GEOFF BENNETT: When it comes to immigration policy, President Trump's executive order suspending all refugee admissions into the U.S. has far-reaching consequences, including for those who helped America's mission in Afghanistan.

Our White House correspondent, Laura Barron-Lopez, has more.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Tens of thousands of Afghans, including family members of active-duty U.S. military, are now in limbo, despite some already receiving approval to relocate to the U.S.

Joining me now is Shawn VanDiver, founder and president of AfghanEvac, a coalition of organizations that works to resettle Afghans who worked with the United States prior to the 2021 withdrawal.

Shawn, almost 2,000 Afghans had already been approved to resettle in the U.S. before January 27.

That was the date the executive action was supposed to take effect.

But, overnight, the State Department canceled all flights, canceled processing.

What are you hearing from families and people who were expecting to relocate to the U.S.?

SHAWN VANDIVER, Founder, AfghanEvac: Sure.

Thank you for having me on.

I want to add some clarity to that number.

About 2,000 was the number that we expected to travel over three months, what we thought the pause was going to be, but it's indefinite.

So, people are being pulled off flights now.

Flights are being canceled, but the truth is there are more than 10,000 Afghans who are fully vetted, security vetted, medically cleared, and ready to go.

And now they don't know what's coming next.

We have asked the State Department to give very clear guidance to them, that we hope they're going to do that.

They haven't affirmatively confirmed that yet.

But, look, the truth is, is, these people who have been waiting for 3.5 years in many cases are now stuck in limbo yet again.

And it feels very much like August of 2021.

We're getting frantic text messages.

People are begging for help.

My e-mail inbox is just buzzing over and over and over again.

My phone is draining so fast.

And people are terrified.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: We should clarify that the president's executive action doesn't apply to Afghans approved for Special Immigrant Visas.

Those are people who worked for the U.S. armed forces, but it will impact thousands of others, as you said, Shawn.

And refugee admissions were on the upswing in recent years, reaching around 100,000 in the last year.

But the Trump White House argues that the U.S. lacks the ability to absorb large numbers of migrants, including refugees, without compromising resources, safety and security for Americans.

What's your response to that?

SHAWN VANDIVER: A couple things, right?

So, Special Immigrant Visas are not impacted by this.

That's really important for Afghans to hear and our advocates to hear.

The idea that the country can't absorb these folks is -- like, I just don't think it's real.

And what is really important to note is that USRAP is a legal immigration program.

And the vetting that people go through to go through the United States Refugee Admissions Program is more strict than police officers are vetted or our military or any number of folks.

Like, it is the gold standard in vetting.

If you're coming here as a refugee, we know you're safe.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: President Trump has also spoken often about the chaotic military withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021, often blaming his predecessor on the campaign trail.

But this action, how does it affect the overall mission to safely evacuate and resettle those Afghans who helped the U.S.?

SHAWN VANDIVER: Well, just like you said, President Trump talked a lot about this on the campaign trail.

We are hopeful that because he brought it up at every debate, they brought it up every day at the RNC, he did a much better job than President Biden did of standing by the Abbey Gate families.

We know that he cares deeply about Afghans.

So we think this is a mistake.

And we know that he values loyalty.

We also know he likes to make a deal.

So we're hopeful that he and his administration are ready to come to the table and talk about how we can make a deal to protect these loyal folks that stood by us for 20 years of war.

These people are family of the United States active-duty service members in the U.S. military.

They're partner forces that trained alongside our Green Berets, that trained, fought, and bled alongside our Green Berets.

These are folks that flew in the Afghan air force, women who flew in the Afghan air force.

They're judges and prosecutors, all sorts of people that did everything they could to stand up for the idea of America.

And because they did that, they are at risk.

And we owe them a debt of gratitude and we owe them their shot at the American dream.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: You called this a mistake.

Are you and others talking to the Trump White House about reversing course on this or about providing an exemption for Afghans?

SHAWN VANDIVER: We have been trying to get ahold of them.

The phones don't work yet, I don't think.

We want to work together on this.

We have worked.

We worked with the Biden administration for 3.5 years.

AfghanEvac is dedicated -- we're a nonpartisan organization.

If you're willing to help Afghans, we're here to help.

We have the trust of Afghans.

And for good reason, Afghans don't trust the United States government.

We have got to rebuild that trust.

And we got to make sure that we deliver on our promise.

And President Trump signed the deal to close us out of Afghanistan.

We're confident he is ready to see us through.

He just has to know the impacts of the orders that he signed.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Shawn, I spoke to a service member in the Army's 82nd Airborne, and he told me that his sister and her husband are still in Afghanistan, that they had almost been done with the process.

And the only thing that he was asking of the government was to help his family, who he said remains in danger and is being threatened by the Taliban.

As a veteran yourself, what do you say to these service members?

SHAWN VANDIVER: Well, first, I have to say that I'm so sorry you're experiencing this.

I don't think President Trump meant to do this.

We hope he didn't mean to do this.

It's so important that our commander in chief stand by members of the military.

We talked a lot about lethality during this campaign.

And it's really hard for members of the military to be ready to serve if they're worried about the Taliban injuring their parents.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Shawn VanDiver of AfghanEvac, thank you for your time.

SHAWN VANDIVER: Thank you.

Have a great day.