Afghan refugees’ temporary housing at Ramstein Air Base in Germany, shown in August 2021. (Phillip Walter Wellman/Stars and Stripes)

As an Army company commander in Afghanistan in 2013, Andrew Sullivan struck a special relationship with his translator — an experienced interpreter who had been supporting U.S. forces across the country for nearly a decade.

Having Ahmadi — an interpreter who Sullivan would only identify by his surname — by his side was “like having a second company commander,” during his time leading a rifle company from the 2nd Battalion, 2nd Infantry Regiment of the 1st Infantry Division’s 3rd Brigade Combat Team. It marked Sullivan’s third combat rotation after previously serving in Iraq, he said.

The pair worked together masterfully and forged a friendship, which sparked Sullivan to help Ahmadi in his quest to secure a Special Immigrant Visa to the United States under a program for Afghan and Iraqi translators and interpreters who worked for the U.S. military during the Global War on Terror.

“He’d already worked for like five years [to receive an SIV] and it still took him another two years to get here,” Sullivan said of Ahmadi, who immigrated to the United States in 2016 and settled in Seattle with his family. “I think just speaks to how kind of crazy the SIV system is, but, thankfully, he made it here.”

Thousands of other Afghan translators who worked together with U.S. military personnel remain in Afghanistan or other countries waiting to receive their SIV or are awaiting travel even after having their visas approved. But federal funding cuts under a January executive order from President Donald Trump and an expected travel ban on Afghans have thrown the status of SIV holders into uncertainty, according to nongovernmental organizations and lawmakers who have worked to help translators come to the United States.

Sullivan’s relationship with Ahmadi led him to his current work as the executive director for No One Left Behind. He joined the group after leaving the Army in 2017 as a captain after nine years of military service and then pursued a master’s degree and went into nonprofit work primarily on veterans issues. Sullivan joined No One Left Behind in 2023 and became its executive director in January.

Then Army Capt. Andrew Sullivan, who is now the executive director of the nonprofit No One Left Behind, is pictured in Afghanistan on a deployment with the 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division in September 2013. Sullivan’s Afghan translator, Ahmadi, is pictured in the rear of the photo helping the Afghan National Army question villagers following an attack on U.S. and Afghan forces in the Arghandab District of Zabul Province. (Andrew Sullivan)

The nonprofit was founded in 2013 by Janis Shinwari, a former Afghan interpreter for American forces. It was the first nongovernmental organization dedicated solely to supporting former Afghan and Iraqi translators. The Virginia-based group of American veterans, Afghan and Iraqi SIV recipients, and volunteers are positioned throughout the United States to help translators navigate the bureaucratic SIV application process and establish new lives.

When SIV recipients’ flights were canceled earlier this year from locations including Pakistan, Qatar and Albania, No One Left Behind stepped in and secured more than 740 flights for SIV holders to come to the United States, Sullivan said. The SIV holders who are flown to the U.S. by No One Left Behind do not have to pay for their flights, he noted. The organization relies on donations to support SIV recipients. The organization reported last year in tax documents that it has about $12 million in assets — almost all via donations — after taking in between $2 million and $3 million in donations in recent years. Its donations spiked in 2021 amid the Afghanistan withdrawal crisis, when it reported receiving some $18 million.

Now Sullivan is focused on ensuring that the United States maintains its promise to accept former Afghan translators into the country, even under an administration taking a hard look at immigration policies, including a potential travel ban for citizens of certain countries, including Afghanistan. Sullivan said he is working to ensure the Trump administration will continue to accept Special Immigrant Visa holders, even if it bars travel to the U.S. from Afghanistan. The White House was expected to do so in the coming weeks, The New York Times reported last week citing draft documents.

“We know that our SIVs are a special population,” Sullivan said. “There are voluminous records of their service to the U.S. There are incredible records on [their] counterintelligence screenings that happen to them, and they were just trusted day in and day out by U.S. service members. So, if there are changes coming to U.S. immigration, it shouldn’t include them.”

The United States first established the Special Immigrant Visa program for Afghan and Iraqi translators to help them avoid risks — including threats to their lives from militant groups such as the Taliban and the Islamic State because of their work with the U.S. government. The program was designed to vet SIV applicants within two years but some applicants have waited for many years for visa approval, especially amid an influx of applications since the 2021 withdrawal.

No One Left Behind is just one of several veterans groups working and advocating for Afghan translators in their SIV pursuits and efforts to reach the United States.

The State Department has issued about 117,000 Special Immigrant Visas to Afghan translators since 2009, granting them permanent legal resident status in the United States, according to department statistics. Since 2021, No One Left Behind has helped more than 25,000 SIV holders reach the United States and settle in their new country, according to the organization.

Still, some 5,752 Special Immigrant Visa applicants and holders remain outside the United States, including in Afghanistan, according to Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H.

Thousands of them have lived in limbo in Pakistan, Qatar, Albania and other countries since they were shuttled hastily out of Afghanistan during the chaotic U.S. withdrawal from the country in 2021 as the Taliban retook control of Kabul. The pullout of U.S. forces after 20 years of war left thousands more SIV applicants and holders stranded in Afghanistan, where officials have said more than 300 have since been killed by the Taliban.

Marines help Afghan evacuees as they board a military plane at Al Udeid Air Base, Qatar, in September 2021. (Kyle Jia/U.S. Marine Corps)

In a letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Wednesday, Shaheen demanded Afghan translators be exempted from any halt of travel into the United States.

“Should they return to Afghanistan, these individuals are at direct risk of reprisal from the Taliban for their service in support of the United States,” the senator wrote. “This grim reality has been borne out by the many who have been killed since August 2021. They risked their lives and died for us and in return, we promised to protect them and their families. We must stand by this promise.”

She said ensuring the allies that helped American forces could enter the United States, as they were promised, was a “matter of moral responsibility” and a national security imperative because it would show “that we stand by our commitments during the most challenging of moments.”

The White House and State Department did not respond this week to requests for comment on the immigration status of SIV holders or on reported plans to implement a travel ban on individuals from more than 40 countries, including Afghanistan.

Other immigration-focused nonprofits have promised to fight any travel ban issued by Trump in court. The International Refugee Assistance Project said it would revamp its effort to block any travel ban, as it did when Trump issued a travel block on several Muslim-majority countries during his first term as president.

“While we don’t know exactly who will be affected by a potential travel ban, the International Refugee Assistance Project is closely following the situation,” said Laurie Ball Cooper, the vice president for U.S. legal programs for the group. “Recent reports indicate that most of our clients seeking safety in the United States could be affected by the expected ban, including Afghan allies. IRAP has been fighting tirelessly for years to uphold America’s promise to protect Afghan allies, and we will continue to do so regardless of what the administration does next.”

Sullivan said this week that it was critical that SIV applicants and holders in Pakistan are moved soon into the United States, as the government in Islamabad has ramped up deportations of Afghans back to their home country.

“There are folks there, thank God, who are still getting issued their visas,” he said. “And we’re going to continue to buy flights as we can from Islamabad, but that’s one where I don’t have a ton of fidelity on how many people we have there.”

No One Left Behind is not currently looking at moving SIV applicants out of Pakistan to another third country, though group spokeswoman Amanda Kim said, “nothing is off the table.” For now, the nonprofit is focused on getting those who have their Special Immigrant Visas in hand into the United States as quickly as possible.

For now, many of them are living in fear that they will not be granted passage into the United States or they will be forced to return to the Taliban-controlled Afghanistan.

“They’re scared. They’re nervous. It’s the sense of just uncertainty. They feel like they’re in total limbo, and they have no idea what’s going to come next,” Sullivan said. “A lot of them that already have their visas — it’s important to remember they have their visa foil actually affixed in their passports. If they can’t come to the U.S., there is a good chance they could be sent back to Afghanistan.”

Sullivan said he and dozens of employees and volunteers with No One Left Behind would keep working tirelessly to make certain that does not happen.

“I’m not unique in wanting to make sure that we’re keeping our promise to them,” he said. “I think it’s a matter of national honor, and it is really a veterans issue.”