In April, President Joe Biden announced his plan to withdraw remaining U.S. troops from Afghanistan, an operation that officially ended Aug. 31. Tens of thousands of Afghan residents have been airlifted out and while some join existing family living in the U.S., many have been housed in military bases across the country, including the upper Midwest’s Fort McCoy, in Wisconsin.
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The fort is one of four bases being used to house Afghan refugees, spots chosen for their capacity and the “capability in the region to support” an influx of refugees, according to U.S. Air Force Gen. Glen D. Van Herck, who addressed reporters at a news conference three days before the evacuation from Afghanistan ended.
The people in the fort are those most at risk of retaliation from the Taliban, usually because they worked with Americans as interpreters or in other capacities. Those who worked with the U.S. government are eligible for Special Immigrant Visas (SIVs); other people who were evacuated might have different forms of visas, or are waiting for their SIVs to be processed.
How long will Fort McCoy be housing people from Afghanistan, and what will their lives be like? What is being done when it comes to COVID-19 and security precautions? And what are the next steps? The situation is uncertain, but here’s what we found.
How many people can Fort McCoy take, and what will their lives be like there?
Covering an expanse of 60,000 acres, the base has the capacity to house 10,000 people. As of Aug. 27, it has taken in more than 2,300 people from Afghanistan seeking refuge, according to a news conference held by the Department of Defense.
Afghan people will be housed in buildings, each of which contains showers and bathroom amenities, and will be given “culturally appropriate food” that includes food abiding by halal standards. According to Van Herck, a window of 3 hours is provided for breakfast, and most bases also have a “24-hour grab and go” option for food.
Religious services are also provided, according to Van Herck, along with “recreational activities.” Van Herck added that “some medical services” are also available through contract services, including nongovernmental organizations.
There is no education for children on site, said Van Herck, although there has been an “outpouring of support” from communities and nonprofits, he said, who have come to the bases with coloring books or to hold sports activities. Nonprofit organizations have also provided basics such as diapers, baby formula and clothing.
According to Erin Barbato, professor and director of the Immigrant Justice Clinic at the University of Wisconsin Law School, “focusing on (culturally appropriate) mental health services is incredibly important,” if these services are not yet included in the medical provisions at the bases. This need is made urgent by the trauma and displacement experienced by people seeking refuge, said Barbato, who visited Fort Bliss in Texas last week and has plans to work with a nonprofit at Fort McCoy to provide free legal services to refugees.
What is the screening process before Afghan people come into these bases?
Professor Andrew Kydd, who teaches political science at the University of Wisconsin, noted that there’s concern, specifically among those on the political right, that high numbers of refugees entering America might pose a security risk and introduce the potential for terrorism. That notion also stems from anti-immigrant sentiment, added Kydd.
But to address these concerns, the Department of Defense has undertaken security vetting for Afghan people that includes biometric and biographic screening conducted by law enforcement and counterterrorism officials. This screening process is conducted before Afghan refugees enter the U.S.
Gen. James C. McConville, chief of staff of the Army, visited Fort McCoy on Aug. 11.
What about COVID-19?
When it comes to COVID-19, said Van Herck, Afghans coming into the bases have been tested “multiple times.” They are tested upon arrival into the U.S., en route, and when they arrive at bases.
COVID-19 vaccines are offered at Dulles airport in Virginia, where Afghan people are flying in, as well as at the bases such as McCoy, said Van Herck.
“They’re not mandatory,” he said, although he added that many refugees are taking the vaccine if they haven’t had it yet.
How long are people from Afghanistan going to living in these forts — and what are the next steps?
This isn’t immediately clear, but “we’re prepared to do this as long as it takes,” said Van Herck.
According to Kydd, the military may not know how long this could go on.
“This is all very spur of the moment, on the fly, in response to this necessary crisis,” said Kydd, adding that there will most likely be efforts to reach out to communities and rehouse refugees.
This lack of clarity, said Barbato, is partly because this situation is “much different” from other instances of refugee resettlement. Ordinarily, people are brought into a host country (in this case the U.S.) by the United Nations with their visas processed and can usually apply for a green card after a year.
“Most of the complicated part has been taken care of,” said Barbato. But here, all the complicated parts are happening seemingly at once, as some people from Afghanistan also wait for visas to be processed.
Additionally, said Barbato, refugee resettlement agencies in the U.S. scaled down their operations or closed their doors completely after the Trump administration reduced the number of refugees allowed into the U.S. to “historic lows,” according to The Associated Press.
There are efforts dedicated to increasing services to refugees, said Barbato, but “going from very limited services to now getting in full force” is going to be tough.
What is the reaction on the ground in Wisconsin?
Kydd feels there is a “broad sense that we have some sort of moral obligation” to bring Afghan people who worked closely with Americans to the U.S.
Despite this, there are still critics of refugee transportation and resettlement, including U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson, (R-Wis.), who questioned the vetting process when he visited Fort McCoy on Wednesday.
Wisconsin governor Tony Evers (D), by contrast, said in a statement that Wisconsin will “continue to extend our support and assistance to these individuals who bravely contributed to our country’s efforts over the past two decades.”
According to Kydd, these divergent statements highlight how this issue tends to fall along partisan lines.
“What we kind of see through the Wisconsin political lens is that there’s starting to be a political fight around these individuals,” said Barbato, who hopes that Wisconsin and the U.S. can “work together to welcome these people” into communities.
Fort McCoy’s history: Has it taken in people seeking refuge in the past?
Robert Bruce McCoy, the fort’s namesake, was the son of a Civil War veteran and himself a veteran of the Spanish-American War. McCoy thought the land near his family’s Sparta, Wisconsin, ranch would make an ideal military training ground and it has continued to serve in this capacity since the early 1900s. More than 100,000 reserve and active military personnel have received instruction at the site yearly since the 1980s, and the training will continue while people from Afghanistan are staying at the fort, according to Cheryl Phillips, spokeswoman for Task Force McCoy and the 88th Readiness Division.
The fort previously served as a relocation site for European- and Japanese-Americans suspected of being “enemy aliens” in 1942; prisoners of war from overseas during the remainder of World War II; and refugees from Cuba in 1980.
Nearly 300 Japanese- and German-Americans — both naturalized citizens and undocumented immigrants — arrived at the then-Camp McCoy in March 1942 and were interred there for being potentially dangerous, according to the fort’s public affairs office.
The fort’s South Post transitioned from an internment camp to a holding facility for prisoners of war in 1943 — becoming the largest camp for Japanese POWs in the continental U.S. At the end of World War II, the POW camp held approximately 500 Korean, 2,700 Japanese and 3,000 German prisoners. The facility was destroyed soon thereafter.
More than 14,000 of the 125,000 Cuban refugees seeking asylum in the U.S. were relocated for resettlement to Fort McCoy, which served as one of five processing centers in the U.S. during the Mariel Boatlift, also known as the Freedom Flotilla, in 1980.
According to the La Cross Tribune, 9,729 Cuban refugees were sponsored out of Fort McCoy and 3,234 were transferred to Fort Chaffee in Arkansas. More than 1,000 refugees were sent to prisons.
How can you help:
According to the Wisconsin Department of Children and Families, people can offer “time, skills and gifts” to help people living in bases.
You can donate to charities supporting the refugees, including Catholic Charities, Team Rubicon, American Red Cross, International Rescue Committee, and United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. There may be local equivalents of these charities near you that you can look up online, and you can also contact the partner organizations that DCF works with, listed here, to see how else you can help.
In addition to donating money that might go toward a utility bill in the future, other ways to help include volunteering as an English tutor, raising awareness about community resources such as job search agencies, donating clothes or books, or raising money by holding a fundraiser.
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