Immigrants and refugees face uncertainty with Donald Trump’s ascension to the post of President of the US next week. But, last month Congress guaranteed that a US visa program for Afghan nationals who gave help to American troops and are now facing Taliban retaliation will stay intact through the next four years, after a hard-won fight in the Senate.
The Afghan Special Immigrant Visa program has received annual reauthorizations since 2014, but last year a provision was included in the National Defense Authorization Act to have the program extended for a further four years, which was signed by President Barack Obama. The Afghan-US visa program was first established in 2009, with the intention of offering up to 7500 US visas over a five-year period.
The State Department believes that there remain over 13,000 Afghans who are still waiting for their applications for special US visas to be given approval. But, there were just 1632 such visas that remained available as of October, last year. Chief opponents of the amendment included Senator Jeff Sessions, the pick for Attorney General by Trump, and the Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration head, and Senate Judiciary Chairman, Chuck Grassley.
The program has now been extended through 2020, although the International Refugee Assistance Program policy director, Betsy Fisher, remains concerned that just 1500 US visas are set to be provided and acknowledges that work will have to be done to increase that number.