Mustafa served alongside the United States military in Afghanistan. Like so many other Afghans who helped American forces, he later came to the US for its promise of refuge. When I met him recently, though, he had only just left an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention center after months behind bars. He recounted being “gripped” by fear when a guard told him he was in federal lockup, a place that didn’t resemble “the image I had of the United States in my mind.”
Last month marked the fourth anniversary of the fall of Kabul, and Mustafa’s detention mirrors the experience of countless Afghans. We are reminded of the failures of a 20-year American occupation that finally handed power to the very people it sought to dislodge. We are also reminded of the repeat betrayals by the US government for which many Afghans risked their lives. This time, the betrayal takes the form of bigoted immigration policy.
As an Emerging Leaders Fellow for Afghans for a Better Tomorrow, I have spent months interviewing numerous newly arrived Afghans on their experiences following the US withdrawal and navigating the American immigration system. As an Afghan-American myself, I have heard so many of their stories in my daily life at our mosques, donation distributions, and in passing conversation. While these stories are certainly not homogeneous, they share the same themes: betrayal, fear, criminalization, and growing resentment.
Many of those I’ve spoken to came to the US as part of Operation Allies Welcome, an “all-of-government” effort to resettle Afghans in danger, many of whom worked alongside the US, into America after the fall of Kabul. Those resettled included translators, government workers, and other vulnerable groups like activists and human rights defenders. After the arduous process of finally making it to the US, many dreamed of rebuilding their lives in the country that had put them in so much danger in their homes. Instead, they became the targets of a broken and now weaponized immigration system. Today, tens of thousands of Afghans are in the US without permanent legal protections, leaving them vulnerable to the whims of a government that has never respected their sacrifice.
“Today, tens of thousands of Afghans are in the US without permanent legal protections.”
President Donald Trump’s recent decision to terminate Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Afghans means that the roughly 12,000 Afghans depending on it to remain in the US now face an uncertain fate. The Trump administration has told Afghans to go back to Afghanistan, claiming that it’s safe for them to return to a country under Taliban rule, where their association with the United States makes them and their families targets. That is such an obvious lie that not even the administration itself believes it — the State Department has issued a “Do Not Travel” advisory for Americans thinking of even traveling to Afghanistan. But it is a lie that serves as a legal fig leaf to allow the government to deport people right back into the hands of the Taliban, despite having served alongside US forces.
In the end, the US owes Afghans a debt. That debt cannot be repaid with more broken promises, deportation, and violence. Afghan evacuees need pathways to permanent residency and an end to the precarity of their lives in the United States. Congress has repeatedly introduced a bipartisan Fulfilling Promises to Afghan Allies Act, to ensure Afghan evacuees receive permanent protections for themselves and their families. Despite multiple attempts, lawmakers have failed to pass this legislation, leaving many Afghans in jeopardy. That danger has only grown since the increased immigration enforcement by the Trump administration, which has resorted to kidnapping people from their workplaces, homes, and street corners. The recent anti-immigration climate has shown the deep challenges of passing such legislation.
From being used as tools in a war for American profit, to being betrayed in Afghanistan, to now facing deportations, Afghans have been repeatedly failed by America and its promises. The nature of how the 20-year war ended was a slap in the face for Afghans who had already suffered so much in the name of freedom — a freedom bought and sold with their blood. The withdrawal and so-called peace process was negotiated at a table where most Afghans did not have a seat. After the withdrawal, American weapons ended up in the hands of the Taliban, a metaphor for US intervention in the country. Washington owes the Afghan people permanent solutions, not continued displacement and legal limbo at the hands of US foreign policy.
“There was a feeling of intense despair and loneliness,” Mustafa said of his time in detention. “I felt driven from a distant land of pain and suffering.” When a judge finally ordered his release based on time spent, he said he “wanted to jump for joy.”
Meanwhile, most aren’t so lucky, if you can even call it that. Many Afghans, along with immigrants from around the world, remain in ICE detention. As of September, the Trump administration had increased the number of people in ICE custody to some 59,000. As the US government presses forward with the president’s plans to carry out “mass deportations,” more Afghans will have to suffer a fate like Mustafa’s — or worse.
