Kamlager-Dove, Foreign Affairs Dems Host Shadow Hearing on Trump’s Betrayal of America’s Afghan Allies
WASHINGTON, DC — Today, Congresswoman Sydney Kamlager-Dove (CA-37), Ranking Member of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on South and Central Asia, hosted a shadow hearing with House Foreign Affairs Committee Democrats on the Trump Administration’s betrayal of America’s Afghan allies.
You can read the Congresswoman’s full opening remarks below and watch the full hearing here:
Thank you all for being here today to discuss something that is not a partisan issue, but an American issue: keeping our promise to our Afghan allies.
I want to remind us how we got here. On 9/11, two planes flew into the twin towers and attacked us here at home. Firemen were pulling people from the rubble, families were searching for their loved ones, and fear had swept the country. In the aftermath, we came together to protect our nation and people from all walks of life signed up to help us—Americans enlisted in the military, NATO allies came to our aid, and local Afghans joined our fight against the Taliban.
The pledge we made to our servicemembers and our allies, is that if you promise to help our country, we promise to protect you, and to take care of you when you come home. This was always about promises and keeping promises. And when you keep promises, you keep people alive.
By the end of 2024, we were steadily working to uphold this commitment to our veterans and our Afghan allies. The Biden Administration resettled thousands of Afghans through the Special Immigrant Visa and U.S. Refugee Admissions Programs. Those in the United States were granted humanitarian parole and temporary protected status. Congress even passed a bipartisan bill codifying the State Department’s Coordinator for Afghan Relocation Efforts.
This work was not only bipartisan, it was a key priority for my Republican colleagues.
So, I invited my Republican colleagues here today, and I am disappointed they did not make the time to attend. Last Congress, HFAC Republicans held eleven committee events on Afghanistan and led a months-long investigation concluding that, “the U.S. government should uphold our commitment to those brave Afghans who risked their lives fighting for freedom from the Taliban.”
But fast forward to today, and this administration seems to have forgotten why keeping our promises matters. In fact, it seems to relish breaking every promise we’ve ever made. And our veterans and Afghan allies have borne the brunt of that.
On day one, the Trump Administration suspended the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program, severing a crucial lifeline for Afghans hoping to resettle in the United States. Then Rubio dismantled the Afghan relocation office, violating a law Congress passed a few months earlier to protect it.
Not only did these decisions leave Afghan allies behind. They stranded over a thousand Afghans at the relocation processing center at Camp As Sayliyah, where they are living a humanitarian nightmare created by this administration. Yet when I raised the fate of these Afghans to the top State Department official overseeing the camp at a hearing last year, he didn’t even know what CAS was.
The administration has gone after the Afghans who believed they had finally reached safety in the United States. In June, ICE started detaining Afghan asylum seekers at their immigration hearings. In July, Kristi Noem terminated their Temporary Protected Status. By the end of 2025, the Trump administration had dismantled every remaining protection for Afghan allies seeking a future in the United States. Homeland Security even announced it would review prior green card and asylum approvals, making clear that not even Afghans with permanent legal status can escape this administration’s cruelty.
And what were Republicans’ response as the administration broke our promise over and over again? Crickets. HFAC Republicans have held zero committee activity on Afghanistan this Congress, despite a formal request Ranking Member Meeks and I sent our counterparts last July. When my bipartisan provision to reestablish the CARE Office made it into the final version of NDAA, Republican leadership yanked it out days before it passed into law.
Every American will suffer the consequences of this Administration’s betrayal—just as Republicans warned last Congress.
Because the implications go far beyond Afghanistan and our Afghan allies. What’s at stake here is the fundamental credibility of our commitments and our promises.
Screwing over every partner and ally we have does not make Americans safer. If the United States cannot be trusted to stand by those who stood by us, no country or person in their right mind will work with us. And that is a scary, lonely world of our own making.
This downward trajectory is entirely reversible. The administration can end the freeze on SIV and refugee relocation. Republicans can work with us to pass new special immigration visas. The administration can work through the SIV backlog and relocate every eligible Afghan in just a few years. We can still keep our promise. Not doing so is a choice that this administration and this Republican majority are making every single day.
Over twenty years ago, we started this chapter in service of a just cause. Now we are ending it by perpetrating the harm that we were trying to combat. But we owe more to the veterans and allies who sacrificed on our behalf. Today, let’s remind ourselves why keeping our promises matters.
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