[Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 64 (Wednesday, April 9, 2025)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2501-S2502]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                              Afghanistan

  Mr. WELCH. Mr. President, it has been 3\1/2\ years since August 30, 
2021, when the last American forces withdrew from Afghanistan.
  The withdrawal was, by any objective measure, a total fiasco. 
However, the Biden administration does deserve some credit for 
evacuating at least 120,000 Afghans in those chaotic days after the 
Taliban overran Kabul. It was one of the largest--if not the largest--
humanitarian airlifts in history. Nevertheless, hundreds of thousands 
of Afghans and their families remain stranded in Afghanistan and other 
countries, especially Pakistan.
  Many of these people had worked for our government or participated in 
programs funded by the United States, in women's rights, in education, 
judicial and economic reform, in counternarcotics, and many other 
areas.
  These refugees worked with and for our government, our soldiers, our 
diplomats, and our intelligence officers. Some of these refugees have 
made it safely to the United States, thanks to the determined 
persistence of humanitarian organizations, including one in Vermont, 
the Vermont Afghan Alliance, and the outstanding work of Molly Gray and 
her staff.
  These organizations have advocated for refugees ceaselessly. They 
have not forgotten what those refugees did for our soldiers in 
Afghanistan. And these organizations have helped arrange for the 
practical needs that refugees face--housing, employment, and other 
social services--upon their arrival in the United States.
  I so appreciate the work of the Vermont Afghan Alliance and the many 
other refugee assistance organizations around the country, including in 
your State, Mr. President. They have been indispensable in helping us 
meet our obligation to support the Afghans who helped our soldiers. 
That is our obligation.
  But, ultimately, the resettlement is the responsibility of the 
Federal Government. In the end, the Biden administration did fall short 
in its promises to the Afghan refugee population. This population of 
refugees exists, I state again, because of their work with and for our 
government, for our soldiers, for our diplomats, and our intelligence 
officers. We have abandoned our partners in their time of need.
  One of the things, the screening process for these refugees became 
hopelessly bureaucratic, opaque, and fraught with inexplicable delays, 
including the processing of long-delayed special immigrant visas for 
Afghans who supported the U.S. mission. Many of them were interpreters. 
Congress failed by not providing the necessary funds and authority to 
streamline the resettlement process.
  And then, regrettably, in one of President Trump's first Executive 
orders, signed on January 20, he made the situation exponentially worse 
by suspending admission to the United States of Afghan refugees. And 
now Pakistan has threatened to deport them back to Afghanistan where 
many of them would face the risk of arrest and, literally, execution.
  Today, thousands of Afghan refugees are facing total abandonment by 
the U.S. Government, and this is despite the fact that they completed 
or they have nearly completed the laborious and time-consuming process 
of obtaining the necessary security and medical clearances for 
themselves and their families.
  I would like to share one example. For over a year, my office has 
tried to help an Afghan man, now in Vermont, who worked at the U.S. 
Embassy in Kabul. This man is working to support fellow Afghans in 
finding employment for Afghans in Vermont. This man's father served as 
a Deputy Minister of Justice supporting U.S. rule of law projects.
  Since 2021, the father and his family have been hiding in a third 
country, knowing they would face arrest and persecution if they are 
deported back to Afghanistan. Then, in December 2024, after years of 
waiting, they were finally cleared to fly to the United States. He 
thought his father was coming home. The son had already signed the 
lease for an apartment and was paying the rent for this to happen. But 
since January 20, as a result of the President's order, the father and 
his family have remained in hiding, preparing for the worst as the son 
is continuing to pay rent on an apartment that was to be available for 
his father.

  You know, this is really shameful. These are folks who were there for 
us and our soldiers and our diplomats and our intelligence officers. 
And the situation for this family is typical of the situation for so 
many Afghan families who served us.
  I have long believed that the U.S. invasion and occupation of 
Afghanistan was a terrible mistake. Tracking down Osama Bin Laden and 
the other members of al-Qaida responsible for the September 11 
terrorist attacks was justifiable and was necessary. But spending 
literally hundreds of billions of dollars to try to transform a country 
of warring clans, led by corrupt and ruthless warlords with no history 
of democracy, was doomed to fail. Yet we did do that.
  And millions of Afghans believed in us, and they shared our vision 
for that country. And many of them served us, acting as interpreters 
for the U.S. military or faithfully serving our intelligence Agencies. 
And these men, some of whom now live in Vermont, risked their lives for 
us, something that our soldiers take very seriously and have expressed 
immense gratitude for. Thousands were rushed to the airport in the 
first frantic days of the evacuation. When they got there--and some who 
got out--they were told to leave their wives and their children behind 
and that their families would join them in the United States within 1 
year.
  This is an obligation we have to those folks who, as a result of the 
collapse in Kabul, were in serious physical jeopardy. It now is 3\1/2\ 
years later, and I am not aware of a single evacuation or reunification 
of family members of these men. They are here or elsewhere, and their 
families are still in Afghanistan.
  These refugees, as I stated and will state again because it is the 
heart of the matter and the heart of the obligation, they worked with 
our government, they worked with our soldiers, our diplomats, and our 
intelligence officers, and we have abandoned our partners when they 
need us.
  Some are still waiting on the SIV processing, others on their green 
cards, and most on the broken promise of reunification. This is really 
shameful.
  These men continue to stand with the United States, working in our 
communities, paying taxes, and growing our economy. We owe it to them, 
the Afghans who made it here, and to our honor to bring their families 
to join them.
  Yet there are alarming reports that President Trump plans to ban 
admission to the United States for citizens of

[[Page S2502]]

11 countries, including Afghanistan--here is the part that is so 
terrifying--with no exception for Afghans and their families who 
qualify for the special immigrant visas or are awaiting evacuation. 
That is really unconscionable.
  Although the Taliban leadership issued a so-called general amnesty 
for former officials in the U.S.-backed government more than 3 years 
ago, the reality is that the U.N. has reported what we knew would 
happen--at least 200 killings of former Afghan officials and members of 
the Afghan Army who were trained and equipped by the United States. The 
Taliban, of course, has also reneged on its pledge to uphold the rights 
of women, including allowing girls to attend school. Today, the 
situation that faces Afghan women and girls is literally no better, 
regrettably, than under the Taliban before the U.S. occupation.
  The Trump administration's termination of USAID's assistance programs 
in more than 100 countries, including Afghanistan, without any 
meaningful review, has caused people everywhere to doubt that they can 
rely on the United States. We are putting our reputation in jeopardy.
  President Trump and Secretary Rubio provided, literally, no credible 
explanation and justification, in clear violation of Congress's intent, 
with the destruction of these USAID Programs. But by abandoning 
thousands of Afghans who do face persecution if forced to return, we 
reinforce those doubts. And by doing so, we encourage those who have 
long seen the United States as a world leader and as a partner to look 
for more reliable partners elsewhere. That is bad for our national 
security.
  President Trump's January 20 Executive order triggered a 90-day 
review of our Refugee Admissions Programs. In February, a Federal court 
did issue a nationwide preliminary injunction prohibiting the 
implementation of the order. But despite that, despite that court 
order, the Trump administration issued termination orders to refugee 
resettlement agencies in States around this country. Again, this is 
going to affect these folks who work for our government, our soldiers, 
our diplomats, and our intelligence officers. We owe them. There is no 
justification for us to abandon them.
  I am really concerned about the administration's, what I see as an 
increasingly brazen flaunting of court orders. I think all of us in 
Congress should condemn any deviation from abiding by court orders by 
the administration.
  I hope the administration's review of the refugee admissions is not 
another pretext review like we had supposedly of the USAID Programs. It 
cannot be an excuse to manufacture a false justification for abandoning 
the victims of our nation-building debacle. We have to take ownership 
of what it is we did.
  We have to meet our commitments to people who helped us in our 
efforts in Afghanistan.
  This must be an opportunity to expedite--expedite--the resettlement 
to the United States of these Afghan refugees who trusted in us and 
whose lives are very much at risk.