'Don't hold out to come to the US': Advocates urge Afghans to seek new lives elsewhere

Immigration advocates have now told Afghans awaiting resettlement in the US to seek new lives elsewhere, given the stringency of the ban in place by the Trump administration. 

It's a stark public admission that the outlook is far too bleak for people to keep waiting. 

"The President of the United States has said that nobody from Afghanistan or several other countries are allowed to come here," Shawn VanDiver, a US Navy veteran and founder of the #AfghanEvac programme, told about 1,000 impacted Afghans in different parts of the world on a Zoom call. 

"There are no secret pathways, no back doors, no shortcuts," he added. 

"Our recommendation is to move on with your lives. Watch and wait until something changes, or if you can find safe haven elsewhere, don't hold out to come to the United States. Try to get to anywhere that is safe for you and works for your family."

Those already in the US immigration pipeline are Afghans and their families who aided US forces or were involved in projects that make them susceptible to persecution by the Taliban.

Around 200,000 of them have been resettled in the US since it invaded Afghanistan in 2001, but more prominently since the chaotic 2021 withdrawal.

Another 180,000 people are waiting to come to the US under a special immigrant visa, and there are estimated to be another 65,000 refugees and 15,000 Afghans just waiting on family reunification, according to #AfghanEvac.

"The reality is that processing is mandated by the courts, but visa issuances are not mandated," VanDiver explained on the call.

"If you have a visa in your passport already, you should get here as soon as possible."

Backlogs

On Monday, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced new plans for the provision of work authorisations for asylum seekers in the US - a move that can impact thousands more Afghans. 

The proposed rule is for work authorisation processing by the government to be extended to 180 days.

But because of the immense backlog, "applications for pending asylum applicants would be paused for an extended period, possibly many years," DHS said. 

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"Without factoring in any of the other proposed changes in this rule and how they may impact adjudication times, it may take between 14 and 173 years to reach a 180-day processing time," the agency added. 

"I wish the 173 years was a joke. That's actually their estimated time in the rule," Vanessa Dojaquez-Torres, with the American Immigration Lawyers Association, said on the call. 

"If you missed your deadline to apply for asylum in the US, you will no longer be eligible for work authorisation. If you entered the US unlawfully and didn't immediately express a fear or a want to apply for asylum, you will be not eligible to get a work authorisation. And now all work authorisations will be discretionary, meaning even if you don't meet any of those criteria... they could deny you based on other grounds."

Asylum seekers are an entirely different category from refugees, who arrive in the US already pre-scrutinised. 

When President Donald Trump enacted a blanket refugee ban on the day he took office on 20 January 2025, a number of leading immigration advocacy groups sued the administration in the case Pacito v Trump.

The case ultimately ended late last year, when the courts ruled that Trump could halt refugee admissions but not prevent those who already had their approved documents in hand from coming to the US. 

Among the plaintiffs was the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, now just known as Hias. It is the oldest known refugee agency in the US. 

"Communities here in the United States are standing staunchly against what this administration is doing. There are thousands of people of all different faiths who have welcomed refugees, including Afghans, into their communities, and they are eager to continue to do that," Beth Oppenheim, the CEO of Hias, said on the Zoom call organised by #AfghanEvac.

"We want to be clear that while it does not look like that is in our foreseeable future, it does not mean that we are not fighting for that future," she said.

Oppenheim urged Afghan refugees already in the US to seek the advice of legal counsel if they receive a request from the government to be re-vetted. 

Last week, the Trump administration gave Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers broad powers to detain lawful refugees who have yet to secure permanent US residency, according to a government memo.

The memo, dated 18 February in a federal court filing, gives ICE sweeping new powers to detain legal refugees indefinitely for “rescreening”.

US law currently states that refugees must apply for lawful permanent residency - otherwise known as a green card - one year after their arrival in the country.

Reuters reported that the memo is a departure from the Obama administration’s ICE policy, which said that failure to obtain a green card by refugees legally admitted into the US was not a "basis" for removal from the country and not a "proper basis" for detention.

'Betrayal'

All of this is also playing out in the wake of the Trump administration's decision last month to close a military base-turned-transit camp in the Qatari desert where it is currently housing at least 1,000 Afghans awaiting paperwork and transfers to move to the US.

The top Democrat on the House Foreign Services Commitee, Gregory Meeks, called the move to shut down Camp As-Sayliyah "the latest reckless step by the Trump administration to dismantle every remaining pathway for these allies to safely relocate in the United States. It is a profound betrayal of those who stood with us in Afghanistan, and of America's word".

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The camp is what's referred to as a "lily-pad", meaning the US government has already put everyone who is housed there through at least two levels of screening, with the full intention of resettling them in the US under various visas. 

Earlier this month, the State Department began paying Afghans to leave the base on their own accord ahead of its 31 March closure, assistant secretary of state Samir Paul Kapur told lawmakers in a briefing. He said 150 people had already accepted the funds. 

VanDiver told the Reuters news agency that the payments being offered were $4,500 for a main applicant and $1,200 per additional person ​who finds another country to go to.

Middle East Eye reached out to the State Department for clarity, but a spokesperson did not confirm any monetary figures, only saying in a written statement: "The Trump Administration has no plans to send these people back to Afghanistan." 

"The Camp As-Sayliah (CAS) platform in Doha, Qatar is a legacy of the Biden Administration’s attempt to move as many Afghans to America as possible -- in many cases, without proper vetting."

In late November, after an Afghan national and former CIA asset shot two members of the National Guard in Washington, DC, the Trump administration said it would reinterview the refugees admitted to the US under the presidency of Joe Biden - potentially up to 80,000 Afghans. 

The family of the soldier who was killed, Sarah Beckstrom, will be in attendance at Trump's State of the Union address at the US Capitol on Tuesday evening, local time. 

"We hope the intent is to honor her service and sacrifice, as she rightly deserves. We also hope that her death is not used as a mechanism to broadly attack Afghans or other immigrants who had nothing to do with this act," VanDiver said in a press release just hours ahead of the speech.

"We can hold two truths at once. Violent crime must be prosecuted fully. And collective blame is wrong, strategically reckless, and inconsistent with American values," he added. 

The second soldier who was shot and critically wounded, Andrew Wolfe, is recovering.