Following the announcement by the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) to temporarily suspend processing immigration applications for Afghan citizens, the US State Department issued a cable on Friday, November 28, directing global diplomatic personnel to cease processing visas for Afghan citizens, including Special Immigrant Visas (SIV) for allies who have assisted the US military. SIVs are special status visas established by the US government for Afghans who have supported the US military.
The cable was sent to all US embassies on the 28th, instructing consular officers to immediately reject all immigration and non-immigration visa applications from Afghan citizens, including SIV applicants.
According to anonymous reports by several media outlets, the decision to halt visa processing for Afghan citizens aims to “ensure the applicants’ identities and their eligibility for visas under US law are in compliance.”
The cable stated that scheduled visa interviews would not be canceled, but consular officers should deny issuing the visas during the interviews. The State Department mentioned that any approved but unprinted visas should be revoked and canceled, while printed visas should be destroyed, relevant cases should be modified in the system, and the applications rejected.
On Saturday, November 29, the US State Department released a statement on Platform X, announcing the suspension of visa issuance for individuals holding Afghan passports, emphasizing that “the US State Department has suspended visa processing for individuals holding Afghan passports. The State Department is taking all necessary measures to safeguard US national security and public safety.”
Secretary of State Rubio, when forwarding the statement, remarked, “The US State Department has suspended visa processing for all individuals holding Afghan passports. The most crucial mission for the United States is to protect our country and people.”
The incident dates back to November 26 (the day before Thanksgiving), when a retired member of an Afghan unit supported by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) shot and killed two National Guard soldiers in Washington, D.C.
The suspect in the case is a 29-year-old Afghan citizen who entered the US in September 2021 through the Biden administration’s “Operation Allies Welcome.” Following the fall of the Kabul regime, the US expedited the acceptance of a large number of Afghan immigrants and provided temporary humanitarian measures for resettlement.
President Trump released a video on the same day, referring to the attack as a “terrorist act” and attributing the incident to the immigration policies of the Biden administration being too lenient. The location of the incident was just a few blocks away from the White House. Assistant Chief of the Metropolitan Police Department, Jeff Carroll, described the case as a “targeted ambush.”
The volunteer group AfghanEvac, which assists US Afghan allies, stated that the cable is one of the Trump administration’s attempts to prevent all Afghans from coming to the US. Shawn VanDiver, the president of the organization, told Reuters, “This is exactly what the government has been working to achieve for the past months.”
VanDiver pointed out that around 200,000 Afghans have entered the US since 2021 through refugee and special visa programs. He mentioned that there are approximately 265,000 Afghan individuals living outside the US who are applying for visas, with around 180,000 of them being SIV applicants.
In July 2021, the US military officially withdrew from the largest military base in Afghanistan, Bagram Airfield. Bagram Airfield had been the US military’s anti-terrorism base in Afghanistan for nearly 20 years since the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. Afghanistan has been the headquarters of the Taliban.
(This article referenced reports by Reuters)