My phone buzzed incessantly in my pocket that day in August 2021, interrupting what was meant to be a much-needed moment of rest. It was 3 p.m., and after months of working around the clock, I received word that the unthinkable was happening: Afghanistan’s capital Kabul was falling to the Taliban. The city’s collapse marked the start of what would become the largest airlift in U.S. history, as hundreds of thousands of Afghans scrambled to escape on hastily organized military flights.
In the four months prior, I had organized and led a coalition of refugee advocacy groups, business leaders, historians, and human rights activists. Since April, we had been trying to convince President Joe Biden and his team to take seriously the plight of our Afghan allies and begin relocating the most vulnerable to U.S. soil. We knew that when the Taliban took over the country — and they would — bloodshed and retribution would follow.
During those last two weeks in August, American civil society stepped up where the Biden administration had failed, organizing networks, including in Europe and Canada, to rescue as many Afghan allies as possible. Fortunately, in the three years since then, the administration has changed course and stepped up to the challenge. But a big gap remains, and the culprit this time is congressional inaction.
‘Thousands Mobilized’ for the Rescue
In those harried months leading up to August 2021 and in the months thereafter, thousands mobilized to do the impossible. My main role was to channel civil society’s energy into a coherent effort. We needed to expand the organizing capacity of volunteer groups, inform the public about what was happening, and send a unified message to the U.S. government and the world about what needed to be done.
Our message then was simple: surge the number of vulnerable Afghan allies placed on relocation flights, drop overly burdensome visa restrictions, and prepare the long-term resettlement infrastructure needed to support both the new arrivals and those left behind.
We did this by building coalitions of organizations, businesses, veterans’ groups, and everyday Americans to focus on different aspects of the problem. We named our efforts to honor the work: Evacuate Our Allies, Afghan Evac, Digital Dunkirk, Team America Relief, and other initiatives emerged out of a sense of duty to friends left behind. Those with connections to move people from one place to another built networks to do so. Advocacy groups leveraged their relationships in capitals across the globe. Others with resources to resettle Afghans began preparing communities to welcome our new neighbors. And we all voiced our anger.
I was deeply frustrated with a government that I saw as betraying a commitment to human rights. As a result, I was highly critical of Biden and his administration, going so far as to tell reporters the president was “gaslighting” Americans. So when the airlift ended, and his administration claimed they would continue to find ways to help the Afghans left behind, I was skeptical, to say the least.
US Government Progress With Civil Society Help
Three years later, I am happy to acknowledge the progress that has been made. Though the abandonment of a democratic Afghanistan is unforgivable, the Biden administration recognized its failures and turned to civil society to help address them.
Since September 2021, the federal government, spearheaded by the State Department, has forged an unprecedented collaboration with civil society to honor America’s promise to our allies. By working with groups like Afghan Evac and Evacuate Our Allies, the Biden administration has harnessed the passion, commitment, and expertise of everyday Americans to keep the country’s doors open to at-risk Afghans.
One of the first things Biden did was to create a team at the State Department dedicated to helping Afghans left behind. The office of the Coordinator for Afghan Relocation Efforts (CARE) was formed shortly after the evacuation and is responsible for managing ongoing relocation efforts. Crucially, unlike the administration’s earlier failure to meaningfully engage civil society before the fall of Kabul, the CARE office now meets regularly with advocacy groups to ensure that the government is responsive to community needs.
The U.S. government also improved the processing of Special Immigrant Visas, a dedicated resettlement pathway for our closest allies who served alongside U.S. forces. Once a byzantine process that took years, the SIV program is now systematically issuing visas to qualified and vetted Afghan applicants. The multistage process had previously felt like a black hole, with some years seeing only a few hundred approved visas amid a backlog of tens of thousands. However, the process has improved so much that in the second quarter of this year, more visas – 1,978 — were issued for our allies in those three months than in all of 2018, when 1,801 such visas were issued for Afghans and Iraqis combined.
For veterans like me, each approved visa is a validation of our service. We made a promise to our Afghan allies to stand by them in their time of need. The steady pace of visa approvals now demonstrates that America is fulfilling its commitment to our allies.
But this progress is in jeopardy because Congress has refused to do its part.
Legislation Stalled
A number of critical pieces of legislation have been stalled for years. Despite bipartisan efforts led by Senators Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota and Representatives Mariannette Miller-Meeks of Iowa and Earl Blumenauer of Oregon, Congress has failed one of the most basic duties of elected officials: to honor America’s promises. Pending legislation like the Afghan Allies Protection Act and the Afghan Adjustment Act would ensure that the progress made over the last three years is not lost or reversed. These bills would authorize more visas for the SIV program, allow CARE to finish its mission, and ensure that more of the tens of thousands of our Afghan allies left behind find refuge in the United States.
Despite the urgent appeals from veterans’ groups like The American Legion, Veterans of Foreign Wars, and Blue Star Families, many in Congress still refuse to take responsibility for addressing this issue. Most alarmingly, some Congressional Republicans have tied the issue to unrelated legislation, like border enforcement measures. Their inaction continues to place the burden of care for our allies onto the shoulders of hardworking Americans.
This must change.
Three years ago, when my phone was ringing, I picked up. When the Biden administration saw the consequences of their mistakes, they acted and changed course. We did our part. Now Congress, when it returns from its summer recess, must do theirs: Pass the Afghan Allies Protection Act and the Afghan Adjustment Act. Because if they don’t — if Congress continues to lack the moral courage — America will wake up three years from now and find that all the progress made has been for naught.