Afghan Allies Who Helped the U.S. Now Fear Losing Their Green Cards
Hundreds of Afghans who helped U.S. forces during the war in Afghanistan and later moved to the United States fear they could lose their green cards and be sent back to Afghanistan. Their concern comes five years after the U.S. withdrew from Kabul. NPR
These Afghans did many different jobs for the U.S. government. Some cleaned the U.S. embassy in Kabul. Others worked as engineers or tech workers for U.S. companies. Some served as interpreters on the front lines of combat. They were allowed into the United States through a program called the Special Immigrant Visa, or SIV. Congress created the program in 2009 for Afghans who worked for or on behalf of the U.S. government. The State Department has given out about 160,000 of these visas since the program started. More than half were issued after the U.S. embassy in Kabul closed in 2021. NPR
Many of these visa holders later got green cards, which let them live and work in the United States permanently. But over the past year, lawyers and advocates who help Afghans settle in the U.S. have seen more federal revocation letters. These are official notices telling people that the government is canceling or denying the basis for their visa. The government started sending these letters at the end of the Biden administration after officials suspected that some documents supporting Afghan visa applications were not collected the right way, which could amount to fraud. NPR
Jennifer Patota, a leader at the International Refugee Assistance Project, said her organization had never seen the government send these kinds of cancellation letters years after a visa was already approved. Advocates, lawyers, and Afghan nationals told NPR the letters seem to be coming more often and in larger numbers than expected. The people helping Afghan allies said they could not find a clear pattern for who was receiving them. NPR
One Afghan visa holder, identified by NPR only as M., said he worried that talking to reporters could affect his green card. Many Afghans living in the United States fear they would be tortured or killed if sent back to Afghanistan. NPR
The letters are part of a broader push by the Trump administration to tighten legal immigration from Afghanistan. In April 2025, the administration ended a protection called Temporary Protected Status, or TPS, for Afghans. TPS had shielded them from deportation and allowed them to work. Thousands lost that protection as of May 20, 2025. NPR In November 2025, the agency that handles immigration, USCIS, announced it was suspending all immigration requests from Afghans indefinitely. Reuters Days later, the administration ordered a review of green card applications from what it called "countries of concern" after an Afghan national was named as a shooting suspect. President Trump also ordered a suspension of immigration from "Third World" countries. Al Jazeera
In December 2025, the administration paused all immigration applications from citizens of 19 countries, including Afghanistan. Reuters The administration also expanded its travel ban. The updated ban no longer includes an exception for Afghans who qualify for the SIV program. NPR USCIS separately stopped processing immigration applications for people from the 19 countries on the travel ban list. PBS NewsHour
These actions have divided Republicans in Congress. Some GOP members have disagreed with the Trump administration over its crackdown on legal immigration from Afghanistan, which affects people who worked with U.S. military and civilian personnel during the 20-year war. NPR
Under USCIS policy, Afghan SIV applicants are considered to be under threat in Afghanistan no matter how long ago they worked for the U.S. government or whether they have moved away. The agency's guidance lays out a green card process for Afghans employed by or on behalf of the U.S. government, including how to apply, what could disqualify someone, and the legal grounds for getting a green card. To get a green card, an Afghan national must have been inspected and admitted or paroled into the United States. USCIS Afghan special immigrant parolees and lawful permanent residents meet the immigration status requirement for public benefits. USCIS
The combination of these policies creates a difficult legal problem for visa holders who already have green cards. The revocation letters target the original visa approval, not the green card itself. But if the visa is invalidated, the green card built on top of it becomes vulnerable. Think of it like a table: if you pull away one leg, the whole table may wobble. For green card holders, the government would need a separate legal process to deport them, but the letters show the government believes it found a serious enough problem to reopen cases that had been considered settled. The fact that there is no clear pattern in who gets the letters has made things even more uncertain for a group that came to the United States through a program Congress created to protect them from the Taliban.
The broader picture is one of shrinking options. USCIS policy recognizes that these applicants face ongoing threats in Afghanistan. The end of TPS, the suspension of immigration processing for Afghan cases, the removal of the SIV exception from the travel ban, and now the revocation letters all together leave this group with fewer ways to protect themselves legally. Republicans who disagree with the administration's approach say the issue is about loyalty to allies who risked their lives for U.S. personnel. The administration says its actions are about preventing fraud and protecting national security.
