When the United States pulled troops out of Afghanistan and the Taliban took over, Ed* went back to his home country to rescue his family.
Ed had already lost his only brother as punishment for Ed’s work with the US, first as a translator and then enlisted directly in the US Army, he said. He didn’t want anyone else to die. He and others interviewed for this article asked not to be fully identified to protect their safety and that of their family members.
After about two years, he was finally able to get permission for his mother and several sisters to come to the US, he said. They left, believing that his other sister would soon follow with her husband and children.
Last year, that sister and her family made it as far as Doha, Qatar, where the Biden administration staged Afghan refugees for processing under a special program called Enduring Welcome that was not widely publicized due to the safety risks.
At the time the US government was moving up to 5,000 Afghans per month through its satellite processing sites to the US, according to Jessica Bradley Rushing, a former State Department employee who worked in the office that resettled Afghans.
When President Donald Trump took office in January, he quickly stopped the flights bringing Afghans to the US. An executive order shut down the refugee resettlement program and canceled travel for the Afghans who already had flights booked, including Ed’s sister. Her family was scheduled to fly to the US on Jan. 27, Ed said.
At this point in time, the Taliban is not the obstacle. The obstacle is the Trump administration.
Jessica Bradley Rushing
“We were concerned that if it were too publicly understood, that the Taliban would be a mitigating factor,” Bradley Rushing said. “At this point in time, the Taliban is not the obstacle. The obstacle is the Trump administration. I think that says a lot about where we are with this administration if the barrier to our allies is Trump, not the Taliban.”
The State Department recently laid off staff in the office where she worked and is letting contracts expire with others, Bradley Rushing said.
Ed’s sister is among roughly 1,500 Afghans who were promised new lives in the US and are now waiting in limbo in Qatar, terrified of the possibility of being returned to Afghanistan, according to Bradley Rushing. Tens of thousands more had crossed the border into Pakistan and were awaiting processing at the US consulate there, she said. It’s not clear how much longer the countries hosting them will allow them to stay.
According to #AfghanEvac, an advocacy organization that has helped Afghans who worked with the US government flee their country, more than 50,000 Afghans are waiting in third countries to be resettled in the US, and more than 200,000 others had been identified inside Afghanistan as needing evacuation.
Some Afghans have fled their country on their own and made it to the US border. But the Trump administration’s changes to the asylum system have complicated their paths to protection as well. Others who were here already have had their protection stripped, as the administration recently ended temporary protected status for Afghans.
Trump has also blocked US citizens and green card holders from sponsoring Afghan relatives’ visas with the latest travel ban.
The collective result of these policies has left a countless number of Afghans separated from family, stranded in countries that might kick them out or stuck in the country they were trying to flee, hiding from the Taliban.
When asked about the policy changes, the Department of Homeland Security sent a press release from when it announced the end of temporary protected status for Afghans.
In the statement, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said that conditions in Afghanistan no longer merit protection.
Last week, Trump posted on social media that “starting right now” he would “try to save” Afghans who worked with the US military and are currently in the United Arab Emirates facing imminent deportation back to Afghanistan. He did not mention the other places where Afghans are waiting while facing the possibility of being returned to danger.
The Department of Defense deferred to the State Department, which did not respond to a request for comment.
Ed said that because of his service in the US military, nobody in his family would be safe in Afghanistan.
“There’s no way back for my sister and her husband,” Ed said. “We have a collective culture. We live collectively. We are punished collectively as well.”
He said he felt betrayed that the country he served would leave his family behind.
“Nothing makes sense,” Ed said.
Mohammad, another former translator who went on to join the US Army, said he felt similarly. He still has shrapnel in his body from a roadside bomb blast that killed a young Marine next to him, he said.
He was in Afghanistan working as an intelligence contractor when US troops withdrew, he said. He managed to get out during the chaos at the airport, but his family members did not. His parents and siblings stayed on the move and in hiding for years until the US government approved them for a flight to Qatar.
Now they are in limbo, too.
“It’s unbearable for someone like me, with my background and sensitivity of jobs and work that I have done, for my family to be sent back. It’s an absolute nightmare to be honest with you,” Mohammad said. “It’s horrifying.”
He pointed out that it’s a violation of international and US law to return refugees to a country where they will be persecuted.
He said many of his family members need medical treatment that they aren’t receiving while at the temporary camp in Qatar. He said he talks with his family every day, worried each time that it might be their last conversation.
“There is no certainty,” Mohammad said. “I go to sleep with the thought of hoping — false hopes that tomorrow I might hear some good news, something good might happen, because for the past few months nothing has been happening but bad.”
Outside of the camp in Qatar, several dozen students who were attending the American University of Afghanistan are also waiting to be resettled, according to Malik, a business major who said he has been stuck in Qatar for about three years.
In that time, he said, he and the other students have finished their studies virtually and graduated. He was waiting for his flight information to the US when Trump shut down the program.
He noted recent killings by the Taliban in Afghanistan.
“Everybody is sending Afghans back to the place that they ran from [even though] they cannot live there,” Malik said. “I am very afraid that this could happen to us as well, and I don’t know what to do.”
When he was still in school in Afghanistan, he dreamed of having a business related to the country’s pistachio fields, he said. That’s not possible now.
“Why would I leave my home country? Why would I leave my dreams?” Malik said. “Because my country is not safe for me.”
When Afghans in Qatar could no longer travel onward to the US, that meant that Afghans waiting to leave their country on a US flight to the temporary camp were also stranded, said Bradley Rushing, the former State Department employee.
Among them was Azizi.
Azizi said that as a student, he was selected for a program funded by the US embassy in Afghanistan that gave him special opportunities to learn English, including on a trip to Turkey. He said the US government labeled him and his fellow students as “cooperatives” and that they worked on projects alongside the US government.
He has a case with the refugee resettlement program but hasn’t yet left Afghanistan. Despite his education, he’s working at a job in which he doesn’t make much money and is trying to stay off the Taliban’s radar, he said. He’s now engaged but can’t afford to get married unless he finds better work. But that could cost him his life.
“There is no new good news,” he said. “There is no hope in here. Every day we are just passing the days, not living.”
When he found out that the flights had stopped, he felt like he was going to a funeral, he said.
“It was so difficult,” Azizi said. “My tears came automatically. I couldn’t hold them.”
One former prosecutor who brought cases against members of the Taliban and ISIS said he’s been living in hiding, trying to hang on until he can evacuate through the US program.
Oruzgani said he was injured in a terrorist attack in 2019 that killed several colleagues. He said he still receives threats. He said he can’t work because of the situation, and he frequently moves to keep his location secret.
“I am living a very difficult life in terms of security and spirit,” he said.
Amin, a social activist who fought for women’s rights and still works educating girls via remote classes, said he has stopped going outside altogether after being arrested twice.
Amin said he doesn’t think the Taliban would let him go a third time.
“I’m pretty sure if they catch me this time, I won’t be able to protect myself,” he said.
He, too, is still far back in the refugee pipeline, waiting among the more than 200,000 others still in Afghanistan.
A judge hearing a federal court case over the end of the refugee program has instructed the Trump administration to process refugees who were already awaiting travel at the time that his executive order went into effect. That might eventually mean good news for Ed’s sister.
But Ed is also trying to bring his wife — who is pregnant with their first child — to the US. She’s currently in France and a resident there, but because she’s originally from Afghanistan, her visa was denied with no ability to appeal when Ed tried to sponsor her.
He’s currently in training at a police academy in Colorado, but if he’s not able to bring his wife to live with him here, he intends to move to France to be with her and their baby.
“I raised my hand and said I would defend the country and the people against enemies domestic and international,” Ed said. “I have given 10 good years of my life in service.”
He said he didn’t do it to ask for anything in return, that there was no way he could’ve known that the Taliban would return to power and he would need to get his family to safety.
“Everything I did, I thought I was being part of a good plan,” Ed said. “I thought I was being part of doing something good for the world.”
This article was produced by Capital & Main. It is published here with permission.
