U.S. visa freeze leaves lives hanging-from heroes to unwanted

By Aneela Mirchandani

The Takeaways

• Visa freeze leaves allies stranded: More than 150,000 Afghan interpreters and applicants are stuck in limbo after the U.S. halted SIV processing.
• Community voices condemnation: Afghan American leaders denounce the Virginia shooting, stressing it should not define their community.
• Broken promises deepen crisis: Once vital partners to U.S. forces, Afghan refugees now face homelessness, job loss, and blocked pathways to safety.

The Details

In 2021, with the end of the US war in Afghanistan, it was the end of a dream and the start of a nightmare for Afghans like him, says Nisar Momand, who had worked for the American army as an interpreter. 

Settled in the US since 2014, Momand helps other Afghan allies like himself find their footing. However, with recent changes made by the current administration, many are finding their last hopes for a safe refuge cut off. 

Momand spoke to AsAmNews last week to elaborate on the difficulties faced by the community. 

Throughout the two decades the US waged war against the Taliban in Afghanistan, US troops relied on locals as interpreters, fighters, and cultural translators. These locals became targets of the regime, and would receive letters and phone calls threatening them — and their families — with consequences for collaborating with the enemy. 

Many left for the US — some as refugees, and some through tailored programs such as the Special Immigrant Visa (SIV), which allowed those who took special risks working with US armed forces to gain permanent residency in the US. After President Joe Biden ended the war in 2021, a new program, Operation Allies Welcome, was put in place to help evacuees resettle in the US. In addition, Afghan nationals were shielded from deportation due to the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) granted to the country in 2022. 

Since President Donald Trump took office, a series of steps taken by his administration to curtail immigration have affected many Afghans who put their lives on the line to help the war effort. These steps include a travel ban on 19 countries, instituted in June, and the suspension of the refugee program signed on his first day in office. In May, Afghanistan was one among several countries that lost their TPS designation.

Two weeks ago, the door fully slammed shut.

On Nov. 26, an Afghan American man shot two National Guard members in Virginia, killing 20-year-old Sarah Beckstrom. The shooter, who is now in custody, was identified as Rahmanullah Lakanwal, an asylee who had worked with the CIA during the war. 

According to a factsheet released by the group Afghan Evac, Lakanwal went through intense vetting both before and after he arrived under humanitarian parole in 2021. His asylum application was approved in April under the Trump administration. He had been referred for mental health support as early as January last year.  

In the wake of the shooting, Trump ordered a reexamination of all Afghan nationals who arrived during the Biden administration, calling Afghanistan a “hellhole on earth.” In addition, the State Department blocked all visas for Afghan nationals, including the SIV. This is the first time the SIV, which is usually held sacrosanct, has been affected by immigration restriction measures.

This leaves, said Momand, 50,000 Afghan nationals with approved Special Immigrant Visas and over 100,000 in the SIV queue now in limbo. “Now,” said Momand, “everything has stopped. The work permit extension has stopped, the renewal has stopped, green card interviews are stopped, there are no other options.”

The National Guard shooting, Momand said, did not represent the values of the community. 

Afghan community condemns violence

“Nobody is happy about this incident,” he said. “We at the Afghan Community Culture Center at Houston held a press conference condemning it. We are with the family of the National Guards. They are our heroes.”

But, he added, one individual case should not be used to block thousands of people who risked their lives helping the United States. 

The National Guard shooting was also condemned by No One Left Behind, a group working to resettle Iraqis and Afghans who worked with US troops. 

“First of all, it’s a tragedy,” executive director Andrew Sullivan told CNN yesterday. “It is quite frankly surprising that this happened. [Lakanwal’s unit] were the most vetted and trusted allies that we had.” Sullivan noted that the Afghan community had been horrified by the attack and held a candlelight vigil outside the White House in support of the victims. He also expressed deep worry that SIV applicants waiting in other countries would be deported back to Afghanistan, and face “torture and death” at the hands of the Taliban.

Working with the US army had been a difficult decision, and yet, many chose to despite the risks. Momand explained why. 

“Back before the 1980s, we heard from our elders that Afghanistan had been one of the most developed countries. We had electric buses, we had one of the top universities that people from neighboring countries came to. In the 1980s, everything changed.”

After the Soviet invasion in 1979, and then two subsequent civil wars, Afghanistan was plunged into despair. Momand himself spent time in a Pakistani refugee camp as a child. 

First 9/11, now the shooting sets Afghans back

Then came the September 11, 2001 World Trade Center attacks. President George W. Bush declared war on the ruling Taliban regime to flush out Osama Bin Laden, the scion of a Saudi billionaire family, who had been pinpointed as the perpetrator. 

“We know what happened after,” Momand said. “Our country was destroyed, many people became homeless, millions of kids became orphans. We knew — this is the cost of terrorism. We don’t want this kind of terrorism to happen anywhere in the world.”

When the Americans invaded to depose the Taliban, Momand said, they believed they could get back to democracy, to elections, and to legitimately elected governments once again.

“We believed that we could rebuild Afghanistan. There would be schools, hospitals, and the Americans will help us.”

Beyond working for the US forces, local Afghans became their eyes and ears, even their cultural translators, helping them avoid misunderstandings.

When the Americans withdrew their troops in 2021 under the Biden administration, many Afghans were left to rebuild on their own. More importantly, they were now vulnerable to attacks by the Taliban, who saw them as traitorous collaborators with the enemy. 

Some were kidnapped. Some went into hiding. Some filtered into neighboring countries to wait. 

Operation Allies Welcome: A brief hope

There was one bright spot during those days, Momand explained: Operation Allies Welcome. This program, run by the Department of Homeland Security, was focused on resettling vulnerable Afghans in the US. 

“The people who came through the SIV were getting support and cultural orientation. There were 15 topics, from transportation, to education, to how to find a job.”

They valued the help. Many had been engineers, teachers, and other professionals in Afghanistan. But the credentials didn’t transfer, plus, they needed English tutoring.

Even then, the security vetting each Afghan went through was intense. His own background checks took over two years, even though he came from a military family who had all worked with the US. 

“Now, everything has changed,” Momand said.

Last month, Afghans were banned from entering the US entirely. Earlier this month, their benefits were curtailed, and work permits were no longer granted. 

Now, said Momand, people are losing their jobs and their homes. “There was a time we believed the Afghan American community had no homelessness. Unfortunately now that is no longer true. They have no Medicaid benefits, nothing. So they are in a very dire situation right now.”

“Nobody wants terrorists in this country,” Momand said. “We fought for two decades in Afghanistan against terrorism. Some people lost 30 members of their family — they made big sacrifices for the people of the United States.”

“But,” he added, “when the bad days come to us, nobody is standing behind us.”