The story of a promise
How we got here
Five years, four turns. The promise the United States made to the Afghans who stood with its mission, how the country built the machinery to keep it, and how that machinery was switched off. This is the record, from the promise to now.
Last updated September 4, 2026
The arc in one screen
One promise, four turns
The story of America's Afghan allies is not a straight line. It runs from a promise made over twenty years of war, through the collapse and the airlift, to the largest wartime-allies enterprise the country ever built, and then to a deliberate shutdown. Here is the whole arc, then the timeline in full.
The promise
A commitment made across a twenty-year war, and a visa program never built to keep it at scale.
Era TwoThe airlift
Kabul falls. A two-week military airlift moves roughly 125,000 people, at the cost of thirteen American lives.
Era ThreeEnduring Welcome
The first standing wartime-allies enterprise of its kind, and the record years of the SIV program.
Era FourShutdown by policy
The strongest pipeline ever built, turned off in stages. Issuance falls to zero, and the fight moves to Congress.
The promise
2009 to August 2021
The United States made a promise to the Afghans who served alongside its troops and diplomats: stand with us, and we will not leave you behind. It was made to interpreters, but also to the guards, drivers, embassy staff, pilots, women leaders, judges, journalists, and the families who shared their risk. The problem was never the promise. It was that the machinery meant to keep it was thin, slow, and never built for the day the country fell.
2009
Congress creates the Afghan SIV program
The Afghan Allies Protection Act establishes a special immigrant visa for Afghans who worked for or on behalf of the U.S. government. Just 628 visas are issued in the first year, and the program settles into years of backlog.
2013
A deadline on paper, a database never built
Congress sets a nine-month processing standard and calls for a unified database to track eligible allies. The database is judged infeasible and never built, which is why, to this day, the burden of proving service still falls on the applicant.
February 2020
The Doha Agreement sets the withdrawal in motion
The U.S.-Taliban agreement fixes the terms of the American exit. What it does not contain is the point: no evacuation plan, and no protection for the allies who would be left behind when the government fell.
Spring 2021
The warning that went unheeded
As the withdrawal accelerated, a coalition of veterans and advocates saw what was coming. Evacuate Our Allies, co-founded and led by Chris Purdy, then director of Veterans for American Ideals at Human Rights First, formed in the spring of 2021 and pressed the administration for months to launch an evacuation before the last troops left, warning that tens of thousands of vetted allies would be stranded if the government waited. The warning was early and it was specific. When Kabul fell, the plan the coalition had called for did not exist.
The airlift
August 14 to 30, 2021
Kabul fell faster than the plans assumed. The SIV pipeline was overwhelmed, the refugee pathways were inadequate, and the databases were never designed for a mass evacuation. Into that gap stepped a military-led airlift and a volunteer movement that would become AfghanEvac. It was the crucible: two weeks that defined the obligation everything since has been measured against.
August 15, 2021
Kabul falls
The Afghan government collapses and the Taliban enter Kabul. Tens of thousands of Afghans who worked with the United States are suddenly in mortal danger, and the evacuation everyone hoped to avoid becomes the only option.
August 14–30, 2021
The largest airlift in a generation
A military-led noncombatant evacuation moves roughly 125,000 people out of the country in two weeks. Operation Allies Refuge becomes Operation Allies Welcome, and a coalition of veterans and volunteers, the beginning of AfghanEvac, mobilizes to fill the gaps the government could not.
August 26, 2021
Abbey Gate
An attack at the airport's Abbey Gate kills thirteen American service members and roughly 170 Afghans. It is the deadliest day of the evacuation, and a permanent reminder of what the promise cost.
August 31, 2021
The embassy closes; the work does not
Embassy Kabul suspends visa operations and has never reopened. Processing moves to third-country posts, and the unfinished evacuation becomes a years-long relocation effort.
Enduring Welcome
August 31, 2021 to January 20, 2025
What came next was slow to start, then unprecedented in scale. The government stood up CARE and Enduring Welcome, the first standing wartime-allies enterprise of its kind: third-country platforms, chartered flights, modern case management, and a court to hold it to deadlines. This is the era where AfghanEvac's recommendations became policy, and where the record proves what is possible when leaders decide the mission should succeed.
2021–2022
CARE and Enduring Welcome stand up
The Coordinator for Afghan Relocation Efforts, and then the Enduring Welcome enterprise, become the coordinating office watchdogs had called for since 2017. Third-country platforms in Qatar, Albania, and Germany open, and charter flights begin moving endangered applicants to safety.
September 2022
The applications surge
Chief of Mission applications in progress peak at 98,488, up from about 9,000 a year earlier, as the world sees the scale of who was left behind and the pathways finally open.
March 2024
Congress adds 12,000 visa numbers
The largest single increase in the program's history, and proof that the political will existed on both sides of the aisle to keep the promise moving.
FY2024 into FY2025
The record years
A record 33,119 SIVs are issued in FY2024, followed by 10,015 in the first quarter of FY2025 alone, the highest quarterly total ever. From 2021 to January 2025, roughly 82,500 SIV outcomes are recorded, more than every prior administration combined.
Shutdown by policy
After January 2025
The second Trump administration inherited the strongest SIV pipeline ever built and turned it off in stages. Refugee admissions suspended, flights paused, CARE dismantled, and by January 2026 issuance to Afghan-passport holders fell to zero. None of it required repealing a law. It required only deciding the program should stop. That is why the fight has moved to Congress and the states, and why the record above matters: it proves the shutdown is a choice, not a limit.
January 20, 2025
Three executive orders reset the field
On Inauguration Day, orders suspend the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program, pause virtually all foreign aid that funds relocation, and launch the vetting review that will later produce the travel proclamation. The same day, the State Department pauses all government relocation flights "until further notice."
May–July 2025
TPS terminated, CARE dismantled
The administration ends Temporary Protected Status for Afghanistan, stripping protection from roughly 11,700 people, and carries out the cuts that gut CARE, folding what remains into a desk at the State Department rather than an operating office.
January 1, 2026
Issuance falls to zero
Under the travel proclamation, visa issuance to Afghan-passport holders drops to zero. Just three Afghan SIVs are issued in the most recent quarter, against a pipeline of more than 178,000 approved allies still waiting.
February 6, 2026
A court holds the line
A federal court rules that an indefinite pause of adjudication violates federal law and a standing court order. Cases already in the pipeline must keep moving, even as entry and issuance stay restricted.
Now
The fight moves to Congress and the states
With more than 82,000 principal applicants and family members stuck in the interview queue, the work shifts to legislation and public pressure: the Afghanistan TPS Act, the Enduring Welcome Act, a durable Mission Partners Protection Program, and the states and communities standing up where Washington will not.
Keep going
Where the story goes next
The history is the case. These are the places to read the full record, see where things stand, and help decide how the next chapter reads.
Figures and dates on this page are drawn from The Unfinished Mission and AfghanEvac's public record on The Ledger, verified against State Department, congressional, and court sources. This page is a general history, not legal advice.