Cnn
–
When President Donald Trump published a proclamation last week blocking ex-nationals of Afghanistan and 11 other countries of traveling to the United States, it added to fear, uncertainty and feeling of betrayal that some vulnerable Afghans already felt.
There are a number of immigration routes for Afghans to come in the United States, but almost all were affected during the Trump administration. Thousands of Afghans have already been left in limbo by cuts to services and offices intended to help them ask for visas. Those who are eligible for refugee status have been affected by the almost total closure of resettlement efforts. Others already live in the United States under Temporary protected status Perhaps now that the administration has announced that it ended this program.
Wednesday’s travel ban provides an exception to people with special Afghan, or SIV immigrant visas, which are reserved for those who have worked for or for the name of the United States for at least a year during the country’s almost two decades of war in Afghanistan.
But the dozens of others who helped the United States do not necessarily qualify for SIVs, the defenders say. Some may not meet the job requirements of one year, for example, or do not technically respond to the definition of having worked directly or for the US government. They and others like family members with affiliation in the United States remain at risk of reprisals.
The defenders welcomed the SIV sculpture, but many note that in practice, it does very little because of the other cuts and changes in administration policy.
“The problem with this exception is that it is a sort of a straw man, because separately, under different auspices, the administration dismantles the office of the coordinator of Afghan relocation efforts. They close this office by July 1,” said a former head of the State Department.
The State Department declared to the Congress in an opinion that the office of the Coordinator of Afghan Rafocation efforts “will be eliminated and that its functions will be realling to the Office of Afghan Affairs.”
The former head of the State Department has also noted that the administration puts an end to Endurring Wellow, a program that helps the beneficiaries and the Afghan SIV candidates to go to a third country to finish the treatment of immigration. Because the United States does not have a diplomatic presence in Afghanistan, candidates must complete their visa interviews in another country.
“It seems that there is a sculpture for SIVS and that we must have a sculpture for SIVS, but we also need the support infrastructure to help them arrive here and start life in the United States,” said Retraite Lieutenant John Bradley, who founded the Lamia Afghan Foundation, who provides humanitarian aid in Afghanistan.
The State Department did not immediately respond to a CNN comment request
The Afghans who received SIVS and spoke with CNN said that they still had family members and friends in Afghanistan or third countries such as Pakistan – which has made hundreds of thousands of refugees in Afghanistan, according to the United Nations.
“There are cases of obviously tragic people who had to flee the Taliban and had to leave family members, and it is therefore really important that these SIVs are able to find their spouses and their children,” said Andrew Sullivan, the executive director of anyone, a charity who supports former interpreters and employees of the American government who are eligible for Iraqi and Siv in Afghan.
Although members of the immediate family should fall under the sculpture of the SIV, many SIV holders who spoke to CNN have always expressed their confusion and their fear as to whether the fate of their loved ones who remain in limbo will be affected by Trump’s proclamation. Lawyers noted that although organizations are trying to explain the impact of the ban, it is probably not entirely understood on the ground.
“Frankly, our immigration system, while it works as it has been designed, it is designed to be confusing, and therefore people do not know what this travel ban means for their particular type of case,” said the former head of the State Department.
An Afghan, who said he had worked alongside American forces in Afghanistan and is a member of the US service, has tried to bring family members to the United States since Afghanistan fell under the domination of the Taliban in 2021.
CNN calls him H. – Him and others in this story have spoken anonymously for fear of remuneration for their loved ones.
H. said that it is not clear if the ban on travel has an impact on his younger brother, who does not qualify for a SIV and the fears for his children and his wife under the hard repression of the Taliban.
“I can’t even know what this travel ban means and how it will affect people,” said H.
H. said his brother was no longer concerned about himself, but wanted his wife and daughter to be able to lead a normal life by being able to go to school and in public. The Taliban have increasingly excluded from women in public lifeImposing a band of draconian laws since she resumed power.
Zia Ghafoori, a former interpreter who now directs the Interpreting Freedom foundation, who helps performers with the SIV process and American resettlement, qualified the movements of the betrayal administration.
“I voted for our new administration, for our president, Donald J. Trump,” said Ghafoori, who was recognized by Trump in Remarks During a medal ceremony in 2019, “and I was super happy that we could now help our veterans and allies because most of these senior officials were deployed in Afghanistan, and they saw our services as Afghan partners they provided to them.”
“There was a lot of happiness on the faces of our allies when they took over, they thought they will go to the United States. But unfortunately, it is opposite, and each month or two, we put a different policy and a different rule for each status of Afghan holders,” said Ghafoori, noting that many of his former comrades in Afghanistan or Pakistan have lost hope.
Another Afghan in the United States, whom CNN calls Mr., said that it is also clear what the ban still means for his family in Afghanistan because his own future feels in the air. He qualified for entry into the United States into a number of categories, having worked for the United States during the war. But he came to the United States as part of the Fulbright program and his SIV visa was approved after his arrival. He now asked for a green card, but he does not know his status.
He hopes that once he has his green card, his wife and daughter can join him despite the ban on travel. He has not yet met his daughter almost 4 years old, because his departure from Afghanistan was accelerated while his government collapsed in August 2021.
“They reserved my flight on August 15 (from August 2021),” he said. “My little girl was born on the 19th, and I didn’t see her.”
Even if someone has a SIV and can take a flight (some private organizations have intervened to pay for them), it is to be feared that prohibiting it will be wrongly applied to them. The travel ban comes into force on Monday. According to the directives sent by the State Department to its diplomatic posts, the prohibition does not affect existing visas.
Anna Lloyd, who heads the Argo working group, a group of volunteers who worked to evacuate thousands of Americans and Afghans when the Taliban took over, said organizations will wait carefully to see if the exceptions will be honored when the prohibition is entering into force.
“Whatever the Afghan ally arrives in a port of entrance on June 10, we are all going to watch,” said Lloyd.
