“It’s like the United States doesn’t actually understand what I did for this country; it’s a betrayal,” Abdullah says.
He fled Afghanistan with his parents during the US withdrawal in August 2021 and is now a paratrooper for the US military. He worries he can’t help his sister and her husband escape due to President Donald Trump’s executive order suspending a resettlement program.
The order cancels all flights and suspends applications for Afghan refugees, without any exemption for families of active servicemembers.
Trump argues the decision addresses “record levels of migration” that threaten “the availability of resources for Americans.”
Abdullah and several other Afghan refugees feel the United States has “turned its back” on them, despite years of working alongside American officials, military personnel, and non-profit organizations in Afghanistan. Many fear speaking openly, as it could jeopardize their cases or put their families at risk.
As soon as Abdullah heard about the order, he called his sister in Afghanistan. “She was crying; she’s lost all hope,” he said. He believes his work has made her a target of the Taliban government, which took power in 2021.
“The anxiety, it’s just unimaginable. She thinks we’ll never be able to see each other again,” he says.
During the war, Abdullah worked as an interpreter for US forces. When he left Afghanistan, his sister and her husband couldn’t get passports in time to board the flight.
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A spokesperson for the Taliban government has stated there is an amnesty for anyone who worked with international forces and that all Afghans can “live in the country without any fear.” The same spokesperson claims these refugees are “economic migrants.”
However, a 2023 UN report cast doubt on these assurances. It found that hundreds of former government officials and armed forces members were allegedly killed despite a general amnesty.
Abdullah’s sister and her husband had completed the medical exams and interviews necessary for resettlement in the United States. Official documentation from the US Department of Defense endorses their application.
Now, Abdullah says Trump’s insistence that immigration is too high does not justify his separation from his family. He describes sleepless nights and says the anxiety is affecting his performance in his combat unit, serving the United States.
Babak, a former legal adviser to the Afghan Air Force, is still in hiding in Afghanistan.
“They’re not just breaking their promise to us – they’re breaking us,” he says.
