The visa program specifically for Afghans who worked for the U.S. military during America's longest war has been thrown into chaos by the Trump administration's freeze on foreign aid, advocates are warning.
While applications for the program, known as the Special Immigrant Visa, or SIV, program, are still being processed, support services provided by resettlement agencies that receive State Department funding, including flights to the U.S., have been halted by the aid freeze -- all but killing SIV holders' ability to travel and escape the Taliban-controlled country.
"It's clearly a concern, and it sends a message that we're not going to keep our promises and we're not going to stand by our allies. And that's a problem because our allies and partners are the most important aspect of our national security," Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., the ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and one of the Senate's leading proponents of the SIV program, told Military.com on Wednesday.
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The crippling of the SIV program is on top of a freeze in refugee admissions ordered by President Donald Trump on his first day in office that has stranded thousands of Afghans who helped the U.S. war effort but are not eligible for SIVs.
The refugee executive order did not apply to the SIV program, but advocates had already feared SIVs would be targeted next.
Those fears appeared to come to fruition late last week when the State Department announced its implementation of a separate Day One executive order calling for a 90-day pause in foreign aid while the administration reviews whether the funding aligns with its foreign policy goals.
After widespread outrage about the sweeping nature of the foreign aid pause, Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Tuesday approved a waiver allowing "life-saving humanitarian assistance" to continue.
But that waiver did not help the programs SIVs rely on, said Shawn VanDiver, a Navy veteran and founder of #AfghanEvac, a coalition of groups that have helped Afghan allies come to the U.S. since the end of the war in 2021.
Among the programs losing funding during the freeze is the International Organization for Migration's travel loans program -- the way most SIV holders pay for their flights.
More than 3,000 SIV holders were already booked on flights before the aid freeze, while another 33,000 were waiting to be booked, a congressional aide told Military.com on condition of anonymity.
SIV holders could theoretically still come to the U.S. if they can afford to pay for their own flights. But once they arrive, the freeze means they won't get any help paying for rent and food, finding a job, learning English or figuring out other basic necessities.
That's because the freeze also cuts off funding for what's known as the Reception and Placement program, which provides federal funding to resettlement agencies to help SIV holders and refugees for the first 30 to 90 days they are in the country.
"The people with the big catcher's mitt at the airport and the welcome sign saying, 'Welcome to America'? Those people can't go there anymore because their funding got cut off," VanDiver said.
Congress first created the SIV program for Afghans in 2009 in order to provide a pathway for them to come to the country if they worked for the U.S. military as interpreters and in other jobs. The work put their lives in danger by making them a target for the Taliban.
The threat to their lives skyrocketed after the U.S. military withdrew from Afghanistan in 2021 and the Taliban swept back into power. Lawmakers in both parties, veterans of the war and other advocates scrambled to get as many Afghan allies out before the last U.S. troops left, but thousands were left behind.
As of the end of September, more than 53,000 completed SIV applications were still pending, according to the State Department's most recent quarterly report on the program.
Rubio was among the lawmakers who pressed the Biden administration to do more to help Afghan allies during the withdrawal.
The State Department did not provide a comment on how the foreign aid freeze is affecting the SIV program by Military.com's deadline. But in a news release Wednesday, it defended the freeze in general as "rooting out waste" and "blocking woke programs."
"Every dollar we spend, every program we fund, and every policy we pursue must make America safer, stronger, and more prosperous," the release said. "And that is exactly what we are doing right now -- prioritizing America's core national interests one dollar at a time."
The news release also outlined the process to obtain a waiver from the freeze and contended that the "process was used successfully dozens of times in the first several days alone." But, the release added, "many requests failed to provide the level of detail necessary to allow a thorough evaluation."
Despite the aid for SIV holders not yet getting a waiver, VanDiver said he remains hopeful that the effects on the SIV program were unintentional and that a waiver will be granted once the process is worked through. In the meantime, though, lives are at stake, he said.
"Exemptions for Afghan allies protect America's credibility on the world stage," he said. "Military and intelligence leaders rely on local partners to win wars, whether in Afghanistan, Iraq or future conflicts. If we break our word, why would anyone take risks for us again?"
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