State Department Cuts Threaten Afghan Immigrants and Undermine U.S. National Security

When the Taliban returned to power in August 2021, the elite special operations forces in Afghanistan were among the last suffering. These were the final defenders, holding Taliban’s daily attacks while they survived 45 days of “rice only” and maintaining their positions in cities such as Mazar-I-SARIF after a long period of the escape of other leaders.

Four years later, translators and Special Operations Special Operations are facing honestly along with the American forces a different battle: a feverish political scene that left many in administrative forgetfulness despite their documented service and compliance. Over the past six months, the Trump administration has tightened the audit, hung humanitarian programs, and created new barriers in front of family reunification. These changes have already affected thousands of Afghan partners who came to the United States and who described as “the most migrant population in our country’s history.”

When the Taliban returned to power in August 2021, the elite special operations forces in Afghanistan were among the last suffering. These were the final defenders, holding Taliban’s daily attacks while they survived 45 days of “rice only” and maintaining their positions in cities such as Mazar-I-SARIF after a long period of the escape of other leaders.

Four years later, translators and Special Operations Special Operations are facing honestly along with the American forces a different battle: a feverish political scene that left many in administrative forgetfulness despite their documented service and compliance. Over the past six months, the Trump administration has tightened the audit, hung humanitarian programs, and created new barriers in front of family reunification. These changes have already affected thousands of Afghan partners who came to the United States and who described as “the most migrant population in our country’s history.”

On July 10, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed to employees that it was eliminating the coordinator of the Afghan Transport efforts office (CARE). Through this step, not only destroyed the office, but also institutional knowledge and human networks that made the resettlement of Afghans possible.

Recent political changes in administration have created the impression that the United States’ obligations towards its partners are conditional and temporary. This threatens a strategic model on which the country has relied since its foundation: the use of local partnerships to inflate the military event beyond what any one country can achieve alone. The treatment of Afghan partners is a credible test in the actual time, and the results of potential partners from Syria from Syria to Taiwan will be observed while calculating the risks of working with Washington.

Instead of betraying the Afghan partners in the country, Washington should be embraced by Washington. These are professionals who have been tested in fighting whose experience and loyalty can enhance the United States’ national security infrastructure for decades.

Since the opening of President Donald Trump II on January 20, a series of executive orders and administrative procedures have crossed a systematic path systematically for Afghan allies to reach safety. The executive order imposed 14,161 restrictions on entry, despite the narrow exemptions of immediate translators who were already special visa holders (SIV), actually excluded the Special Operations Forces in Afghanistan. The executive order 14163 stopped for refugees worldwide, which cut the Afghans in the middle of the road through family reunification issues. Executive order 14,169 suspended external aid, including travel and transfer services that make resettlement possible.

The officials did not end. It has brought the end of the temporary protected situation of Afghanistan, and the protection of 11,700 Afghans has already in the United States. Then came the elimination of the coordinator on July 1 of the coordinator of the Afghan transport efforts (care), which obtained both the support of the two parties and legal support until 2027 and the flow of more than 40,000 Afghans who now find themselves agreed to come to the United States but they are displaced. These people can no longer reach the United States unless they fund their travel – an impossible condition for most.

The justifications for these restrictions collapse under the weight of their contradictions. Officials describe the Afghans were evacuated as an example of “destabilizing immigration stability” with the martyrdom of improved security conditions in Afghanistan. The numbers tell a different story.

Afghan immigrants are 11.6 times less likely to detention than American -born American citizens. Among the analysts who were evacuated in operations, only 11 people (0.01 percent) were convicted of criminal crimes from March 2023. only was returned to Afghanistan due to terrorist concerns, and he did not even leave the recipient military base.

In an interview, my organizations – the Corioli Institute – the veteran warrior in Afghan operations described the harmful experience of dealing with his dealings as a responsibility to migrate. “During the asylum process, they asked me if I had used a weapon,” laughed. “Give me arms comrades and taught me how to fight!”

Moreover, the security conditions in Afghanistan remain just as always as they were, especially for the former American partners. The same article from the American Peace Institute, which the administration mentioned as evidence that the conditions have improved this perception of stability as a “interface.” Violence increased, but this is only because the people who commit it took power. The US State Department maintained Afghanistan at 4 level – or “does not travel” – at the advisory database of travel. The Taliban Minister of the Taliban is still listed on the required FBI list as a specially defined global terrorist.

The Taliban regime is still committed to the persecution of former American allies. Its behavior blog requests the implementation of those who worked in “foreign infidels”. In this effort, the Taliban benefit Afghan individuals and the payment system, a database funded by the United States that contains biometric data slightly more than 300,000 members of the Afghan security force. This system creates a road map of persecution that extends to family networks.

The full range of this targeting came in many of the interviews we had – that is why we chose to block our interview names. Kumandos told the Afghan Army Special Operations Command (Anasoc) our team that his mother “changed the homes three times within two years” after multiple raids of the Taliban. Another emphasized that the Taliban focuses “especially on the Special Operations Forces and Commando men. They take them from their homes and shoot them.”

The third fate of his best friend – a member of his unit was unable to secure a safe traffic during the evacuation: “The Taliban took him and poured acid from a battery on his body. When I saw the picture, he had no nose. He had no eyes.”

For women of female tactical factions (FTP), revenge is double. In London, one of the first FTP leaders in Afghanistan reflected: “I lost everything. Suddenly, I lost my home. I lost my country. I lost my years in the army. Everything.” She added: “Among her colleagues who are still trapped in Afghanistan:” The Taliban knows their name, and they will search for them. They must hide for as long as possible. “

Even those who fled themselves and their families pushed closer to the persecution of the Taliban by American policies. The family reunification of Anasoc and FTP has already accumulated more than 7800 cases before the changes of 2025. Since the American embassy in Kabul was closed in 2021, qualified families have not been able to complete visa interviews or medical examinations in Afghanistan and must travel to the jobs of the third country treatment. This trip has become increasingly fraught with risks, as Pakistan and Iran have canceled more than 2.4 million Afghans to the Taliban since September 2023. This includes about 25,000 people with accredited SIV applications that were selected while we were waiting.

These barriers create a long chapter for both soldiers and families. Anasoc described his isolation: “I haven’t seen my wife almost two years ago. I was sitting here for two years alone.” Another veteran description monitored from afar as his brother, a former commando, is deprived of asylum.

The human cost is hesitant to abandon the Afghan allies through American military societies, which were voted in opposing these policies. A study conducted in 2022 found that 41 percent of military personnel reported that personal trauma related to evacuation in Afghanistan was exposed. Some veterans have liquidated their retirement savings to help evacuate Afghan partners. Now they witness their political leaders who undermine these same efforts.

If the moral issue against the betrayal of the former allies does not move the administration, there is also a more self -interested situation. The United States faces a continuous challenge for military employment. By 2017, the Special Operations Forces were responsible for 70 percent of Afghan military attacks, although only 7 percent of the Afghan forces. This is exactly the type of elite, which has proven that operators who prove that the US military is now trying to recruit a desperate.

Among those who were interviewed in the study of the Corioli Institute, 57 percent expressed their desire to continue serving in the US military. “I want to serve my country.”. “I’m eating here. I’m drinking here. I am [wearing] Clothes in this country. Then, I must defend this country. What place they want me to go, I will go. “

There is a long -term precedent for individuals such as these for service. The Lodge law of 1950 provided citizenship paths through military service to foreign citizens in Eastern Europe. The military capabilities presented a vital program for the national interest, which was currently suspended, a step -by -step game book to employ critical legal foreigners.

The United States is in a global competition for military talents, whether it recognizes this reality or not. From the Ukrainian forces to the rebel and across national groups, many actors are keen to recruit the trained fighters in the United States. Afghan warriors have shown their loyalty to the United States, but they can be forced to look at other offers when the alternative is death by the Taliban.

Finally, the short stories of the management of the management are amazing. After spending nearly $ 90 billion on Afghan forces and $ 14 billion on evacuation operations, Washington ignores them accurately when they are experiencing American interests.

Worse, the administration’s approach reflects a fundamental misunderstanding of how the alliances work. By dealing with the security of immigration and protecting military partners as a mutual exclusive, it undermines the same relations that US security depends on.

The latest reduction in the troop notifications targeting the care leadership is the most specific signal of the administration so far that the US partnership obligations can be exploited. By eliminating people who have built relations with the Afghan allies and understood their issues, the administration guaranteed that even the repercussions of future policy cannot easily restore the mechanisms of trust and coordination that took years to develop.

Fix this problem is easy. Management can re -take care of, restore other outstanding programs, and accumulate clear applications. congress can pass the Afghan adaptation law, which would address the immediate crisis.

If Washington fails to act, the consequences will extend beyond Afghanistan. Chinese and Russian propaganda quickly cited the withdrawal from Kabul in 2021 as evidence that the United States is abandoning the allies. Each suspended visa case adds a new ammunition to these attacks. How the United States treats its allies will determine today who stands with the United States tomorrow.