Nearly 1,660 Afghans cleared by the US government to resettle in the US, including family members of active-duty US military personnel, are having their flights canceled under President Donald Trump’s order suspending US refugee programs, a US official and a leading refugee resettlement advocate told Reuters on Monday.

The group includes unaccompanied minors awaiting reunification with their families in the US as well as Afghans who fought for the former US-backed Afghan government, said Shawn VanDiver, head of the #AfghanEvac coalition of US veterans and advocacy groups and the US official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The US decision also leaves in limbo thousands of other Afghans who have been approved for resettlement as refugees in the US but have not yet been assigned flights from Afghanistan or from neighboring Pakistan, they said.

Trump made an immigration crackdown a major promise of his victorious 2024 election campaign, leaving the fate of US refugee programs up in the air.

The White House and the State Department, which oversees US refugee programs, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

“Afghans and advocates are panicking,” said VanDiver. “I’ve had to recharge my phone four times already today because so many are calling me.

“We warned them that this was going to happen, but they did it anyway. We hope they will reconsider,” he said of contacts with Trump’s transition team.

VanDiver’s organization is the main coalition that has been working with the US government to evacuate and resettle Afghans in America. 

One of the dozens of executive orders Trump is expected to sign after being sworn in for a second term on Monday suspended US refugee programs for at least four months.

The new White House website said that Trump “is suspending refugee resettlement, after communities were forced to house large and unsustainable populations of migrants, straining community safety and resources.”

“We know this means that unaccompanied children, (Afghan) partner forces who trained, fought and died or were injured alongside our troops, and families of active-duty U.S. service members are going to be stuck,” said VanDiver.

VanDiver and the U.S. official said that the Afghans approved to resettle as refugees in the US were being removed from the manifests of flights they were due to take from Kabul between now and April, Reuters reported.