. There are a number of immigration pathways for Afghans to come to the US, but practically all of them have been impacted during the Trump administration. Thousands of Afghans have already been left in limbo by cuts to services and offices intended to help them apply for visas. Those who qualify for refugee status have been affected by the almost total shutdown of resettlement efforts. Others already living in the US under Temporary Protected Status may now have to leave as the administration announced it is ending that program. Wednesday’s travel ban does provide an exception for people with Afghan Special Immigrant Visas, or SIVs, which are reserved for those who worked for or on behalf of the US for at least a year during the country’s nearly two decades of war in Afghanistan. But scores of others who helped the US do not necessarily qualify for SIVs, advocates say. Some may not meet the one-year employment requirement, for example, or do not technically meet the definition of having worked directly for, or on behalf of, the US government. They and others like family members with any affiliation to the US remain at risk of reprisal. Advocates have welcomed the SIV carveout, but many note that in practice, it does very little because of the administration’s other cuts and policy changes. “The issue with that exception is that it is sort of a straw man, because separately, under different auspices, the administration is dismantling the Office of the Coordinator for Afghan Relocation Efforts. They’re shutting that office down by July 1,” said a former State Department official.