President Donald Trump's new order banning almost all travel to the United States for Afghan nationals places yet another hurdle in the way of former U.S. allies already struggling to leave Afghanistan after Trump froze refugee resettlement his first day in office.
The order, announced Wednesday, bans travel from 12 countries and restricts it from seven more. The countries are all in the Middle East, Africa and Central and South America.
The new travel ban goes into effect Monday. Only those with U.S. visas will be allowed entry, the order says.
In a statement, nonprofit #AfghanEvac — which helps resettle Afghans in the U.S. — said the ban is a "disgrace."
"...To include Afghanistan — a nation whose people stood alongside American service members for 20 years — is a moral disgrace," the statement said. "It spits in the face of our allies, our veterans, and every value we claim to uphold."
In a White House proclamation Wednesday, Trump said the decision to impose a travel ban was made to protect U.S. citizens from terrorist attacks.
The ban echoes one Trump ordered in the beginning of his first term but includes more detailed exceptions.
For Afghans, Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) holders will be allowed travel, as will their family members — as long as they can prove their relations via DNA, Trump's proclamation says.
"The family member thing is kind of a trick," said Shawn VanDiver, the San Diego Navy veteran who co-founded #AfghanEvac. "There are no ... certified DNA labs to do DNA testing in Afghanistan."
To VanDiver, the new ban is just the latest in a monthslong effort to shut the door once and for all to Afghans. #AfghanEvac, along with other refugee resettlement organizations, worked with the Biden administration after the fall of Kabul in 2021 to establish a system to help Afghans resettle in the U.S.
The result was Operation Enduring Welcome, a "long-term resettlement program" to help Afghans who worked with the U.S. during its 20-year occupation leave the country, where they faced reprisals from the Taliban.
"Enduring Welcome is being dismantled," VanDiver told KPBS Thursday. "The exemption for SIV holders sounds really nice, but the reality is that the infrastructure to help them has been degraded, and they're trying to turn it off completely."
On Trump's first day in office, he ordered a halt to all refugee resettlement, stranding thousands of Afghans already vetted and approved to travel to the U.S.
Last month, his administration ended Temporary Protected Status for thousands of Afghans already in the U.S., and the legal status of thousands more remains at risk.
Last week, the State Department notified Congress it is eliminating the Coordinator for Afghan Relocation Efforts, or CARE — the office created under Biden to coordinate Afghan resettlement, on July 1.
And, an appendix to the White House's proposed 2026 budget — also released last week — says Enduring Welcome will end at the end of this fiscal year.
"The Department will shut down the Enduring Welcome program," it says.
