Good afternoon, 

The Emma Lazarus sonnet on the Statue of Liberty includes the line:  

"A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame is the imprisoned lightning, and her name Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand glows world-wide welcome;" 

A new travel ban is coming from the Trump Administration and sources say that Afghanistan and Pakistan will be included this time, ending the possibility of Afghans who have served our military receiving visas and safety. This news comes after the 90-day ban on refugees, the stop-work order for refugee resettlement organizations, and the news last week that all the refugee resettlement organizations’ contracts with the government are being cancelled for the first time ever, almost 50 years since the passage of the Refugee Act of 1980.    

Some might ask, why does it matter to continue to allow Afghans to immigrate to the U.S.?   

National security is at stake with the question of whether any country will want to partner with the U.S. military in the future. Our partnerships provide intelligence, protect service men and women, give us cultural navigators, and translators. Allies help us prevent terror attacks from coming to our shores and help us stabilize the world and keep peace. Our promises to our allies matter.  

The morale of veterans is another reason to honor our promise to Afghan allies. American veterans were kept safe in their mission by Afghan allies. It is important to our vets that we are a country of our word and that the people they serve alongside are protected. I think of the Marine mantra of "no man left behind" and have heard all the Marines I know also attribute this to our foreign military partners. Their word is their honor, and it is the honor of the United States. We should not close the door on the very people who risked so much for the sake of democracy and the United States.  

For me, this issue is personal. I met Hashmat and his wife Laila as we were advocating for the Biden Administration to hurry the long delayed Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) applications that were pending in the Spring of 2021. This program was offered to allies who had put themselves in acute danger to work alongside and support our military. Hashmat had more than 40 high security contracts with our military in Kandahar and still had not received his SIV. Hashmat and Laila believe in democracy and their partnership with us led to them going into hiding and losing everything when they were left behind during the US withdrawal. When I met them in May of 2021, I was introduced to them for a news story. After the reporter interviewed them, I couldn’t look away from their case and got involved in my personal time advocating for them.  

When their SIV never arrived, my friends and family and I applied for the new Welcome Corps program in 2024, a State Department private sponsorship program that would have allowed their family to lawfully immigrate here before all the recent executive orders closed this pathway for refugees. We got background checks and training. Our friends went through intense vetting, medical checks, USCIS and security interviews all by the end of 2024, and we were awaiting a final decision on their case to at last be able to find safety here. Friends and family from Ohio to Mississippi contributed financially to all of their resettlement costs with multiple veterans involved in the sponsorship, and friends and strangers alike praying for their safe arrival. As they were on the brink of a final decision with their Welcome Corps case, refugee resettlement was halted, with uncertainty about the future of the SIV program, creating a bleak turn in their story, only added to by the expected travel ban on Afghans. I will let Hashmat share a word to you directly:  

"I appeal to you, to ensure the sacrifice, loyalty, and contributions of allies like me are not forgotten. Your support and advocacy can make a life-changing difference for my family- including my three children, who have been deprived of basic human rights since 2021- and help us find the safety and stability we urgently need in the United States."   

While it is dark for my Afghan friends and so many other allies, and I am aware of the difficulty of this hour for them, I know our advocacy matters. Urge your members of Congress to pass adjustment legislation for Afghans and continue to join us in speaking up for the kind of country we should be: a beacon to the world, a country that keeps our promises to others.  

Stay committed and hopeful, 

Christy

Christy Staats 
Assistant Vice President of Field and Constituencies 
National Immigration Forum