This is the Cato Daily Podcast for Monday, August 16th, 2021.

I'm Caleb Brown.

As the government in Afghanistan falls to the Taliban, the people who helped the United States during its nearly 20-year

war there, appear to be left holding the bag. Their ability to get visas to escape

as refugees? Uncertain. So what should the U.S. do?

Alex Norasta directs immigration studies at the Cato Institute.

We spoke today.

Historically, when the U.S. leaves a country in which it has been engaged in a war, what does the US do for those people?

I know that in the late 1970s, the United States provided visas for Cambodian refugees in fairly large

numbers and went a long way to get those people resettled in the United States.

But in terms of the tens of thousands of Afghans

who helped, were actively helping the United States

in this war effort in Afghanistan. What do we know?

So from 2001 to 2021, July, the US has admitted about 21,000 Afghan refugees.

And in addition to that, about 76,000 Afghan refugees and in addition to that about 76,000 who were translators or who

worked for American forces otherwise and their family members.

The estimates are there is about another 90,000 or so who are there who probably worked with us for

at least a year or two who would be able to be eligible to get out if the visa system

function properly.

That's probably a vast undercount.

It's probably a couple hundred thousand more than that.

The United States, this time, has been pretty bad at getting people

...