Afghan refugees in the United States are concerned about their future

“Bahr Hashendand” is very small to remember her journey from the Afghan city of Kabul to the American city of Indiana Police, and her family fled after the collapse of the long American operation in Afghanistan, four years ago.

As the Taliban regained control, her mother knew that people like them, who supported the American army, would be targets under the new system, and so they traveled to the United States, to make “Bahar” friendships in the kindergarten and love pink.

However, the mother of “Bahar”, Najia Sherzad, like many Afghan refugees, is concerned about her family members who are still under the rule of the “Taliban”, and for more than 10 years, she worked in a banking position that supports the US military, and is now safe in the United States with legal permanent residence and works as a director of resettlement of refugees at the non -profit “Bachuerk Indi” organization.

Sherzad says that the “Taliban” visited her family’s home in Afghanistan, and like other Afghans in the United States, still hoped to reunite her with her family members.

However, many of those who are in their position are afraid that the chances of this are increasingly diminishing, and even with the persistence of defenders from both “Republican” and “democratic” parties to pressure the US government to help the Afghans who helped American efforts, the transformation of the President of the President, Donald Trump, in the priorities of immigration from “humanitarian assistance” to “deportation” has ended or greatly narrowed the paths of entry to the United States.

Tragic

The US administration has suspended the American refugee acceptance program, and the government has reduced resettlement aid to Afghans abroad, and a military base may soon be used in Indiana that was housing the Hashendand family and about 7,600 other Afghans for the United States, to detain migrants.

“There is a lot of uncertainty about what will happen,” says the assistant professor in history at the University of Liwala University in the state of Maryland.

Translated “Samira”

In the summer of 2021, the Afghan university student (Samira) burned the papers he binds to the American government, and with the “Taliban” ready to restore Afghanistan (Samira) realized that these documents associated with her work as a translator posed a danger.

Like many of the people who were interviewed for this story, Samira asked the newspaper “Christian Science Monitor” only using her first name to protect her relatives who are still in Afghanistan, at a time when her family was preparing to take the Taliban movement on power, turning the documents into a “digital formula” and burned English books.

(Samira) recalls watching the correspondents on the TV four years ago, and they were unable to speak, while documenting the fall of Kabul in the hands of the new rulers, and she says: “We all started crying, because we did not know what to do.”

The university student adds that she was attracted to work in the United States, because she expected her employer to respect her ethnic identity, as she belongs to “Hazara”, a group that was discriminated to and attacks in Afghanistan, and now she says that her former colleagues in Afghanistan were imprisoned and tortured by the “Taliban”, and they were targeted because of their cooperation with the Americans.

Ethical commitment

After escaping from Afghanistan, and waiting for her in Albania with her teenage sister for nearly two years, (Samira) entered the United States in 2023 with a special immigration visa, and she is now holding a “green card”, where she is allowed to work, and her sister can join the school.

However, the presence of her parents in Afghanistan is not a comfortable matter for the Afghan student, as she is trying hard to bring them to the United States by seeking the family reunification, and she says: “I want to save them and bring the family again.”

Many defenders of these Afghans believe that the United States is morally and strategically binding on facilitating these reunification operations, and even if the opportunity to come to the United States is not an explicit part of government contracts with Afghans, there was an expectation to protect the collaborators and their families, says Andrew Sullivan, a veterans in Afghanistan and the executive director of the organization “No one is left”, which is a non -profit organization that helps in transferring Afghan collaborators to the United States.

“It was widely understood by the Afghans who risked themselves, joined the service with the Americans, joined the patrols and facing explosive devices on the side of roads, snipers, battles, etc., that if they served sincerely for a year, this special immigration visa program, which was prohibited by American law, would be present to help them,” and continued: American ».

He explained that the United States did not exert enough effort to fulfill these promises, but it is not blamed for any administration, he says, as Congress played a role in this.

Sullivan says that besides the direct safety of Afghan families, there is also an concern related to American national security in the long run, and he adds: “The United States will go abroad again, and I am afraid that if we do not improve the treatment of our Afghan allies, our allies are the longest wars, so we will not have these local citizens who will serve us, because they simply will not trust the Americans anymore.”

Refugee support

After the fall of Kabul in the hands of the “Taliban”, on August 15, 2021, hasty evacuations, including on military aircraft, led to tens of thousands of Afghans to the American bases, and the last US military flight left Afghanistan on August 30, 2021.

At that time, most of their viewers said that they prefer to accept Afghans as refugees if they worked with the American or Afghan government during the war, and they passed security tests, and the support rate of Democrats reached 76%, followed by Republicans by 74%, and Americans such as retired business lawyer, Theresa Torres, were affected by help and care. Indiana Police.

Initially, she took refugees to the dates of the dentist, then helped three women obtain driving licenses after accompanying them in training rounds and providing them with translators.

“I felt as if I spent most of my career to help the wealthy to increase their wealth, I did not contribute much to the service of humanity,” Torres said. On “Christian Science Monitor”

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Security concerns

In 2022, a federal inspector during the era of the US President, Joe Biden, found concerns about the evacuated Afghan examination, including wrong or missing personal data.

The control authority report says that the Ministry of Internal Security: “Perhaps it allowed or made a conditional release of individuals in the United States, who pose a threat to national security and the safety of local communities.”

US President Donald Trump, who did not mind bringing more Afghans who fled after the American withdrawal, expressed these security concerns, and said at the White House event last month: “We know the good, and we know who may not be good.”

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Afghan families continue to consolidate their roots

“Bahar” accompanied her mother. From the source

Despite the uncertainty, Afghan families continue to establish their roots, Najia Sherzad and her husband have given birth to their fourth child in the United States and bought a house.

In the broader “Indiana Police” society, some Afghan wives (and often the housewives) did not learn, reading or writing in the language of the host country.

Through the Afghan societal center that established it, Sherzad has arranged free lessons in the English language for women in the “Christian Youth Association”, and plans to start driving lessons for women for women “until they become independent,” she said.

In one in the afternoon, more than 12 women bowed with their heads on leaves, and their pens shivered in their fists.

A student in the class, Jamal’s honorary, a refugee, says that she waited for months in Pakistan before her arrival, and she writes with a blue pen and a fixed line: “Go to school daily”, and on the other side of the room, she reviews a group of women on the week, and when asked if they have members of their families who worked with the American government, most of them raised their hands.

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Withdrawing immigration visas

The newspaper “Christian Science Monitor” conducted interviews with three Afghans from the Green Card, who obtained special immigration visas years ago, then received messages from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in February 2025 stating the withdrawal of basic approval.

The “Green Card” holders say they know much more Afghans in the United States, who have received this notice, which raises doubts about the future of their legal status.

The messages, which were seen by The Monitor, indicate the lack of “qualified jobs” and “adequate documents”.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs nor the American Citizenship and Immigration Services Department did not respond to the relevant clarification requests, and (Muhammad), a civilian engineer in California and one of the holders of the green card affected by the decision: “It was really confusing.”

In addition to appealing the notification decision, (Muhammad) says that he recently applied for asylum, stressing that he is afraid to lose his legal status in the United States.

. Many Afghan refugee defenders believe that the United States is morally and strategically tied to facilitate the operations of the reunification of the families that helped them.