No One Left Behind

08/27/2026

Recently, SOAA - Special Operations Association of America sat down with Sonia Norton, No One Left Behind's Director of Advocacy, to discuss the current state of the Afghan SIV Program and our priorities in helping keep the promise.

There has never been a government-wide database proving which Afghans worked for the United States. So the proof falls on the applicant.

"We're putting this undue burden on wartime allies," Sonia Norton told SOAA.

Read the full story at soaa.org: https://soaa.org/no_one_left_behind/

As the five-year anniversary of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan approaches, a number of organizations around the country are still working to support our Afghan allies, whether they are stranded overseas amidst shutdowns of programs meant to bring them safety or facing uncertainty domestically....

08/27/2026

Sixth Year, Entry Nine.

Today is Day 1,838.

The war was five years old in 2006. Most of the allies in this series had not yet begun their service, and Rangin was already running a company alongside the Americans.

He was not hired help. He founded an Afghan construction company and served as its president, and from 2006 to 2011 his firm carried out projects with the American Provincial Reconstruction Team in Bamyan Province. Afghan crews, Afghan wages, Afghan ground, American backing.

When the Governor of Bamyan visited one of his sites, the American PRT manager stood up in front of the governor and vouched for him, praising the work and the man who delivered it.

"I will always remember his encouragement."

He applied for a Special Immigrant Visa in 2022. The case has been delayed every year since, and with visa issuance for Afghans suspended, it remains delayed.

His three daughters go to school in Pakistan, an expense the family strains to protect. His two sons graduated from high school into nothing, because their status permits no work.

"We were proud to work alongside you. We have always been your colleagues and partners. Please do not forget us."

Resume visa issuance for the allies who have already earned their visas. Ensure Congress authorizes enough visa numbers, because the ones remaining will run out almost immediately once issuance restarts.

An American official once vouched for him in public, in front of power, when it counted. He is asking that official's country to do it one more time.

Sixth Year, Entry Nine. This is Rangin's.

Read our collection of Day 1,827 stories: nooneleft.org/1827
Read and Share Rangin'sStory: https://www.nooneleft.org/post/sixth-year-entry-nine-rangin-s-story
Support allies like Rangin: give.nooneleft.org/campaign/831559/donate
Join our Partners in the Promise Advocacy Network: nooneleft.org/partnersinthepromise

08/26/2026

Our bipartisan partners in Congress, (D-CO), (D-CA), @repdonbacon (R-NE), and (R-FL) introduced the Afghanistan TPS Act of 2026 (H.R. 9899) together with Senators (D-DE), (R-AK), (D-MN), and (R-LA), as S. 5308.

This legislation would designate Afghanistan for Temporary Protected Status through July 1, 2029, protecting allies in the United States from dangerous removal and would require the Department of Homeland Security to process the applications appropriately.

Sonia Norton, No One Left Behind’s Director of Advocacy, joined Daniel Salazar of Global Refuge on The Afghanistan Project, hosted by journalist Beth Bailey, to walk through what the bill does and what it does not.

Check out the full podcast at TheAfghanistanProject: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3rLp_jP4tTY

Afghanistan's TPS designation ended in July 2025. But Congress can put it back.

Join our advocacy network, Partners in the Promise, and learn how you can help advocate for our wartime allies: nooneleft.org/partnersinthepromise

Read H.R. 9899 at: https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-bill/9899/text

Read S. 5308 at: https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/senate-bill/5308/text

Welcome to Episode 152 of The Afghanistan Project, where we cover a...

08/26/2026

August 26, 2021.

Five years ago today, thirteen American service members were killed at Abbey Gate, a civilian entrance to Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul. They were checking documents and moving families through toward the airfield when the bomb went off.

At least 170 Afghan civilians were killed in the same blast, in the line those service members were working.

Today, we remember our fallen brothers, sisters, and allies, and the sacrifices that they made.

08/25/2026

Two sessions left! All Online!

Register: theirstory.is/storyshield-aug

The recording belongs to your family. You decide what goes in it and who ever sees it.

StoryShield is a storytelling workshop for Afghan families and our wartime allies, run by Their Story is Our Story with No One Left Behind. You record your own story on your own phone. StoryShield is not a legal service, and taking part is always voluntary.

TONIGHT -- Tuesday, August 25, and Thursday, August 27. 8:00 PM Eastern, online.

Language support in Dari and Pashto is available!

Register: theirstory.is/storyshield-aug

Please note that any contact information obtained in this form will be used for no other purpose than to contact you about the upcoming StoryShield workshop and it will not be shared outside the Their Story is Our Story organization for any reason without express permission. لطفاً توجه دا...

08/25/2026

Sixth Year, Entry Nine.

Today is Day 1,837.

The tankers were already burning when Ehsan reached them.

The convoy had been ambushed on a fuel run, the wrecks were blocking the road, and he drove past the fire without knowing whether another attack was coming. That is the day he names as the one that frightened him most.

Asked to name a day he was proud of, he gave a category instead of a date: every convoy that arrived with all of its trucks intact, on roads that were under attack.

That was his work for more than a decade. He ran security for companies operating under U.S. and NATO contracts, more than two hundred es**rt missions on one contract alone, in twenty-man teams, on night drives that ran ten hours at a stretch. Roughly a hundred more alongside American forces, moving food and fuel and heavy equipment to nearly every province where those forces were deployed. Before any of it, he sat interviews, gave his fingerprints, passed background checks, and carried a badge with his name on it.

He applied for a Special Immigrant Visa in 2021. Chief of Mission approval came through, then document review, then the medical examination. He sat for his interview in late 2025. No document was ever requested that he could not produce.

Eight months have passed. There has been no visa and no refusal.

"Many people think that completing the process and the interview means the visa comes quickly. People who finished every step stay in limbo for months or years."

Resume visa issuance for the allies who have already earned their visas. Ensure Congress authorizes enough visa numbers, because the ones remaining will run out almost immediately once issuance restarts.

Sixth Year, Entry Nine. This is Ehsan's.

Read our collection of Day 1,827 stories: nooneleft.org/1827
Read and Share Ehsan's Story: https://www.nooneleft.org/post/sixth-year-entry-eight-ehsan-s-story
Support allies like Ehsan: give.nooneleft.org/campaign/831559/donate
Join our Partners in the Promise Advocacy Network: nooneleft.org/partnersinthepromise

08/24/2026

Sixth Year, Entry Seven.

Today is Day 1,835.

Ask Ismail what he does all day and he answers plainly. "I am just counting the moments."

He was not always a man who counted. From 2010 to 2011 he kept a supply warehouse for a contractor supporting American operations in northern Afghanistan. The crews brought lists from the military sites, and he signed out what they needed and made sure it reached them. On his last day, the HR manager took his ID card back, because the card belonged to the office. He still remembers the number on it.

"I was happy every day and proud that I was serving alongside American organizations."

He applied for his visa believing it would take three or four months. It has been five years. The family sold everything they had to get to Pakistan, and now, for weeks at a time, they do not leave the house.

"We became refugees, and it's even worse than being a refugee. Here it's like a prison."

Four children live inside that sentence, all under eight. His daughter was two when he applied and has never been enrolled in school.

Resume visa issuance for the allies who have already earned their visas. Ensure Congress authorizes enough visa numbers, because the ones remaining will run out almost immediately once issuance restarts.

His case is still open, and so are his prayers. One of them, America can answer.

Sixth Year, Entry Seven. This is Ismail's.

Read our collection of Day 1,827 stories: nooneleft.org/1827
Share Ismail's Story: https://www.nooneleft.org/post/sixth-year-entry-seven-ismail-s-story
Support allies like Ismail: give.nooneleft.org/campaign/831559/donate
Join our Partners in the Promise Advocacy Network: nooneleft.org/partnersinthepromise

08/24/2026

❗ Official Statement ❗

On August 22, a federal court in CLINIC v. Rubio vacated the Department of State’s suspension of immigrant visa issuance for nationals of 75 countries. No One Left Behind welcomes this development, which should resume Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) issuance to eligible Iraqi Translators and Interpreters. It does not restore Afghan SIV issuance.

This ruling is specific to the Secretary of State’s action to suspend visa issuance in designated countries. It does not lift suspensions enacted under Presidential actions. As of today, August 24, Afghan SIV issuance remains suspended under Presidential Proclamation 10998. Refugee admissions for Afghan and Iraqi allies and beyond remain suspended under Executive Order 14163.

We are grateful to Catholic Legal Immigration Network, Inc. (CLINIC) for their leadership in this important effort, and for the impact resuming 1059 issuance could have for eligible Iraqi wartime allies. We will share further details for impacted Iraqi allies as they become available.

Our work continues to resume SIV issuance for all eligible wartime allies left in danger.

Read CLINIC’s statement on the ruling here:

SILVER SPRING, Maryland — The Catholic Legal Immigration Network, Inc. (CLINIC), welcomes a federal court ruling in CLINIC v. Rubio vacating the Trump administration’s blanket suspension of immigrant visa issuance for nationals of 75 countries, a policy that disrupted lawful immigration pathways...

08/24/2026

Andrew Sullivan, No One Left Behind's Executive Director, commanded a U.S. infantry company in Zabul Province. His interpreter was on the same patrols, in the same fights, supported at every opportunity, and had no flight home at the end of the tour.

On Combat Story, Andrew told AJ Pasciuti and that his interpreter carried more risk, and more of the war, than he ever did. It's also why Andrew runs No One Left Behind.

Andrew also discussed Ranger School, two tours in Iraq, and the drawdown at Al Asad, company command in Afghanistan. It ends where his work started and where he now concentrates his focus -- what the Special Immigrant Visa program promises the people who serve beside American troops.

That promise is on hold.

Visa issuance for Afghan nationals has been suspended since January 1. The allies who kept their end are still waiting.

It's why we need to see visa issuance resumed, and for enough visas to be available to serve those who served the U.S.

Andy got a flight home, but thousands of men and women who stood next to leaders like him are still waiting on theirs.

🎧

Andrew Sullivan led an Army infantry platoon through two tours in I...

08/23/2026

Tonight at 9:00 PM PT, our Executive Director, Andrew Sullivan, and his story will be featured on Combat Story! Stay tuned for the full episode as Andrew discusses his experiences deployed as a U.S. Army infantry commander, with No One Left Behind, and as a continued advocate for our wartime allies.