The American record · 2009-2026
The Unfinished Mission
A promise made, a promise broken, a promise we can still keep.
America built a program to keep its promise to the Afghans who served alongside it, ran it at record scale, and then shut it off by policy. The machinery works. What is missing is will.
What this report is
A factual account of a promise, kept and then broken
The United States made a promise to the Afghans who stood with it: if you serve alongside us, we will not leave you behind. It built the machinery to keep that promise, the SIV program, the refugee pathway, parole, and Enduring Welcome, and ran it at record scale. Since January 1, 2026, it has issued zero visas to principal applicants holding Afghan passports. The promise is not delayed. It is suspended, quietly, on paper, where most people never see it.
What the report found
Four findings the record makes plain
The promise reaches everyone who shared the risk
Guards, drivers, pilots, judges, women leaders, and their families, across the SIV program, the refugee pathway, and parole. Not interpreters alone.
A record year, then switched off by choice
FY2024 was the program's best year ever. It was not stopped by applicants, numbers, or law. It was stopped by policy.
The security rationale collapses
The government's own most rigorous review found 55 watchlist matches, 46 already cleared, not the figures asserted without methodology.
Built on the wrong chassis
An employment-visa process cannot serve allies in hiding whose records vanished. The durable fix is a danger-based refugee category.
By the numbers
The scale of what was built, and what was stopped
Every figure here is sourced in the full report. SIV totals are outcomes, issuances plus adjustments of status.
The record
Issuances grew under every administration, until this one
Average monthly SIV outcomes climbed to an all-time high under the Biden administration, then fell under the second Trump administration. Since January 1, 2026, issuance to principal applicants on Afghan passports has stopped entirely, not because the program failed, but because it was switched off.
Average monthly SIV outcomes by administration, issuances plus adjustments of status. The second Trump administration's figure spans January 2025 to May 2026 and includes 2026 months with no issuance to principal applicants on Afghan passports; over calendar 2025 its pace was roughly 872, before issuance stopped entirely on January 1, 2026.
The recommendations
AfghanEvac's position is unchanged and unambiguous. The United States should:
Restore the SIV exemption to Proclamation 10998 and resume issuing visas already adjudicated.
Issue the 5,970 authorized numbers that remain, now, not as leverage or left to expire.
Authorize about 50,000 more principal-applicant numbers, or remove the cap altogether.
Restore the full CARE relocation suite, including charter flights and third-country processing.
Reopen the Refugee Admissions Program to Afghans, including Priority-1 and Priority-2 referrals.
Expedite family reunification and end multi-year separations, starting with U.S. citizens and LPRs.
Reopen and extend Chief of Mission eligibility for those shut out by the December 2025 deadline.
Comply fully with the courts' orders rather than litigating against America's own wartime allies.
Protect Afghans already here: restore TPS, provide stable status, and adjudicate their benefits.
Build a durable, conflict-agnostic wartime allies program so the U.S. never improvises this again.
Why this is a national interest, not only a debt
Three reasons this matters beyond the moral one
Force protection for the next war
Future allies are watching whether an American promise expires with the news cycle.
Denies adversaries a propaganda win
Every stranded ally is a story our adversaries are already telling.
Keeps American families together
Over 9,000 relatives of U.S. citizens and green-card holders are still stranded.
Inside the report
What the 51 pages cover
A letter and executive summary
The promise, who it was made to, and where it stands, in the President and Founder's words and in a full summary of the record.
Part I-II: The life of the program
How we got here, and the program's whole arc across four administrations, from a near-death in its infancy to a record year to a full shutdown.
Part III: Enduring Welcome
The first standing wartime-allies enterprise of its kind, what it built, and what its dismantling costs.
Part IV: The lawsuit that kept the promise alive
Afghan and Iraqi Allies v. Pompeo, what the court did, and its impact.
Part V: The pipeline today
What a frozen pipeline looks like, who is caught in it, and the security question answered honestly.
Part VI, recommendations, methodology, and sources
Where this leaves us, what the United States must do, and every figure sourced and shown.
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An AfghanEvac Special Report, August 5, 2026. Every figure in this summary is sourced in the full report. SIV totals are outcomes (issuances plus adjustments of status); the refugee-pathway figure is separate from parole. The report draws on the State Department's quarterly reports to Congress, Congressional Research Service data, the 2022 After-Action Review on Afghanistan, and federal court records. Read the full report and sources at reports.afghanevac.org.