A bill introduced in the House last week would require the State Department to restart Afghan refugee travel, as a series of actions taken by the Trump Administration have effectively halted resettlement.
The Enduring Welcome Act would require the department to reopen its office of the Coordinator for Afghan Relocation Efforts, or CARE, which was closed last month, and its staff was laid off.
Democrat Scott Peters, one of the bill's co-sponsors, said at a news conference on Wednesday at the USS Midway Museum, alongside Afghans and community advocates, that the U.S. is failing tens of thousands of its former allies.
"It's reprehensible that we're failing our Afghan allies now," he said. "Even Afghans who made it to the United States are at risk of losing the stability and security that they have found here."
Mihan Raufy, an immigration attorney with Afghan Family Services, said the arrest and detainment of two Afghan allies in the U.S., legally over the summer, has the community anxious. She said thousands of Afghans vetted by the State Department and approved to relocate to the U.S. have been stranded since Trump suspended refugee travel on his first day back in office.
"That pathway has been suspended nationwide under the executive order halting the travel of Afghans who are already vetted and approved," Raufy said. "Thousands remain stranded in third countries with no word on when travel will resume."
The Enduring Welcome Act builds upon several policy goals previously brought before the House under the Afghan Adjustment Act. Together, the bills would provide a legal pathway for former U.S. allies in Afghanistan to relocate to the U.S. and offer those already in the country a legal path toward residency.
After Trump told a reporter last month he supported honoring promises made to Afghans during the 20-year occupation of Afghanistan, Peters said he's hopeful Congress will act.
"I hope that the speaker heard that message because we have bipartisan support for the two bills," Peters said. "I know that the speaker has been shy about confronting Trump, but here is a case where apparently he agrees with us. We could pass those in September, send them up the president's desk and get them signed."
The Enduring Welcome Act is under review by the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
