The barriers
Everything standing between our allies and safety.
Since January 2025, a cascade of executive orders, proclamations, and enforcement actions has dismantled the pathways that brought Afghan wartime allies to safety, and stacked new barriers on top. Here is the full picture, barrier by barrier.
Last updated July 17, 2026
Refugee and visa pathways
Refugee ban
EO 14163 · Jan 20, 2025Suspended the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program, halting Afghan P1, P2, P3, and P4 cases. Thousands of Afghans already vetted and staged abroad remain stranded.
Foreign aid pause
EO 14169 · Jan 20, 2025The 90-day foreign-aid freeze and its stop-work orders halted overseas relocation-platform operations and stopped CARE flights.
Travel ban, original
Proclamation 10949 · June 4, 2025Suspended entry for nationals of Afghanistan and 18 other countries. Some exemptions applied, including SIVs and immediate family of U.S. citizens.
Travel ban, expanded
Proclamation 10998 · effective Jan 1, 2026Expanded the ban and removed the Afghan SIV exemption, turning the entry ban on Afghans into a near-total one.
Visa issuance driven to zero
State Dept report · May 2026The State Department confirmed that no SIVs were issued to Afghans in 2026, down from 18,319 in 2025, even though roughly 5,970 visa numbers remain available.
Refugee ceiling gutted
Sept 30, 2025; raised May 27, 2026Refugee admissions were capped at 7,500 for FY2026, then raised to 17,500 with the entire increase reserved for Afrikaners from South Africa, leaving Afghans with little to no access.
End of Enduring Welcome
The program that moved 5,000 Afghans per month safely and legally was dismantled and defunded. No replacement system exists, and the last remaining platform in Doha is now being wound down.
Legal status in the U.S.
Parole protections ending
Afghans paroled in through Operation Allies Welcome or CBP One are seeing protections expire. Re-parole and TPS, the bridges that used to fill the gap, have been curtailed, leaving many with no practical pathway.
Temporary Protected Status terminated
DHS did not let TPS lapse. It affirmatively terminated TPS for Afghanistan, effective July 21, 2025 after litigation. It remains terminated, and a June 2026 Supreme Court ruling on other countries' TPS makes reinstatement unlikely. Tens of thousands face deportation risk.
Family reunification stalled
Tens of thousands of Afghan children, spouses, and parents remain separated due to visa bans and consular inaction.
New fees and benefit bars
H.R. 1 · July 4, 2025The 2025 reconciliation law imposed first-ever, non-waivable fees on humanitarian applicants, including asylum and annual asylum fees, a parole fee, and an initial work-authorization fee, and barred many Afghans from SNAP, Medicaid, and other supports.
Shorter work permits, less resettlement aid
Work authorization for Afghans was cut from two or five years down to 18 months. Refugee resettlement cash assistance was reduced in both amount and duration, down from the nine months of support families used to receive.
Work permits stalled
Work-authorization processing is stalled or severely backlogged, making it nearly impossible for Afghans to support their families, at the same moment the public benefits that once bridged the gap have been slashed or terminated.
Adjustments of status delayed
Enforcement is being prioritized over the processing of cases, and USCIS narrowed its adjustment-of-status guidance for Afghan parolees.
Detention and enforcement
ICE detentions
Afghan evacuees cleared by the U.S. government are being detained, some with no charges, including former interpreters with pending SIV cases picked up at immigration courthouses.
Targeting of parolees
ICE has focused on Afghans who entered through CBP One and through Operation Allies Welcome, along with evacuees still awaiting status.
Reversal of terrorism-bar exemptions
The administration reversed longstanding TRIG exemptions, the discretionary exceptions to the terrorism-related inadmissibility grounds. The reversal has pulled many Afghans out of affirmative asylum and into removal proceedings in immigration court.
Families split by detention
ICE is detaining Afghan men as heads of household and placing them in removal proceedings, leaving their wives and children, whose asylum claims were tied to the men, untethered from their case and exposed.
Due-process violations
Injunction · June 2026In June 2026, a federal court issued a nationwide injunction against ICE's courthouse-arrest practice, finding it violated due process. Enforcement pressure on Afghans has continued.
Abroad and in limbo
Camp As Sayliyah, Qatar
Deadline missed1,060 Afghans remain in U.S. custody at the Doha camp, more than half of them women and children, including about 150 family members of active-duty U.S. servicemembers. The State Department set a March 31, 2026 deadline to empty the camp, then missed it. They remain in limbo, now sheltering from missile debris in U.S.-managed housing.
The Congo plan
NYT · April 21, 2026Rather than bring the Camp As Sayliyah Afghans to the safety they were promised, the administration is reportedly in talks to send them, including interpreters, former Afghan special forces, and more than 460 children, to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, a country in active armed conflict. The reported choice is the DRC or return to Taliban control. That is not a choice.
Pakistan deportations
Despite U.S. assurances, Afghans awaiting resettlement, including those with legal visas, are being deported back to Taliban control.
Global stranding
More than 250,000 Afghans are stuck in 90-plus countries worldwide, waiting for the U.S. to act.
Human infrastructure collapsed
Termination of CARE
The congressionally authorized Coordinator for Afghan Relocation Efforts was dismantled, leaving no leadership and no system.
Reception and placement gap
Refugee reception funding was paused, stranding families and halting self-sufficiency programs for new arrivals.
The bottom line
The United States made a promise. This is what replaced it.
Refugee caps, visa bans, expiring protections, ICE detentions, and deportations have left tens of thousands of Afghan allies in danger. AfghanEvac and our partners are fighting back through Battle Buddies, advocacy, litigation, and direct support. But without policy change, lives will continue to be lost.