Written by Jonathan Landy
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Donald Trump's foreign entrapment has forced the suspension of flights for more than 40,000 Afghans dependent on special U.S. visas and at risk of modernizing the Taliban, a leading lawyer and a U.S. official said on Saturday.
The pause stemmed from Trump's order to halt foreign development aid for 90 days pending a review of adequacy and consistency with his “America First” foreign policy.
Experts and advocacy groups say the pause in foreign aid has thrown U.S. and international aid operations into disarray and halted nutrition, health, vaccination and other programs.
The order also led to a suspension by the Department of State Funds of groups that help Afghans on Special Immigrant Visas (SIVS) find housing, schools, and jobs in the United States.
Trump promised to crack down on immigration during his victorious 2024 re-election campaign.
Sean Vandiver, president of #afghanevac, the main coalition of veterans and advocacy groups working with the US government to evacuate and resettle SIV carriers, said he did not believe the flight suspension was intentional.
“We think it was a mistake,” Vandiver said.
He said he hopes the administration will grant waivers to Afghan commands approved for SIVS because they worked for the U.S. government during the 20-year war that ended in the final withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan in August 2021.
“They fought alongside us. They bled alongside us,” said Vandiver, who noted that tens of thousands of other Afghans are waiting for their SIV applications to be processed.
The White House and State Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The UN mission in Afghanistan reports that the Taliban have detained, tortured and killed former soldiers and officials of the previous US-backed government. The Taliban issued a general amnesty to former troops and government officials and rejected the allegations.
Vandiver and the US official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the flight suspension had stranded more than 40,000 Afghans, including SIV holders who were waiting to travel to the US from visa processing centers in Qatar and Albania.
This number also includes Afghans dependent on SIVs waiting in Afghanistan and Pakistan to be placed on US-funded flights to Doha processing centers to receive their visas.
Nearly 200,000 Afghans have been resettled in the United States on SIVS or as refugees since the chaotic 2021 US withdrawal.
In a separate executive order he signed hours after his inauguration on Monday, Trump suspended all refugee resettlement programs in the United States.
This order resulted in hundreds of Afghan refugees losing their seats on flights, including family members of active-duty Afghan military personnel, former Afghan soldiers, and unaccompanied children.
