US State Department stops processing visas for Afghan allies

Washington: US President Donald Trump’s administration has ordered its diplomats worldwide to stop processing visas for Afghan nationals, according to a State Department cable seen by Reuters, effectively suspending the special immigration program for Afghans who helped the United States during its 20-year-long occupation of their home country.

The cable, sent to all US diplomatic posts on Friday, says that effective immediately, consular officers are instructed to reject any immigrant or non-immigrant visa applications from Afghan nationals including applicants for Special Immigrant Visas.

On Wednesday, a former member of one of Afghanistan's CIA-backed units was accused of shooting two U.S. National Guard soldiers in Washington, D.C. One of them later died. The State Department on Saturday referred Reuters to a statement on platform X by Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Friday in which he said that "ALL individuals" traveling on Afghan passports would have their visa issuance "paused."

The cable on Friday, which was earlier reported by the New York Times, said the move to stop processing visas for Afghan nationals was aimed at "ensuring the applicant's identity and eligibility for a visa under U.S. law."

A volunteer group helping support the United States' Afghan allies said the cable was part of an effort by the Trump administration to bar all Afghans from making it to the United States.

"There is no doubt this is the outcome they have been driving toward for months," Shawn VanDiver, president of AfghanEvac, said in an email.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Appointments already scheduled for Afghan applicants will not be canceled. But when they occur, consular officers should refuse to give a visa to applicants, the cable said. The State Department said that any authorized visas that have not been printed yet should be reversed and canceled, while printed visas should be destroyed and those cases amended in the system and rejected. The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services had already halted processing of Afghan nationals' immigration requests indefinitely, earlier this week.

About 200,000 Afghans have entered the United States through 2021 through refugee and special visa programs, VanDiver previously told Reuters. Applications were still being processed for another 265,000 Afghans outside the United States, including about 180,000 in the Special Immigrant Visa pipeline for those who worked for the U.S. government, he said.

Since returning to office in January, Trump has aggressively prioritized immigration enforcement, sending federal agents to major U.S. cities and turning away asylum seekers at the U.S.-Mexico border. The flurry of promised restrictions since the attack on Wednesday now suggests an increased focus by his administration on legal immigration.