Monday Morning Update -- October 14, 2025

Battle Buddies wins, humanitarian losses, social media blackouts, upcoming changes to SIV processing and resettlement.

This week you’re getting updates on Tuesday October 14 due to the Monday holiday. We are in London meeting with some of our international counterparts both in government and civil society working on this issue and we can’t wait to tell you all more about that special relationship but that’s next week!

We have updates below on relocation numbers, including the folks still stuck in limbo at CAS in Doha, upcoming changes to the SIV process, and on recent events in Afghanistan that impact not only those allies who have been left behind, but those who have already relocated as well. We have more on Battle Buddies actions and outcomes and a couple of related stories. And finally, we were excited to see With Honor sign on to support the Enduring Welcome Act – the support for this critical legislation continues to grow. As always, we’re grateful you’re still engaged in this issue.

Relocation Updates

All U.S. relocation flights out of Afghanistan remain paused, as they have been since January 20th. There remain approximately 260,000 eligible Afghans globally who deserve at least a chance to have their cases reviewed and processed, including people in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and nearly 90 other countries around the world. At the CARE-managed immigration processing site in Doha, Qatar there are still just about 1300 individuals who were moved there by the U.S. government and who remain in limbo, unsure of when or whether they will be able to complete their immigration journeys. We still have no idea what might happen with their cases – but AfghanEvac is adamantly opposed to repatriation as an option.

Many pathways remain closed, including USRAP (P1/P2), most visas (except SIVs, immediate family of U.S. citizens, and other rare exceptions), and all follow to join. The graphic below provides more granular detail.

For SIVs, processing is ongoing but there is no relocation assistance available for Afghans seeking to leave Afghanistan to head to a third country for processing. In two pieces of big news:

• State Department is considering restricting SIV interviews and post-interview processing to a few posts around the world.

• IOM flight loans for SIVs should be restarting soon for SIVs who have received their visas

We do not have a ton of details on either piece of news yet but will share more as details become available.

For more details on the current state of operations and the obstacles in the way of our allies, go here:

• go.afghanevac.org/primer

• https://afghanevac.org/barriers

We’ve also heard rumors about various other countries and the populations they’ve left stranded mid-processing. We’re getting to ground truth on that but you should expect an update on that soon.

What to do TODAY

We are seeking principal sign-ons to an Open Letter from AfghanEvac, The Chamberlain Network, and RCUSA expressing outrage at the administration’s widespread immigration enforcement actions, particularly those targeting children and families. Review the letter and fill out the Google form HERE to sign on.

Battle Buddies Updates

The Boston Globe ran a great story about Battle Buddies this week, highlighting the impact that our teams are making: US veterans are standing up for Afghan asylum seekers

We had several Battle Buddies actions throughout the country this week, but at a San Diego deployment, I noticed one ICE agent wearing a shirt that said “Consider choosing violence”, which we felt was not only inappropriate, but intended to intimidate and incite fear. Our friend Pablo Manriquez at Migrant Insider had some thoughts on it HERE (and also had an interesting way of pronouncing my last name, but we’ll let that go).

We anticipate another major positive Battle Buddies story in the near future – and we look forward to sharing more details soon!

ICE Social Media

We are learning more about ICE’s planned initiative to build out a 24/7 social media surveillance apparatus, which was first reported last week. The reported plan would be to hire contractors to man two social media scouring centers that would operate continuously to find information that would be used for increased enforcement raids. While this plan is still in its early stages, it’s something we’re monitoring closely – this would be a dramatic expansion of government surveillance of social media and would certainly have an impact on our Afghan allies who have already made it to the U.S.

On the other end of the social media spectrum, we are also highly concerned about the confirmed reports that the Taliban is intermittently cutting off access to social media across Afghanistan. In addition to the forced internet outages that have negative impacts on Afghans all over the world, the Taliban have confirmed that some social media content is being restricted already. This type of censorship is disturbing, although the total shutdown of internet across the country had even broader negative impacts – including on Afghan women who are already denied so many basic rights within Afghanistan and rely on internet access as a lifeline to the outside world.

As of October 13th, the main border crossing between Afghanistan and Pakistan was closed in the aftermath of explosions in Kabul which the Taliban blames Pakistan for, stating that Pakistan “violated Kabul’s sovereign territory”. Pakistan has not confirmed or denied that they launched attacks within the Afghan border. We will be monitoring the situation closely.

What We’re Reading

• Afghan Refugees Left Stranded in Pakistan by Trump Administration Change of Policy – VNY

• India upgrades ties with Afghanistan’s Taliban, says it will reopen Kabul embassy – Reuters

• Russia hosts Taliban delegation and warns against foreign military presence in Afghanistan – AP

• US veterans are standing up for Afghan asylum seekers – Boston Globe

• UNHCR expresses concern over the denotification of Refugee Villages and forced returns of Afghan refugees – UNHCR

Thanks for reading each week and remaining involved in this fight. Don’t forget to review and sign on to our Open Letter – there’s a rolling sign on open today, and the letter will likely go out this week. We appreciate your support and hope to have some good reports from our London trip to share next week.