They waited for flights. Then Trump closed the door to Afghan allies.
Nasir, a legal advisor to Afghan air force during the war, helped to approve the air attacks against the Taliban fighters. He was still in Afghanistan, where he lived in hiding from the takeover of Taliban in 2021, as he waited for approval to move to the United States.
He passed the background check and only needed a medical examination to complete the procedure, he said. But last week, he and tens of thousands of other Afghanists found their trails to the United States blocked by executive action signed by President Trump.
The command suspended the relocation program that brings thousands of legal refugees to the country each year. Among many now In Limb are Afghanists who helped American war efforts And they seek a new beginning and a sense of security in the United States.
Nasir, a former landowner who asked for his full name, did not use in the SMS message that Mr. Trump “in this Decision” not only neglected the interests of the Afghans, but also did not consider the interests of the United States. ”
“How can the world and American allies rely on the US government?” He added.
The US refugee reception program, which has been located since 1980, provides legal immigration for proven people who have escaped their home countries because of persecution, war or other threats. Suspending the program, Mr. Trump said that the continuation would burden communities that are not equipped to resolve refugees.
Mr. Trump order, Under the heading, “Compliance of the Refugee Refugee Programs of the United States” enters into force on Monday. He says that the Secretary of State and the Minister of Homeland Security can recognize refugees from a case to a case, but only if they find that it is “in national interest and does not represent a threat to the safety or well -being of the United States.”
The command does not determine when the suspension will end, saying that it will continue “until further entry into the United States of the refugees is aligned with the interests of the United States.”
At least 40,000 Afghanists persecuted moved to the United States before the order was published on Monday, and the refugee flights were stopped the next day, according to #afghanevac, a coalition of 250 groups that worked in the immigration of Afghanistan.
The suspension is particularly devastating for 10,000 to 15,000 Afghans who, according to #Afghanevac, were fully checked and prepared for flights. It is also a serious blow to about 200 US service members who are trying to get their families out of Afghanistan.
The parachute of the US army at Fort Liberty, North Carolina, who asked to identify him, Mojo, said he spent last year helping his sister and wife to apply for refugee status to enter the United States from Afghanistan.
Mojo, 26, was an interpreter of American forces in Afghanistan. He said he joined the US army two years ago after leaving Afghanistan under a program that gives visas to Afghanians who directly served the US army or government.
His sister and son -in -law, both doctors, hide, fearing retaliation from Taliban for Mojo’s military service, he said. Recently, they have completed a long -term refugee check procedure and have been approved to move to the United States, he said. There is everything left by the flight from Afghanistan.
“We were so close to bring them safe – and suddenly everything went off,” Mojo told Mojo from Fort Liberty, previously known as Fort Bragg, where he served in 82 Air Force Division.
When his sister heard the news, she said, “She started crying – and I started crying with her.”
Shawn Vandiver, president of the #fgghanevac, called the Executive Command of the Publishing of Afghanians who supported the US government or army.
“Everyone is frozen in the place – it’s hearty,” he said in a telephone conversation.
Among those who have pushed into uncertainty are former members of the Afghan military and security forces, as well as judges and lawyers involved in the persecution of Taliban members. Some of the judges and lawyers are womanwho were persecuted Taliban.
Mr. Vandiver said that the suspension of the relocation program does not solve the problem of illegal intake by migrants on the southern American border – Mr. Trump’s focus. Individuals in the program cannot be applied alone, but they must be sent by US government agencies or named non -governmental partners.
“The failure to protect our Afghan Allies sends a dangerous message to the world: that US obligations are conditional and temporary,” said Mr. Vandiver.
Hundreds of thousands Afghans who fled After taking over Taliban, he landed in neighboring Pakistan. A large number lives in the capital, Islamabad, where they persecuted the relocation in the United States and other Western countries through the embassy and refugee agencies there.
Many are afraid that they will be deported back to Afghanistan now that their path to the United States has been interrupted. Pakistan has already expelled Hundreds of thousands of Afghans due to the increase in tension with the Taliban.
“” We have endured the ruthless harassment of Pakistani authorities for three years, “said Ihsan Ullah Ahmedzai, a journalist who worked with the media financed by the US in Kabul, Afghan capital, before we fled to Islamabad in Islamabad in Islamabad. We would soon go to the United States “, he added.
There is no optimism now. “Trump’s command felt like a bomb,” Mr. Ahmedzai said. “It broke our hopes and once again left us vulnerable to danger.”
Noor Habiba, who collaborated with a group of women’s rights that funded the US in Kabul, before running away with her husband and two daughters in Islamabad, said she had hoped to arrive in the United States in February or March so far.
“We can’t go back to Afghanistan,” Mrs. Habiba said. “There is nothing left for women to live under the Taliban rule.”
Immigrants’ advocates are concerned that Afghans could also be at risk in the United States. Migrants allowed to the country within the Biden Administration Program could quickly deport the powers that Mr. Trump gives immigration and customs, according to Internal Memorandum received by the New York Times.
After the US army withdrew from Afghanistan in August 2021, the Biden administration began program allowing 76,000 evacuated Afghanists to enter the United States for humanitarian reasons, according to Migration Policy Institute.
Since 2023, more than 90,000 Afghanists have settled in the United States, according to Mustafa BabakCollective colleague Emerson, who is an expert on relocation.
The number of refugees from Afghanistan and other countries received in the US Moving Program has varied wildly in democratic and Republican administrations.
Under President Barack Obama, 85,000 refugees were received in 2016. In 2020, the last year of Mr. Trump’s first term, the number reached the lowest level of 11,000. President Joseph R. Biden Jr. He revived the program, acknowledging 100,000 refugees last year, at most in three decades.
The program requires applicants to pass demanding verification procedure These include the background checks of FBI and other agencies, biometric examinations, medical examinations, interviews and more security examinations.
Zahra, a sergeant of the US army, said that five members of direct families hiding in Afghanistan made it to be divided through the process when the executive order had frozen them in place.
She said she came to the United States from Afghanistan for the 2016 academic scholarship. She enrolled in the US army in 2021, she said.
“My family is very stressed,” said Zahra, 30, who asked her full name to be published, she said in a SMS. “We hung out with a little hope.”
She added, “This break on the evacuation flights takes away that little hope and leaves them a future full of uncertainty.”
Mojo, the parachute of the US army, said he was afraid that Mr. Trump would block the relocation of other refugees, but believed that he would exclude Afghan ally because of their support to the US mission.
“I still have hope” for exemption, he said. “I mean, he’s my general commander.”