(AFP) – Afghans who worked alongside US troops during almost two decades of war were once promised a home in the United States to shelter them from the extremist intolerance of the Taliban. But after two National Guard soldiers were shot — one of them fatally — in Washington last month, allegedly by an Afghan national, their fates have been put on hold, and many are now terrified about what the future might bring.
“Everybody is scared,” a 31-year-old Afghan green card holder told AFP. “We are scared that we will be judged by people for the crimes committed by one individual from Afghanistan.” West Virginia National Guard Specialist Sarah Beckstrom, 20, died from her wounds after what officials described as an “ambush-style” attack that also left fellow Guardsman Andrew Wolfe, 24, fighting for his life. The following day, President Donald Trump announced he was halting all migration from what he called “third world countries,” including Afghanistan, as his administration announced a review of all residency grants for people from 19 countries — around 1.6 million people, according to an AFP tally.
Now Afghans fear they might be sent back to a nation run by the Islamist extremists who they once worked to defeat. “I made my home in America, now this is my home. If I leave here where I have to go then?” sobbed Maryam. Like all Afghan nationals AFP spoke to for this story, Maryam did not want to be identified for fear of angering US immigration authorities. “When I sleep my chest feels very painful, empty,” she said. “I feel like I belong to nowhere.”
The 27-year-old worked on projects for the US embassy in Kabul, where she helped produce educational materials that she says cast the Taliban in a bad light. When the American-led international force was there, her country began to modernize, giving rights to women that their mothers did not have. “I did education, I had big dreams for my country, for myself,” she said from her home outside Los Angeles. But in August 2021, the last US troops hurriedly withdrew from Afghanistan as the Taliban ran riot, taking over the institutions that American taxpayers had spent billions of dollars to prop up. Hundreds of thousands of Afghans scrambled to leave the country, terrified that the Islamists would exact revenge on anyone who had helped the West.
“It was so difficult to get into the airport,” said Khan, who describes printing out dozens of documents, including proof that his wife was a US citizen living in California. “There was no water, no food, nothing. And we spent four days in there,” he said. “It was too cold during the night.” Khan, who worked in a university and at a government bank, finally got a plane to Qatar, then on to Germany before being flown to New Jersey, where he underwent two months of background checks and processing. “We truly thank United States. They helped us a lot to come… and rebuild our life here.”
Khan says he worked day and night in Anaheim, California to save money, often doing two jobs, and now has his own used car dealership. He has also bought a triplex, part of which he rents out to provide a source of income, and secured his green card for permanent US residency. “I was about to apply to my citizenship by the end of December, but unfortunately, after the incident in Washington DC, everything is paused,” he said. “Everybody is scared, whoever has a green card, a parole status, or they have applied for asylum or whatever status they have, all of them are scared.”
“We had a lot of dreams, and now every day everything becomes more difficult, and our dreams are, like, going the other way.” For Maryam, who works for an NGO in California’s Orange County, all she wants is to be able to get her green card application back on track, and for her community to be treated fairly. “What the person did does not represent us,” she said of the shooter in Washington. “We are all committed to America; we are not the traitor, we are the survivor.” – Sarah LAI
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