Monday Morning Update -- August 4, 2025
Battle Buddies, Habibi, and Congressional Briefings
Well, we are in August now and August always sucks for our community. That said, we have a lot happening this week and in the coming weeks. The biggest thing that happened last week is that, for the second time in July President Trump himself talked about our allies in a positive manner. We are cautiously optimistic that this means the tide will shift and we can start seeing more positive outcomes for our friends.
If you take one thing away from this email, please review this primer on where we stand on our issues as of August 2025.
Also, for August we are making everything in our store 25% off if you use AUGUST2025 as a discount code.
What happened last week?
Battle Buddies conducted our first training over the weekend and has expanded beyond courtroom appearances to any immigration appointment. We have our first deployments this week. If you or someone you know has an upcoming appointment or hearing, please do let us know.
Ice Detainers. Late last week, a federal Judge issued a temporary stay that should pause fast-track deportations for those on parole. We don’t know if ICE is going to care about the opinion or not. You can read more about the case here.
What’s coming this week?
There are two briefings coming, later this afternoon, for the House Foreign Affairs Committee and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. The brief is meant to be an update on Afghanistan, but we’ve heard that the State Department’s intention is to be difficult and not leave time for questions about what’s going on. We are hoping that answers will be forthcoming on what is going to happen to folks at CAS and what the future holds for our allies around the world trying to make it to the United States.
Legislation is coming. We are tracking at least three pieces of legislation that should be rolled out in the next week or so by the bill authors. We won’t release what they are until the legislators are ready but stay tuned because as soon as those pieces of legislation are on the street we will need folks ready to shout about them.
We’re coming up on the three-year anniversary of the abduction by the Taliban of Mahmoud Habibi, an SIV - turned American Citizen who was taken August 10, 2022. We’ll be talking a bit about him this week and you can see the recent rewards for justice press release on his case here.
In the News
ICE crackdown imperils Afghans who aided U.S. war effort, lawyers say – Washington Post
Judge pauses Trump administration’s push to expand fast-track deportations – AP
Trump Defense Department callously endangers Afghan allies – Washington Examiner
Afghanistan has its ‘sharpest surge’ ever of child malnutrition, UN agency says – Washington Post
They worked with the U.S. in Afghanistan. Now Trump could return them to the Taliban – CalMatters
We tried to keep it short this week and will keep you updated as things progress. Have a great day and make sure to review that primer we mentioned above and attached here.