{"id":53597,"date":"2021-06-24T15:41:52","date_gmt":"2021-06-24T15:41:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/uncategorized\/2021\/06\/24\/us-to-begin-evacuating-some-afghan-nationals-as-they-await-visa-approval\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T09:03:59","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T09:03:59","slug":"us-to-begin-evacuating-some-afghan-nationals-as-they-await-visa-approval","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/news\/pentagon-congress\/2021\/06\/24\/us-to-begin-evacuating-some-afghan-nationals-as-they-await-visa-approval\/","title":{"rendered":"U.S. to begin evacuating some Afghan nationals as they await visa approval"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">U.S. officials will begin <a href=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/news\/pentagon-congress\/2021\/06\/24\/calls-grow-to-evacuate-afghans-to-guam-as-us-troops-leave\/\" target=\"_blank\">evacuating some Afghan nationals<\/a> out of that country to an unspecified safety zone as concerns rise about <a href=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/news\/pentagon-congress\/2021\/06\/22\/afghan-president-set-to-visit-white-house-as-security-situation-in-his-country-worsens\/\" target=\"_blank\">the safety of allies there<\/a>, a senior White House official confirmed Thursday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The group of evacuees will include \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/news\/pentagon-congress\/2021\/06\/15\/frustration-growing-as-time-runs-short-to-evacuate-afghan-allies-ahead-of-us-withdrawal\/\" target=\"_blank\">Special Immigrant Visa applicants<\/a> who have served as interpreters and translators\u201d and are \u201cin the pipeline\u201d and currently awaiting approval to emigrate to the United States. The New York Times first reported news of the evacuations on Thursday morning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">White House officials have not said where the individuals will be relocated or how many people are involved, only that the moves will be \u201cin full compliance with U.S. consular law and in full coordination with Congress.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\t<aside class=\"smg-interstitial-link wp-block-smg-interstitial-link\">\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/militarytimes\/news\/pentagon-congress\/2021\/06\/22\/afghan-president-set-to-visit-white-house-as-security-situation-in-his-country-worsens\/\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__inner\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__media\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"190\" src=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/AP21172479372058.jpg.jpg?w=300\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__image wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" \/>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__content\">\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"smg-interstitial-link__kicker\">Related<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"smg-interstitial-link__title\">Afghan president set to visit White House as security situation in his country worsens<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"smg-interstitial-link__excerpt\">Ashraf Ghani will meet with President Joe Biden to discuss long-term military assistance to follow the withdrawal of all American forces from Afghanistan this fall.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/aside>\n\t\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The news represents a shift in the administration\u2019s stance on the issue of the 18,000-plus Afghan nationals looking to leave the country ahead of the U.S. military drawdown, set to be finished by Sept. 11.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">On Wednesday, White House press Secretary Jen Psaki said that State Department officials were \u201cprocessing and getting people out [of Afghanistan] at a record pace\u201d and working with Congress to \u201cstreamline some of the requirements that slow this process down.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Though officials have acknowledged that plans have been in the works for weeks, the Pentagon on Wednesday offered few details on what an evacuation might look like.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It wouldn\u2019t necessarily involve military aircraft, for example, as chartered civilian planes have been used for similar missions in the past.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe idea here is to be able to facilitate their departure from Afghanistan to another location so that they can complete the SIV process,\u201d spokesman John Kirby told reporters. \u201cWhether that leads to all of them coming to the United states, or just some, we don\u2019t know,\u201d as some of those decisions will be made on a case-by-case basis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Officials have been mum on potential temporary housing sites. Kirby said he knew of no requests by the State Department to evaluate stateside DoD installations, which theoretically could be used to house SIV applicants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">There is precedent for that idea, as the Health and Human Services Department is housing unaccompanied minors who crossed the U.S. southern border at Fort Bliss, Texas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Despite press reports that as many as 100,000 Afghans might be relocated, Kirby said, \u201cI would only say that I\u2019ve seen nothing that would indicate that the number is that high, at this point.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Both White House and Defense Department officials also acknowledged that they were conducting planning for potential evacuations of those individuals, but had not yet committed to any such moves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Lawmakers and advocates have been calling for the evacuations for weeks, saying that Afghan nationals who aided American forces are already being targeted by Taliban fighters and other insurgents as U.S. forces pull back their forces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Earlier this month, a bipartisan group of 22 lawmakers called for the White House to begin \u201cimmediately\u201d transporting allies to a safe zone such as Guam to ensure their safety.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cNo U.S. entity \u2014 to include the Department of Defense, Department of State, USAID, et al. \u2014 has the ability or authority to protect them in Afghanistan after our withdrawal,\u201d the group of lawmakers wrote in a letter to President Joe Biden. \u201cIt would be a moral failure to transfer the responsibility to protect our Afghan partners onto the shoulders of the Afghan Government. The time is now to honor our promise.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The senior administration official noted that SIV program processing is continuing, but also acknowledged that \u201csome of these interpreters and translators have been in the process in some cases for years, and are still waiting to receive their visas.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\t<aside class=\"smg-interstitial-link wp-block-smg-interstitial-link\">\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/militarytimes\/news\/your-military\/2021\/06\/24\/calls-grow-to-evacuate-afghans-to-guam-as-us-troops-leave\/\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__inner\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__media\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" src=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Afghan.Terps_.Help_.jpg.jpg?w=300\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__image wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" \/>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__content\">\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"smg-interstitial-link__kicker\">Related<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"smg-interstitial-link__title\">Calls grow to evacuate Afghans to Guam as US troops leave<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"smg-interstitial-link__excerpt\">Despite unusual bipartisan support in Congress for evacuation of Afghan interpreters and others who helped the U.S., the administration hasn\u2019t agreed to such a move.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/aside>\n\t\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">State Department officials have downplayed the September withdrawal deadline as a critical point in the visas process, saying they will continue to process applicants after that mark and will keep a diplomatic presence in the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But earlier this week, the Associated Press reported that Taliban fighters had taken control of a section of Afghanistan\u2019s northern Kunduz province, the latest of dozens of districts which have fallen to insurgent forces in the last two months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In response, Defense Department officials said they will maintain a security relationship with the Afghan government even after the withdrawal, but also noted that the recent violence will not disrupt the withdrawal deadline.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Afghan President Ashraf Ghani is scheduled to visit the White House on Friday to discuss the long-term relationship between the United States and his country, as well as other security issues.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>White House officials have not said how many individuals will be moved or where they will be housed while they await a final decision.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":38960,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":62,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[101,23,89,12,26,62],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3222,3308],"class_list":["post-53597","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-news-roundup","category-home","category-middle-column","category-news","category-newsletters","category-pentagon-congress"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"DDXYVHJ7UJAKHCXSEQDTZFBR6U","arc_canonical_url":"\/news\/pentagon-congress\/2021\/06\/24\/us-to-begin-evacuating-some-afghan-nationals-as-they-await-visa-approval\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.0 (Yoast SEO v28.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>U.S. to begin evacuating some Afghan nationals as they await visa approval - Navy Times<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"White House officials have not said how many individuals will be moved or where they will be housed while they await a final decision.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"U.S. to begin evacuating some Afghan nationals as they await visa approval\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"White House officials have not said how many individuals will be moved or where they will be housed while they await a final decision.\" \/>\n<meta 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