Trump Has Upended the Lives of Afghan Refugees
“This administration is obviously doing so many high profile anti-immigrant, anti-refugee actions for the purposes of spreading fear and intimidating people,” said Adam Bates, a supervising policy counsel at the International Refugee Assistance Project, which has brought some of the refugee-related lawsuits against the Trump administration. “Even the people who have gone through the process and completed that process, I imagine there’s palpable concern, and still just a real lack of certainty about what their status is how secure their status is.”
Although the SIV program has technically not been targeted by the Trump administration, it’s unclear how applicants would be affected by a potential new travel ban reminiscent of the first Trump administration’s partial prohibition on visitors from predominantly Muslim countries. Bates also noted that, despite being distinct from the refugee admissions program, the program relies on much of the same infrastructure, which has now been disrupted.
Moreover, Afghans eligible for SIVs or asylum who remain in Afghanistan are now unsure whether they will be able to make it to the United States. “People need to know what to expect so they can plan for their lives. And that’s the big that’s the big thing that the Trump administration is not allowing them to do at the moment,” said Shawn VanDiver, the founder and president of #AfghanEvac, a coalition of organizations working to relocate and resettle Afghans in the U.S. “The concerns that we’re seeing are presenting mostly in that vein. Like, ‘Am I going to be able to get my family here, ever?”