A growing number of U.S. governors say they will help resettle Afghan refugees in their states following a rapid Taliban takeover of Afghanistan that blindsided Western nations and left them scrambling to evacuate ambassadors and allies.
At least 10 governors offered support this week as the Pentagon looked to secure temporary space for up to 22,000 Afghan allies in the United States. As of Monday, the first 2,000 Afghans were placed at the Fort Lee military base in Virginia, with thousands more refugees expected to arrive at bases in Texas and Wisconsin in the coming weeks.
"The chaotic and heartbreaking scenes out of Afghanistan over the last several days … is the result of a rushed and irresponsible withdrawal,” Maryland Governor Larry Hogan, a Republican, said. “Many of these Afghan citizens, our allies, bravely risked their lives to provide invaluable support for many years to our efforts, as interpreters and support staff, and we have a moral obligation to help them.”
To date, California, Georgia, Iowa, Maryland, Massachusetts, South Carolina, Utah, Vermont, Virginia and Wisconsin have offered refuge or indicated a willingness to resettle refugees. The governor of Guam, a U.S. territory, also offered to house evacuees.
Humanitarian organizations estimate that nearly 80,000 Afghan allies and their families have applied for special immigrant visas (SIVs) to the U.S., a program the government set up to expedite the process of resettling Afghan allies.
"More than 70,000 … have participated in the SIV program since 2005. Our military has done an outstanding job supporting this effort,” said Garry Reid, director of the Afghanistan crisis action group for the Department of Defense.
Afghan allies are generally people who had helped the U.S. war effort by acting as translators for the military, cultural guides or sources of information.
The International Rescue Committee estimates that more than 300,000 Afghans have helped the American mission over two decades, though far fewer will qualify for refugee protection in the U.S.
'Wisconsin is ready'
“We have been in contact with federal partners about resettlement efforts for Afghan people who are seeking refuge at Fort McCoy,” Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers said in an official statement. “As we learn more information, Wisconsin is ready to assist these efforts and help these individuals who served our country and are now seeking refuge.”
The Taliban have promised a peaceful transition of power with no retaliation against former soldiers or government officials, though Reuters reported Wednesday that at least three anti-Taliban demonstrators were killed in protests in Jalalabad after members of the Taliban opened fire.
Since it is unlikely the U.S. will be able to absorb so many refugees in a compressed time frame, President Joe Biden has turned to other countries for help.
Canada announced last week it would resettle approximately 20,000 refugees. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres also urged the international community to accept Afghan refugees.
“The world is watching. We cannot and must not abandon the people of Afghanistan,” he said.
Thousands per day
After the U.S. military secured the international airport in Kabul on Monday, the Pentagon ramped up evacuation efforts and now estimates it can remove between 5,000 and 9,000 people from Afghanistan per day.
The hasty evacuations follow a sooner-than-expected collapse of the Afghanistan government as Taliban forces swept the country, emboldened by the removal of U.S. troops. Meeting little resistance from the Afghan military, the Taliban reclaimed the Afghanistan capital of Kabul in mere days, despite previous predictions from national security officials that doing so could take months.
In a Monday address to the nation, Biden said large-scale evacuations didn't start sooner because the Afghan government didn’t want to incite a “crisis of confidence” in the Afghan military’s ability to fight the Taliban.
“American troops cannot and should not be fighting in a war and dying in a war that Afghan forces are not willing to fight for themselves,” Biden said. “We gave them every chance to determine their own future. We could not provide them with the will to fight for that future.”
Some information for this report came from Reuters
