Congressional inaction will cost Afghan ally lives

In August 2021, the world watched with dread as the Taliban swiftly regained control of Afghanistan while U.S. forces exited the country. In those early days, it became clear that an ominous fate awaited America’s most committed Afghan allies. Women and men who fought shoulder to shoulder alongside U.S. troops were left facing inevitable retribution from the Taliban. As the challenges of the U.S.-led operation to evacuate vulnerable Afghan allies became painfully clear, it also became obvious to many of us that some of the most at-risk Afghans were likely to be left behind.

In fact, despite the large number of Afghans evacuated during the U.S. withdrawal in August 2021, a report from the Association of Wartime Allies (AWA) in February 2022, showed that of the estimated 81,000 Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) applicants in Afghanistan that had visa applications pending as of Aug. 15, 2021 — the day Kabul fell — some 78,000 were not evacuated in this effort. At least 96 percent of the SIV population remained in Afghanistan and in grave danger of reprisal by the Taliban.

The plight of these allies — many of whom were and remain eligible for SIVs — remains a deep concern of Americans who took their country’s promise to these Afghans as their own. In the years that have passed since the last American military plane took off from Kabul’s Hamid Karzai International Airport (HKIA), advocates for these courageous Afghans — including millions of American veterans — have dealt with a flood of desperate pleas for help from at-risk allies and an avalanche of inaction from the lawmakers whose job it is to ensure that America follows through on its promises.

All of this must change.

Congress created the Afghan Allies Protection Act of 2009 as a means of offering protection and a pathway to both lawful permanent residency and United States citizenship to all qualified Afghans employed by the U.S. government in their country through an SIV.

The Afghan SIV program represents a covenant that the U.S. made with its allies to bring them to safety for their faithful and valuable service to the U.S. government. Afghans who served in these roles put their lives and the lives of their families at risk and they did it because they believed in the mission and the word of the Americans fighting alongside them. While the mission may have ended, the obligation to keep our word endures. Following through on that promise of safety is not only the right thing to do but a national security imperative as America cannot afford to surrender its ability to be trusted by its allies.

As with most government programs, the Afghan SIV program is complicated and requires oversight and maintenance. Most acutely, the program does not have an unlimited number of visas available and relies on congressional reauthorization of visas to allow America to continue to bring those left behind in Afghanistan to the safer shores of the U.S. Based on the rate of issuance, there are likely less than 7,000 visas remaining available for Afghan allies, with some 140,000+ SIV applicants waiting to receive one. At the current pace, this supply of visas will be exhausted as early as mid-August of this year.

The consequences of not allocating additional visas to the program would be catastrophic and are entirely avoidable.President Biden requested 20,000 additional visas for this program in the FY2024 budget request, and the Senate passed an authorization of 20,000 visas through their Appropriations Committee. To date, the House of Representatives has not passed any legislation to authorize more visas.

This week, as House and Senate leaders negotiate the remaining Fiscal Year 2024 appropriations bills, Congress has the opportunity to heed the call for decency, integrity and accountability coming from veterans, Afghan-Americans, and across civil society by including the language from the Senate’s version of the State and Foreign Operations (SFOPS) Appropriations bill — specifically Section 7034(d)(9)) of the Senate’s SFOPS bill which authorizes these 20,000 lifesaving visas.

America’s Afghan allies are running out of time and Congress is running out of excuses. 

Kim Staffieri is the co-founder and Executive Director of the Association of Wartime Allies; Joseph M. Azam is the Board Chair of the Afghan-American Foundation