Polling
Americans want to keep our word to the Afghans who stood with the U.S. mission.
Five years after the withdrawal, a bipartisan national survey finds voters across party lines want the United States to protect the Afghans who risked their lives supporting the U.S. mission, and to bring their families to safety.
A joint national survey from HIAS and AfghanEvac
The central finding is movement
Tell voters who these Afghans are, and support jumps.
Asked about admitting Afghans with only the 2021 withdrawal as context, 52% of voters were in support. Told that these were the interpreters, journalists, contractors, drivers, and guards who worked with U.S. forces, and that they and their families became eligible for resettlement, support rose to 72%. That is a 20-point shift among the same voters in the same interview, and among Republicans support more than doubled.
Support for admitting Afghans, before and after voters learn who they are
The problem was never that voters reject Afghan allies. It is that too few had been told what the question is actually about.
Support crosses every line
The informed majority holds across every party.
Once voters know these Afghans worked for U.S. forces, a majority of every partisan group supports admitting them and their families.
Support admitting Afghans who supported the U.S. mission, and their families
Percent who support, by party. The darker segment shows those who strongly support.
Strong support: 19% of Republicans, 42% of independents, 70% of Democrats. Independents shown are those with weak partisanship.
It is not a tradeoff
Voters reject the false choice between security and keeping our word.
Eight in ten voters agree the United States can protect national security and honor its commitments to wartime allies at the same time. This is the frame that wins, and it wins with every party.
Agree the U.S. can protect national security and honor its commitments to wartime allies
Percent who agree, by party. The darker segment shows those who strongly agree.
Overall, 80% agree and 56% strongly agree. Strong agreement: 31% of Republicans, 50% of independents, 83% of Democrats.
A promise made
Voters see a moral obligation, not a favor.
Eight in ten voters say the United States has a moral obligation to protect the Afghans who worked with U.S. troops and their families. At least two-thirds of every partisan group agrees.
The U.S. has a moral obligation to protect Afghans who worked with our troops, and their families
Percent who agree, by party. The darker segment shows those who agree strongly.
Overall, 80% say there is a moral obligation, 59% strongly. Only 16% say the U.S. does not. A parallel question on our "moral commitment" drew 84% agreement.
No one left behind
No American in uniform should have to leave family behind.
More than eight in ten voters, and nearly three-quarters of military households, agree that no American who serves should have to leave their own family behind in Afghanistan. That belief drives strong, cross-party support for reuniting Afghan families.
of military households strongly agree that no American who serves in uniform should have to leave their own family behind in Afghanistan. Overall, 83% agree and 69% agree strongly.
Support reuniting Afghan families still waiting to come to the United States
Percent who support, by party.
Keep our word
Protect everyone who risked their lives, and do not strip status later.
Voters want protection to reach all those who risked their lives for the U.S. mission, not only interpreters, and they want the government to honor the commitments it makes to the people it brings in.
Protection should extend to all who risked their lives for the U.S. mission
Extend to all, versus only specific roles such as interpreters, journalists, contractors, drivers, and guards.
Extending protection to all is favored by 50% of Republicans, 75% of independents, and 90% of Democrats. On honoring commitments, 64% agree the U.S. should follow through and not take away legal status after bringing people in (53% strongly), including 93% of Democrats, 75% of independents, and 31% of Republicans.
Reject cruelty
Voters oppose deporting Afghan allies to countries they have no ties to.
By more than two to one, voters oppose the plan to deport hundreds of Afghan refugees who assisted U.S. forces to third countries where they have no connection.
Only conservative-leaning audiences net-support the plan, including Republicans (+17) and self-identified conservatives (+12). Naming the administration is what moves those groups toward support.
What voters want
Strong support for the policies that would fix this.
Voters back concrete steps to protect wartime allies. Restoring protections for Afghans already approved for resettlement draws the strongest support of all.
Restore protections for Afghans already approved
Support restoring protections for Afghans already approved for U.S. resettlement, including 53% who strongly support it. It draws 58% of Republicans, 80% of independents, and 94% of Democrats.
Reunite families of citizens and servicemembers
Support allowing the spouses, children, and parents of U.S. citizens and Americans who serve or have served to reunite with their families in the United States.
Let allies stay while cases are processed
Support allowing Afghan allies to remain in the United States while their cases are processed, rather than being removed mid-process.
A permanent program for wartime allies
Support creating a permanent, conflict-agnostic U.S. program so wartime allies and mission partners are not handled ad hoc in future conflicts.
From opinion to action
What the public backs, and what would deliver it.
Support is not a plan. This is the crosswalk from these numbers to the fixes that would make them real: each place voters land, the recommendation it maps to in The Unfinished Mission, and the bill or executive action that would actually get it done.
The Unfinished Mission, recommendations 1, 2 & 7
Restore the SIV exemption to Proclamation 10998, issue the 5,978 authorized visa numbers that remain, and reopen Chief of Mission eligibility for those shut out by the December 2025 deadline.
The Unfinished Mission, recommendation 3
Authorize roughly 50,000 additional principal-applicant visa numbers, or remove the numerical cap, so the program stops running dry every few years and waiting on Congress to refill it.
The Unfinished Mission, recommendations 4 & 5
Restore the full CARE relocation enterprise, including chartered flights and third-country processing, and reopen the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program to Afghans, including Priority-1 and Priority-2 referrals.
The Unfinished Mission, recommendation 6
Expedite family reunification and end the multi-year separations, including more than 8,000 family members of U.S. citizens and over 1,000 of lawful permanent residents still inside Afghanistan.
The Unfinished Mission, recommendation 9
Grant Temporary Protected Status for Afghanistan and have USCIS adjudicate, rather than freeze, the benefits these vetted families are entitled to seek, including work authorization, asylum, and adjustment of status.
The Unfinished Mission, recommendations 8 & 9
Comply fully with the courts' orders rather than litigating against America's own wartime allies, and give the people already here a stable, lawful status while their cases are resolved.
The Unfinished Mission, recommendation 10 · the capstone
Build and pass a durable wartime allies program so the United States never again improvises its obligations to the people who serve alongside it, one conflict at a time.
The capstone recommendation
The Mission Partners Protection Program
Recommended in The Unfinished Mission · Not yet introducedEvery fix in this crosswalk can be undone by the next proclamation or the next lapsed deadline. The Unfinished Mission's final recommendation is the one that would end the cycle: a permanent, conflict-agnostic framework, built once and applied to every conflict, so the country never again has to improvise its promise to the people who serve alongside it. AfghanEvac calls that framework the Mission Partners Protection Program. It has not yet been introduced. 72% of voters already support it.
- Covers the allies and mission partners of current and future conflicts, not one country at a time
- Identifies, vets, and tracks eligible allies from the start of their service, so protection does not hinge on documents lost when a government falls
- Guarantees a relocation timeline measured in months, with lawful permanent residence on arrival
- Operates free of numerical caps and per-country limits
- Protects the surviving family of allies killed or injured in the line of duty
- Matches resettlement benefits to those refugees receive
- Gives today's allies immediate statutory protection against blanket entry bans, refoulement, and retroactive eligibility cutoffs
- Stands up independent, enduring oversight with public reporting
The ARCH Act (S. 5375), which preserves allies' service records before they are lost, is a down payment on this framework. The full program still needs to be written and introduced.
Go deeper
Read the full findings
The complete polling memo, the press release, and the full press kit from AfghanEvac and HIAS.
About this survey. Lake Research Partners and The Tarrance Group designed and administered this bipartisan survey, commissioned by AfghanEvac and HIAS. It was conducted July 23 to 30, 2026 by text-to-online interview among 1,000 likely 2026 voters nationwide. The margin of error for the full sample is plus or minus 3.1 percent, and is larger for subgroups and for split-sampled questions.
Figures are rounded. Strong-support shares within each bar are shown to scale relative to total support.