Folks, last week brought a significant and serious development on refugee admissions that we posted about on our Substack, and will get into in great detail below. We also want to give an update on some in-person action meeting with Afghans in Sacramento, CA; a big story that popped in the Wall Street Journal; info on pro bono services from World Relief and others; and finally a very concerning development for the SIV program related to the Ben Franklin fellows who seem to be running the State Department.
It was a tough week, but we remain in the fight.
Before we give you what you came here for, we wanted to share three things you can do this week to help:
Share the WSJ article detailing the plight of 1,300 Afghans, mostly refugees, stuck in limbo in U.S. custody in Qatar.
Contact your Member of Congress about the reprehensible refugee cap and ask them to demand that the Administration consult with Congress as mandated by law and release new numbers to provide refuge to those fleeing violence and persecution.
Donate to AfghanEvac so we can keep doing this work – we need your support now more than ever.
Presidential Determinations
Each year, the President sets a cap on the number of refugees who will be admitted into the country in the following year. By law, this determination is meant to be set after consultations with relevant Congressional committees. The cap also determines the level of federal funding which will be provided to the national refugee resettlement agencies that partner with the federal government to ensure refugees receive adequate support when they arrive here.
Last week, the Trump Administration quietly released two Presidential Determinations that extend the refugee ban and limit the the FY26 refugee admissions to only 7,500 people, the lowest number in all of U.S. history and a 94% reduction from last year, primarily reserved for Afrikaners from South Africa.
This decision is an absolute abdication of our moral and global duty and abandons hundreds of thousands of at-risk refugees globally, including tens of thousands of Afghans, among whom are included 3,000 family members of current active duty U.S. service members.
On Friday, I was grateful to participate in a press conference hosted by RCUSA along with Rep Jamie Raskin and other advocates and voices in the refugee space. From a legal perspective, this Presidential Determination was released entirely without the legally required consultation with Congress – it simply does not meet even the minimum baseline statutory requirement laid out in U.S. law. From a moral perspective, this decision creates a race-based refugee system and abandons persecuted populations in conflict- and violence-stricken regions around the globe. You can see the whole press briefing here.
Refugees Stuck in CAS
Last week, we highlighted this article in the WSJ, outlining the plight of those Afghans who remain stuck at Camp As Sayliyah in Doha, Qatar. Currently, more than 1,300 individuals remain at CAS – most of whom are refugees, and all of whom were relocated there by the U.S. government to complete their immigration processing and now remain in limbo.
The Presidential Determination that came out just days later prevents all of those individuals in the refugee track (P1/P2, DS-4317, etc) from being resettled in FY26. While there are tens of thousands of Afghan allies around the world who remain eligible for immigration case processing because of their service to the U.S., the population at CAS is the only group currently still under direct U.S. custody. They would be in immediate danger were they to be repatriated back to Afghanistan. More than half of the Afghans stuck in CAS are women & children, and around 200 are the family members of current U.S. service members.
Our government owes all of those individuals a chance to have their cases processed and approved and a pathway forward to resettlement here in America.
AfghanEvac joins other organizations in calling on our national leadership to reverse course: fully restore the U.S. resettlement program for refugees most at risk and formally end the program suspension
Immigration Legal Services
One of the most common things we heard from Afghans in Sacramento last week is there aren’t enough legal services available – which is true.
But the additional reality is that there ARE inexpensive and pro bono services available, there’s just a wait to access them. Organizations like World Relief and others offer those services in a variety of locations. We would encourage every Afghan who needs assistance to seek legal services, even if it means waiting for them. Given the current atmosphere surrounding immigration in this country, getting advice from a qualified immigration lawyer is critical.
Ben Franklin Fellowship Posts Seems to Threaten SIV Program
A new post early last week on the Ben Franklin Fellowship website, an organization that includes several senior officials in its leadership and advisory circles, including the Deputy Secretary Chris Landau, contains details that could only have come from inside the Department.
The article completely mischaracterizes the SIV program in what seems like an attempt to make the argument that it should be shut down. It states that “The Afghans who served America faithfully are largely resettled in the United States”, a claim which is wildly inaccurate, as there are still over 100K Afghans who already have COM approval waiting outside the U.S. for their chance to complete their immigration processing and receive a Special Immigrant Visa.
The author, hiding behind the pseudonym “Civis Legatus,” clearly has internal knowledge of case specifics, process flows, and fraud investigations that are not and should not be publicly available. The piece smears Afghan allies, distorts the reality of the SIV process, and undermines ongoing U.S. government operations — all while purporting to speak with authority on behalf of the Department.
AfghanEvac stands ready to continue our partnership with the U.S. government to ensure that those Afghans who stood by us get a chance at their American dream – and to provide this Administration with actual facts on who SIV applicants are and how best to improve and refine that program so that no ally is left behind.
What We’re Reading
Trump sets 7,500 annual limit for refugees entering US. It’ll be mostly white South Africans – AP
Local News coverage on 7,500 annual limit — Fox 5 San Diego
Trump cuts 2026 US refugee admissions to historic low. Most will be White South Africans. – USAToday
Trump administration limits refugee admissions to lowest on record – NBC News
Federal Policy Shifts Leave Refugee and Displaced Students in Limbo on U.S. Campuses – EDULedger
SNAP: A Survival Lifeline for Refugees and Immigrants Will End on November 1 – USCRI
Confidential information leaked after MoD official left laptop open on train – The Independent
As we continue to monitor all these major developments, we appreciate your support and ask for your action.
 | A guest post by
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Day by day, our lives are becoming more difficult, and we do not know the reason for it. All the countries that collaborated in Afghanistan have taken back their former colleagues; the only country is the United States of America, which has left behind more than half of its collaborators, and their promises are on the verge of being broken. Their flights have been suspended, their aid has been stopped, and they have abandoned thousands of their colleagues, even though they all completed the legal procedures for departure. Therefore, we hope that this suspended situation will resume and that they will fulfill their promises....thank you for your attentions.
It would be very helpful to have a clickable link to a pre-written letter congressional reps. Most organizations have this option for contacting congress, & you’d get many more responses to the request to contact congressional rep.s.