AfghanEvac Weekly Update | May 11, 2026
A federal court orders SIV compliance, over 1,000 Americans sign on against the DRC plan, and Afghan mothers mark another Mother’s Day apart from their children
It was a long and active week. A federal judge ruled the State Department has “woefully failed” Afghan SIV applicants and ordered enforcement. Our open letter to Secretaries Mullin and Rubio crossed 1,000 signatures and walked into 50 congressional offices. The DRC plan is still in play. And yesterday was Mother’s Day, the fifth since the fall of Kabul, with Afghan moms and their kids still existing torn apart.
The pressure is working. The window is open. Here is where things stand.
Action This Week
Sign the CAS open letter at afghanevac.org/sign. Over 1,000 Americans have already signed.
Amplify Judge Chutkan’s enforcement order. The order is on the public docket here. Post it, send it, cite it.
Share Zahra’s story in The Independent. A 15-year-old at CAS recorded a video message to the First Lady. She shouldn’t have had to. Read and share.
Judge Chutkan Orders SIV Compliance
On May 8, in Afghan and Iraqi Allies v. Rubio, Judge Tanya Chutkan signed an enforcement order finding the State Department has “woefully failed” to meet its obligations under the Revised Adjudication Plan. The court ordered monthly Chief of Mission processing benchmarks, 1,000 cases in June, 2,000 in July, 3,000 in August and September, and at least 4,000 every month thereafter until the backlog is cleared. The Department must file a public compliance notice on the docket every month and, if it misses a benchmark, explain why.
Why it matters
A federal judge has now publicly found the Department’s conduct is a compliance failure, not a discretionary choice. The benchmarks are not strict mandates, the order uses “endeavor” language, and the travel ban still automatically denies visas after CoM approval. But the order forces the Department to put its numbers on the public record, every month, where reporters, Congress, and class counsel can read them. That is real accountability infrastructure where there was none.
USCIS Sending Unexpected “Action Taken” Notices to Already-Approved Afghans
Afghans in touch with our teams, and reports filtering in through partner organizations across the coalition, point to a wave of unexpected messages from USCIS in recent days. The messages appear as notifications inside recipients’ USCIS online accounts. They read along the lines of “we have taken an action in your case” and indicate the case is still being processed, even where adjustment of status (green card) and other immigration benefits applications were approved months or years ago. In at least one reported instance, an applicant’s case status reverted to a prior pending status for roughly 24 to 36 hours before being restored. USCIS has acknowledged the issue and said it is under investigation. No public guidance has been issued to affected applicants.
Why it matters
If approved cases can quietly flip back to “pending” without explanation, no Afghan with status in the United States can trust that the approval they hold today will be the approval they hold tomorrow. Even if the trigger is technical, the pattern sits on top of the USCIS adjudication freeze on travel-ban-country nationals, the proposed retroactive refugee reinterview program, and the broader policy of subjecting already-vetted Afghans to second and third reviews. Until USCIS publishes guidance, Afghans who receive one of these messages should not act on it unilaterally. Document the notification, including timestamps and screenshots. Talk to a qualified immigration attorney before responding. Stay in touch with your resettlement agency. We will publish guidance as soon as USCIS does, and we will keep escalating in the meantime.
The Open Letter Has Crossed 1,000 Signatures
The open letter to Secretaries Mullin and Rubio has crossed 1,000 signatories, including General Stanley McChrystal, retired ambassadors, veterans, faith leaders, military families, and refugee resettlement organizations. Senator Blumenthal led 28 of his Senate colleagues to send the administration a parallel letter calling the DRC plan “one of the most cruel and imprudent betrayals in our nation’s history.” Coalition volunteers and AfghanEvac staff hand-delivered the letter to 50 congressional offices this week and posted from the drop-offs across our channels.
Why it matters
The letter is a public record the administration cannot say it never received. It asks for action already within executive authority, including admitting approved refugees, ensuring safe conditions at CAS, resuming SIV and refugee processing, and briefing Congress on the legal basis for continued detention. Every additional signature widens the record. If you have not signed, sign. If your organization has not signed, get it on the list.
We sent the original letter last week and I assured the leaders who received it that we would be sure to update them as the letter grows.
We broke the story of the letter on Anderson Cooper 360.
A Mother’s Day Note
This is the fifth Mother’s Day since the fall of Kabul. Afghan moms in our community have not seen their children in four or five years. Afghan children at CAS have not seen their grandmothers. There are families with mom in Kabul, dad in Kansas, and the kids split between them. None of this is accidental. Each separation is the result of a U.S. policy choice that has not been unmade.
Why it matters
The largest evacuation in American history is unfinished, and the people paying for that unfinished work are mothers and their kids. To every Afghan mom apart from her children today, we see you. We are not quitting until these families are whole.
Zahra Should Not Have Had to Be the Face
Zahra is 15. She has spent most of the last two years at CAS, where there is no school for teenage girls and where missile debris has fallen close enough to terrify her 11-year-old brother. This week, The Independent ran her video message to the First Lady. Senator Blumenthal amplified it on her birthday. Anderson Cooper and Scripps covered the broader CAS situation. International coverage hit four continents and seven languages.
Why it matters
It is good that her story broke through. It is not good that her story had to. A 15-year-old in the legal custody of the United States should not have had to record a public appeal to be treated as a person. The work is not to make her famous. The work is to bring her home.
Qatar Sets a September Deadline. Malaysia Is on the Table. DRC Is Still in Play.
On May 8, diplomatic documents released by the State Department confirmed that Qatar has asked the United States to relocate all CAS residents out of Doha by September 2026, and to refrain from sending any additional Afghans to Qatari territory. Separately, we are hearing Malaysia is being discussed as a destination for a small subset of CAS residents, likely women. The DRC remains under active consideration. Do not believe anyone who tells you the DRC is off the table until that statement comes officially from the State Department. Anonymous sourcing and well-intentioned reassurance are not the same as a public Department commitment.
Why it matters
Roughly 900 of the 1,100 people at CAS are already approved for U.S. admission. Approximately 150 are immediate family of active-duty U.S. service members. More than 440 are children. Qatar’s September window now sits over all of this as a hard timeline. The right destination for vetted, approved Afghan allies in U.S. custody is the United States. Every other conversation is a workaround.
Until State publicly closes the DRC option, the right posture is unchanged. Press. Amplify. Sign. Call.
Europe Is Quietly Engaging the Taliban
The same week the U.S. is trying to manufacture a refusal from CAS residents, our European partners are walking into the same trap from the opposite direction. On May 1, the German investigative program ZDF Magazin Royale, exposed a series of meetings between officials at Germany’s Federal Office for Migration and Refugees and individuals identified as Taliban representatives, held in Bonn and at Berlin Brandenburg Airport. The purpose, according to the reporting, was to coordinate deportation documentation and identify Afghan nationals for return. German Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt has publicly committed to continuing deportation flights to Afghanistan on an ongoing basis, including, where necessary, through direct communication with the Taliban.
Germany is not alone. Twenty European countries, including Belgium, Austria, the Netherlands, Denmark, Greece, and Norway, have formally pressed the European Commission to negotiate a returns arrangement with Kabul. An EU special envoy visited the Taliban in April. Brussels is preparing to host a Taliban technical delegation before the summer. The European Commissioner for Migration, Magnus Brunner, has publicly said that engagement with the Taliban “is not an option” Europe can avoid. Negotiations like this lend public credence to the idea that return is acceptable for those fleeing the extremist Taliban regime.
Member of European Parliament Hannah Neumann warned this week that each coordinated return “gives the Taliban more power instead of weakening them.”
Why it matters
The same logic the Trump administration is using to push Afghans out of CAS, pretending Afghanistan is “safe enough” for return, is influencing Brussels to potentially justify deportations into Taliban hands. Every European deportation flight handed off to Taliban officials normalizes the regime as Afghanistan’s de facto government and forecloses a destination of last resort for Afghans fleeing harm. Non-refoulement is not a regional principle. It is a principle of international law, and right now it is being eroded on both sides of the Atlantic, by governments that all signed the same treaties.
This is bigger than any one country’s policy. It is a coordinated retreat from a baseline obligation, and AfghanEvac will be saying so publicly to our European counterparts and to our coalition partners working this same fight in Europe.
We will be engaging on this and look forward to keeping you looped on the issue.
All Souls Church
I had the honor of speaking at All Souls Church in Washington, DC this weekend on faith, civic obligation, and what we owe those who stood with us when standing with us was the most dangerous thing they could do.
Shoutout to Samad and Carrie, who showed up at All Souls to support our efforts there.
Pipeline Snapshot
Roughly 260,000 Afghan allies in processing across 90 countries. Roughly 178,000 with Chief of Mission approval. Roughly 1,100 at CAS. Roughly 5,900 SIV visas remaining in the annual allocation. Last week’s numbers. They will be next week’s numbers if nothing changes. That is the point.
In the Press
CAS, DRC, and the open letter
They were hunted by the Taliban for helping the US. Now Trump wants to send these families to the DRC — The Guardian
Afghan girl issues emotional appeal to Melania Trump after more than a year and a half in U.S. camp — The Independent
Trump admin considering resettling Afghans to the DRC — CNN Anderson Cooper 360
Advocates slam Trump plan to send wartime Afghan allies to Congo — KPBS / Scripps
Afghans promised a home in U.S. may face repatriation, and the Taliban — Washington Post / Detroit News syndication
Qatar has asked the United States to relocate Afghan refugees by September — Hasht-e Subh
US considering sending stranded Afghans in Qatar to the Congo, advocacy group says — Middle East Eye
Ranking Member Shaheen presses State Department to resettle Afghan allies in the United States — Senate Foreign Relations Committee
Europe and the Taliban
Germany: More deportations to Afghanistan raise criticism over collaboration with Taliban — InfoMigrants
Germany holds secret talks with Taliban amid controversial Afghan deportations — AtlasPress / ZDF Magazin Royale
Brussels prepares to engage with Taliban on Afghan deportations — Brussels Signal
EU considers talks with Taliban in Brussels over Afghan returns — Belga News Agency
MEP Neumann warns deportations to Afghanistan could strengthen Taliban — Future Afghanistan
Inside Afghanistan and across the region
Afghanistan risks losing 25,000 women teachers and health workers — UN News
Speaking up for girls’ education carries heavy risks in Afghanistan — Inter Press Service
Pakistan: Surge in forced returns of Afghan refugees — Human Rights Watch
Over 9,000 Afghans return from Pakistan in two days as deportation drive intensifies — KabulNow
Pakistan must immediately halt deportation of Afghan refugees — Refugees International
Every outcome above is the result of a choice someone with authority is making, and every one of them can be unmade by someone with the same authority choosing differently. The court forced one such choice into the open this week. A thousand Americans forced another. Twenty-nine senators forced a third. A teenager in Doha forced a fourth.
The promise was made by Americans. The work of keeping it is American work. On this day-after-Mother’s Day, with families still apart and a refusal plan still on the table, we will keep doing that work in every room where it matters.
We are furious. We are focused. And we are not going anywhere.
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