Battle Buddies Letter
June 25, 2025
An Open Letter to the American People:
AfghanEvac and Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA) are proud to stand in solidarity with Afghans who stood with us – shoulder to shoulder as we did during twenty years of war – and we’re calling on veterans across the country to answer the call once more by attending public immigration hearings to ensure that our Afghan allies know they’re not alone. Learn more at afghanevac.org/battle-buddies.
Over the course of our twenty years of war in Afghanistan, hundreds of thousands of Afghans served alongside American service members, diplomats, and frontline civilians, risking their lives to provide critical support without which our mission could not be carried out.
In return for their service, the United States government offered those Afghans pathways to citizenship here in America. When U.S. forces withdrew from Afghanistan in chaos at the end of August 2021, we left behind hundreds of thousands of those wartime allies to whom we had made a promise – a promise that by standing shoulder to shoulder with us, they would earn their chance at their own American dream.
Over the course of the last four years, veterans organizations and other NGOs pushed the U.S. government to take action to ensure that promise was kept. In an unprecedented public-private partnership, civil society and the federal government worked together to build the Office of the Coordinator for Afghan Relocation Efforts (CARE) and Enduring Welcome – a multi-year, end-to-end plan to relocate and resettle eligible Afghan allies. Through those efforts, nearly 200,000 Afghans have been resettled in the U.S. since 2021. For the first time in our nation’s history, we were keeping our promise to a wartime ally in a meaningful way.
Now though, Afghan allies who risked their lives to support our troops are being targeted by ICE – arrested and detained as they appear for their mandatory, scheduled court hearings – even though they followed the rules, entered the country legally, and are adhering to the legal requirements of our broken immigration system
Sayed was detained by ICE at a courthouse in San Diego on June 12, 2025—despite having followed every legal step. He entered the United States through a scheduled CBP One appointment, has a pending Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) application, an active asylum claim, no criminal record, and complied fully with court instructions. And yet, masked ICE agents arrested him immediately after his hearing with no due process, no warning, and no explanation beyond the vague phrase that his Notice to Appear was “improvidently issued.”
This isn’t an isolated incident – and it isn’t how we should treat our wartime allies.
This Administration has already dismantled the pathways for Afghan allies who served alongside our mission over the course of our longest war. In addition to targeting Afghans legally here in the U.S., since January 20th:
DHS has ended the Enduring Welcome program, which previously relocated thousands of Afghan allies each month.
The office of the Coordinator for Afghan Relocation Efforts (CARE) has been disbanded.
Refugee processing, TPS for Afghans, and humanitarian parole pathways have all been terminated.
Afghan allies are being left without options—and now, without protection.
Our allies fought, served & bled next to us and we can’t abandon them again. We must keep the promises we made as a nation and ensure that those who are eligible for immigration to the United States are given a fair chance to realize their American dream.
Together, we can stand up in service once more and make sure our allies know they’re not alone.
Sign up at afghanevac.org/battle-buddies to get more information about how you can attend public immigration hearings to show your support for our wartime allies, ensure that the rule of law is followed, and see that every immigrant seeking to build a new life here through legal means gets the due process they deserve.
In Solidarity –
Shawn VanDiver Kyleanne Hunter
President, AfghanEvac CEO, IAVA
