Trump stops deportation of U.S. military's Afghan interpreters to Taliban, begins vetting for visas

President Donald Trump's administration has struck a deal with the United Arab Emirates to stop the forced deportation of several Afghan interpreters and soldiers who assisted the U.S. military before they could be handed over to the Taliban this month, and is now beginning the process of vetting them for long-term and safe homes, officials told Just the News on Monday.

The extraordinary intervention by Vice President J.D. Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles came after Just the News highlighted the plight of the Afghan allies of the U.S. military in a story Sunday and Trump put out a statement on social media declaring "I will try to save them, starting right now."

The rushed effort was the latest effort by the Trump administration to resolve issues still looming from Joe Biden's disastrous 2021 withdrawal from Afghanistan that left American and allies in peril. UAE had been hosting the Afghan military refugee for four years but had begun discussing a forced repatriation back to the Taliban, officials said. 

Wiles and Rubio began working on the matter Saturday when reports surfaced that the Afghan interpreters and soldiers were in danger of being forcibly deported to the Taliban, and Trump asked Vance to take lead on Sunday, officials told Just the News.

Within hours, the team had secured an agreement with the UAE to keep the Afghan allies safely in the emirates until the State Department could vet them for possible entry to the United States or another Western safe haven, officials said.

"At the President’s direction, the Vice President and other members of the administration worked with the government of the UAE to ensure these individuals could stay for a period in the UAE," a senior White House official told Just the News.

"We’ll work with the UAE and others to thoroughly vet these translators and find them a long-term home. We’re very grateful to the UAE for their continued friendship, and for their quick attention to this matter," the official added.

According to first-hand accounts of some in the Afghan allies group, UAE officials came without warning to deliver bad news last week the ere to be deported, sowing panic among the group of thirty-two Afghan men, women and children who were staying in the refugee camp in Abu Dhabi, where they have effectively been held for the past four years.

UAE security guards forced refugees to leave their homes and prepare to be sent back to Afghanistan. 

A report had just been published in The Telegraph detailing the murder of some two hundred Afghan soldiers and police officers who were hunted down by the Taliban regime after a data leak in the UK.  

The victims were people who helped the U.S. oust the Taliban and defeat the al Qaeda terrorists responsible for the deaths of almost 3,000 Americans on Sept. 11, 2001. Biden’s administration promised they would not be left behind to die.

“The Secretary of State is personally committed to keeping our promises to those who stood by us in Afghanistan and to relocating them safely," they were told in writing by the Biden State Department. 

The refugees in UAE followed the legal process and the instructions of representatives of the U.S. State Department but now they face a terrifying future.

On Wednesday, members of the group said their passports were taken by the officials running the camp, a sprawling complex that was once filled with over a thousand refugees just like them.

Over the years, that number had dwindled. Some went to the U.S., others to Canada, Australia and elsewhere. The Trump administration's intervention now has restored hopes to the remaining group's members.