But these visas have taken years and years to process, mired in paperwork and red tape. Backlogs piled up, and thousands of designated annual slots went unfilled. Problems persisted across four presidential administrations, as none ever apparently had the political will to make the system work.
The incentives were instead aligned in favor of adding yet more layers of screening, and more impossible-to-obtain documents, in the name of safeguarding our national security — even though these visa applicants had more than proved their dedication to U.S. security interests. Some even had security clearances.
Our bureaucratic delays have proved deadly. More than 300 interpreters and their family members have been murdered since 2014 because of their association with the United States, according to the nonprofit No One Left Behind; some were killed while waiting in that interminable visa queue.
As soon as President Biden announced a full military withdrawal, resettling Afghan allies became even more urgent. Around the time of Biden’s declaration this spring, roughly 18,000 people who had assisted the U.S. government — and 53,000 family members — were still in the backlog for Afghan special immigrant visas. That doesn’t count the thousands more Afghan journalists, human rights activists and others at risk.
Groups that assist refugees and other immigrants urged the Biden administration to begin humanitarian evacuations right away, while U.S. troops could assist in the effort. One advocate coalition even gift-wrapped a ready-made evacuation plan, based largely on previous missions to evacuate wartime allies.
Their proposals included airlifting allies to Guam. On this isolated U.S. territory in the Pacific, vulnerable Afghans could wait — out of harm’s way and in a controlled environment — to be screened and processed for eventual relocation. This strategy has precedent: After the fall of Saigon, the U.S. government sent Vietnamese refugees to Guam for initial processing; it did so again in the 1990s with Iraqi Kurds targeted by Saddam Hussein. Guam officials said they were ready and waiting to accept Afghan evacuees.
But the White House dragged its feet, perhaps worrying that mass evacuations might have signaled doubts about the Afghan government. (Lacking confidence in the Afghan government would’ve been the right call, it turns out.)
In mid-July, the White House finally announced plans to send 2,500 Afghan interpreters and other allies to Fort Lee, in Virginia, for processing. That was nowhere near the scale of evacuations necessary. Rather than immediately bringing tens of thousands of evacuees to U.S. soil, the Biden administration has been seeking to dump most of our Afghan allies on a “third country” while they await screening.
“We trusted these people enough to put the lives of troops in their hands but apparently not enough to send them to Guam,” said Becca Heller, executive director of the International Refugee Assistance Project. “This is a historically unprecedented type of political cowardice to not bring them to U.S. soil.”
Understandably, finding other countries willing to take the Afghan nationals whom we’ve signaled we distrust has proved challenging.
And so, for now, tens of thousands of our friends have been left to die.
Only 2,000 Afghan allies have been evacuated to the United States in the past two weeks, and on Sunday, those who had been scheduled for relocation were told all remaining official (military) relocation flights had been canceled. Commercial flights from Kabul were also suspended Sunday, after gunfire reportedly broke out near the airport and airfields were overrun by Afghans begging to board flights and even trying to cling to departing planes.
The window to help those in trouble is rapidly closing. Refugee advocates have already begun advising stranded Afghans to burn documents that could lead to retaliation from the Taliban. But there might still be a few hours left to save more of these people who deserve U.S. help. This will not happen by merely announcing additional refugee slots at a later date. Immediate action must be taken, in Kabul, so people can physically get out: The soon-to-be-6,000-strong U.S. force must secure both commercial and military flights out of Afghanistan; the lucky few who can still make it to the airport must be flown to greater safety on U.S. soil. The Defense Department is reportedly securing more U.S. military installations for the possible arrival of as many as 30,000 more Afghans.
The White House, which did not immediately return a request for comment, should sign off. Get the refugees to Guam, or Fort Lee, or some other U.S. foothold. Sort out the paperwork later.
“The very last hours of a very long war can be the defining image,” said Mike Breen, a retired U.S. Army officer who is now president and chief executive of Human Rights First. “That’s what lingers for a generation.”
After 20 years of humanitarian failures, we still have time for one last honorable act.
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Opinion | America has time for one last honorable act: Getting our allies out of Afghanistan - The Washington Post
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