U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement will ask Afghans living in the United States for documentation during the holiday season, marking the Trump administration’s latest effort to crack down on immigration from the Asian country.
ICE is seeking “scheduled report check-in” appointments, with one requesting such a meeting on Christmas Day and another on New Year’s Day, according to copies of letters sent to various people seen by Bloomberg News. Other notifications were for check-ins around the holidays of December 27th and December 30th.
Immigration authorities arrested immigrants who presented themselves to their offices in response to such formal requests, including those who attended green card interviews. The recipients of the letter had previously received legal protection and were considered “Afghan allies” as part of a program launched by former President Joe Biden in August 2021 to protect people who fled to the United States after the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan and subsequent occupation of the war-torn country by the Taliban.
“ICE is using federal and religious holidays to detain Afghans at a time when they have the least access to lawyers, courts, and advocates,” Sean Vandiver, founder of AfghanistanEvac, a nonprofit organization that supports Afghans who helped the U.S. war effort, criticized the call and its timing in a statement. “This is not a day-to-day management schedule.”
A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson called the check-ins “routine” and “longstanding,” and did not elaborate on how many letters were sent. The spokesperson added that ICE will continue normal operations during the holiday.
Christmas and New Year’s Day are federal holidays, and most government offices are closed.
The call follows major changes in U.S. immigration policy under President Trump targeting Afghans in the wake of the shooting deaths of two National Guardsmen in November by Rahmanullah Rakanwal, an Afghan national who worked with the U.S. military and the CIA in Afghanistan before arriving in the U.S. in 2021. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Lakhanwal, who is charged with murder, came to the United States through the Biden program known as “Operation Alliance.” welcome.
Since the November shootings, the Trump administration announced it would review all refugee cases resettled under the Biden administration, freeze green card applications, and consider including the country in the president’s broader travel ban as one of the “significant negative factors.”
In a further blow to Afghans, the regime’s refugee cap for fiscal year 2026 has been slashed from 125,000 to 7,500. The president’s decision indicated a policy of favoring white South Africans and did not mention Afghans.
When the administration expanded the entry ban list to nationals of more than 30 countries, up from the previous 19, it also removed an exemption for Afghan nationals that granted special immigrant visas to those who provided service to the U.S. government or military in Afghanistan. Afghan nationals were already on the entry ban list before the expansion.
Earlier this year, the State Department closed an office that helped resettle Afghan refugees who helped the U.S. war effort. Efforts on Capitol Hill to force the administration to resume operations were not included in the defense policy bill that President Trump signed this month.
Lowenkron writes for Bloomberg. Alicia A. Caldwell contributed to this report.
