Trump order puts thousands of Afghan allies waiting for US resettlement in limbo
A day-one order from President Donald Trump puts on pause the plans of Afghan allies who have been approved for resettlement in the U.S., a delay that advocates say could be the difference between life and death at the hands of the Taliban.
A pause on refugee resettlement in the U.S. will include Afghans who are in hiding after the Taliban takeover and the family members of U.S. troops.
"There are lawyers, doctors, journalists stuck in Pakistan who have been waiting for three and a half years to relocate to the U.S. We finally got the program moving, and we got the U.S. government to agree to allow them to relocate," Shawn VanDriver, president of resettlement group AfghanEvac, told Fox News Digital.
"Now, they’re f***ing panicking."
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The executive order, entitled "Realigning the United States Refugee Admissions Program, will take effect on Monday and will immediately pause the resettlement of those who have worked their way through a system to get approval to move to the U.S.
It will go on "until such time as the further entry into the United States of refugees aligns with the interests of the United States."
A report will be submitted to Trump every 90 days until he determines that refugees should be allowed in.
"They’re getting it wrong here," said VanDriver, worried the pause will be "indefinite."
"It could be any day that the Taliban or ISIS-K shows up at your door," he said. "Can you imagine being a U.S. service member coming to work yesterday thinking that your mom is going to get out of Kabul and then they’re like ‘nope’?"
The family members of roughly 200 U.S. service members will be immediately impacted, according to VanDriver.
Some of those service members worked as combat interpreters for the U.S. during the war in Afghanistan, only to relocate to and join the service in the U.S.
"The United States lacks the ability to absorb large numbers of migrants, and in particular, refugees, into its communities in a manner that does not compromise the availability of resources for Americans, that protects their safety and security, and that ensures the appropriate assimilation of refugees," the order says.
Since the end of the war in 2021, some 180,000 Afghans have resettled in the U.S.
"How can the US government leave me behind in Afghanistan after I approved thousands of airstrike packages against the Taliban?" one Afghan who was in the final stages of case processing wrote in a text message shared with Fox News Digital.
"Members of Trump’s cabinet are U.S. military veterans and they fully understand what someone in my situation must feel like right now," the Afghan wrote. "This was the only hope for me and my family."
Prior to the executive order AfghanEvac sent a letter to the Trump team and other lawmakers urging them to continue resettling Afghan allies in the U.S. VanDriver said his letter has received no response from the new White House team.
Trump campaigned on the chaos that ensued when the U.S. military pulled out of Afghanistan in August 2021. President Joe Biden pointed his finger at Trump, who had agreed to a 2021 deadline with the Taliban, but Trump claimed the Taliban had not held up their end of the deal so he would not have stuck to the agreement.
If the refugee program is paused for 90 days, it would affect some 2,000 people. If it is paused in definitely, it could affect between 25 and 30,000 people, according to Van Driver.
Many of those who are waiting for approval to come to the U.S. are hiding out in Pakistan fearful of deportation back to Afghanistan where their lives are at risk before they get approval to come to the U.S.
Advocates say the decision walks back on a promise the U.S. made to Afghans who aided U.S. troops and non-governmental organizations when the U.S. pulled out and the government collapsed to the Taliban.
The order drew mixed reaction from Republicans.
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"It doesn't have to include the Afghans," Rep. Derrick Van Orden, R-Wis., a Navy SEAL veteran, told Fox News Digital. "I learned a long time ago there's waivers for everything. If you're a man, woman or child and you assisted us in Afghanistan – I'm alive because of our Afghan allies.They’ve earned the right to come here.
"I think the move itself is correct," said Rep. Morgan Luttrell, R-Texas, another former SEAL, said, adding that Afghan allies should be exempt from the order. "Those Afghan refugees fought alongside us. They have every single right, in my opinion, to be able to navigate these challenging waters to be in our country."
"When you were bringing everybody out of Afghanistan, we were supposed to be targeting the civilians that helped us," said Rep. Warren Davidson, R-Ohio, a former Army ranger said. "[Biden] flooded everybody that had any proximity to Afghanistan through that program."
"There are people who were inside those C-17s [that evacuated Afghans in 2021] who should not have been there, who had been locked up in prison the day before," said Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif.
"So we’re going to look carefully and review that. Are we going to pause it for five years and not keep our promise? No."
The Trump administration "will be abandoning thousands of individuals who stood shoulder-to-shoulder with American service members, and who now, due to their loyal service and commitment to our shared values, remain at great risk in Afghanistan," VanDriver said in a statement.
"Even a temporary pause puts our allies in further danger, compromises our global standing with any current and future allies, and breaks the promises we made as a country," the AfghanEvac letter circulated among lawmakers reads.