For Afghans in the US 鈥� life, liberty, and the pursuit of permanence
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Sarah Matusek Staff writer
| Denver
Aida takes kicks to her stomach with a stone-faced focus. Her own kick has the precision of a whip, hitting hand-held pads with a thwack.
Between drills at the Monday night muay thai class, Aida breaks into a bright blue smile, mouthguard over teeth. She and sister Maryam are popular at the Denver gym, often smothered by classmates鈥� hugs.
鈥�Without my family, it is so hard for me,鈥� Maryam says in Dari, translated through her sister. But training here helps, 鈥渂ecause they are like my family.鈥�
Why We Wrote This
A story focused onOver the past year, tens of thousands of Afghans have rebuilt their lives in the U.S. Finding safety, however, doesn鈥檛 always come with a sense of security.
The Afghan athletes landed in the United States in September 2021, a month after the Taliban swept to power and U.S. forces withdrew, bringing a chaotic end to America鈥檚 longest-ever war after 20 years. The Monitor agreed not to use the real names of Aida and Maryam for fear of reprisals from the Taliban against their family.
Like tens of thousands of others, the sisters are here on temporary humanitarian parole,听resettled like refugees but without the same prospects for permanence. However, beginning next month, the U.S. will move away from this model, which allowed for speedier processing of at-risk Afghan arrivals.
Afghan evacuees across the country describe their first year here as a blend of gratitude and grief, resilience with the ache of separation. After all, forging new lives meant leaving loved ones behind 鈥撎齪arents and siblings, for Aida and Maryam. And while Afghans have found safety in the U.S., without direct paths to permanent residence, many still seek a sense of security.
鈥淚 feel like I鈥檓 part of something good,鈥� says Edrees, an Afghan parolee, about being welcomed in Kentucky. But then he asks, 鈥淲hat鈥檚 going to happen next?鈥�
For starters, leaving family behind
Around 85,000 Afghans have arrived in the U.S. through , according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.听
In a late-August email, USCIS spokesperson Matthew Bourke said, 鈥淲e are prepared to welcome additional Afghans over the coming weeks and months, including those who are at overseas transit locations awaiting clearance to come to the United States.鈥�
Thousands were evacuated last summer amid haphazard scenes at Kabul Airport.听
鈥淲e didn鈥檛 have any choice, because we were in danger,鈥� says Mahnaz Akbari, who resettled in Maryland. She used to command the Female Tactical Platoon in the Afghan National Army, elite soldiers trained by U.S. special operations forces.听
There was grim irony in escaping Kabul on military aircraft 鈥� similar to planes she used to love taking, province-hopping for missions. Some male Afghan colleagues who remained, she says, have been missing, imprisoned, or killed by the Taliban.听
鈥淚 wanted peace in Afghanistan,鈥� she says.
Many like her, with U.S. ties, fled with the help of American contacts. Some became separated from family members amid the airport confusion. Ahmad evacuated on military aircraft with two young sons on Aug. 16, 2021, but couldn鈥檛 reach his wife via cellphone in time to have her and their daughter join from outside the airport.
鈥淚 was hopeless,鈥�听says Ahmad, who worked for the Afghan government and now raises his 2-year-old and 9-year-old sons alone in Los Angeles. (Like other sources in this story, he declined to publish his last name for security reasons.)
Ahmad is desperately seeking a way to reunite with his family, and has inquired with the U.S. government and advocacy groups. Whether at the beach or at a party, he says, 鈥淚鈥檓 just thinking of my wife.鈥�
Prior to resettling across the U.S., many Afghans stayed for months on military bases.
鈥�Everybody got depression,鈥� recalls Aida, who spent five months with her sister at Fort McCoy in Wisconsin. She says some young women resorted to self-harm.
Aida and her sister settled into an apartment in the Denver area in March, among 2,545 Afghan evacuees to arrive in the state since July 31, 2021, according to the Colorado Department of Human Services. Nearly 9 out of 10 have been parolees like them.
Aida says six months鈥� worth of rental assistance has just run out, meaning the听sisters are now on the hook for the $1,600 of rent. With a work authorization, Aida answers calls and schedules appointments at a dental clinic. But home is never far from thought.
鈥淲henever we go to our work and I see the families, they are talking to each other. ... I really feel sad,鈥� says Aida.听
And yet, life here has also brought relief and newfound liberties. Sara, an Afghan 海角大神, says 鈥渙f course鈥� she feels safer in the U.S. She has resettled in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and has begun community college.
鈥�I have freedom. I can go to work. I can do anything I want to do 鈥� and I can drive, like I couldn鈥檛 in Afghanistan,鈥� says Sara, who shuttles herself to two restaurant jobs.听
After scoring her driver鈥檚 license last winter, 鈥淚 was driving everywhere,鈥� she says, laughing. 鈥淚 was so happy.鈥�
On a recent Saturday, Aida talks to a toddler in Dari on the gold-green carpet of a Northglenn mosque, about 25 minutes north of Denver. She鈥檚 just finished interpreting for fellow Afghans during an asylum workshop here. Aida filed for asylum herself earlier this year.听
鈥淚t really feels good for me to help,鈥�听says the Afghan athlete.听
Back in Afghanistan, she had worked to convince her parents that girls belonged in sports. The sisters ended up on a national team and competed internationally, but at the expense of pushback from neighbors and relatives 鈥撎齣ncluding one family member who cut ties with them.
Women鈥檚 sports seem unthinkable in post-U.S. Afghanistan, where Taliban governance is violating the human rights of women and girls 鈥渞elated to education, work, free movement and clothing,鈥� according to an Amnesty International .听
During the asylum workshop, the prayer rooms of the mosque fill with difficult stories. Afghans describe what they鈥檙e fleeing to attorneys and other strangers, volunteers hunched over binders of paperwork as they help fill out forms.听
The stories are 鈥渧ery, very traumatic,鈥� some involving torture, says Shams, an Afghan social activist who arrived in 2016. He also serves as an interpreter for workshops like this at Metropolitan Denver North Islamic Center, also called Masjid Ikhlas.听
Beyond the waiting game of asylum, there鈥檚 the issue of assimilation. While evacuees like Aida may be privileged with their skills in English, many can鈥檛 speak it 鈥撎齧uch less read or write in their native languages, says Shams.
News reporting from to coasts recounts Afghans鈥� added struggle of making rent in costly urban areas, especially for those who arrived with several family members to house.听
Tackling the bureaucracy
Of those 85,000 Afghan arrivals, more than 77,000 were paroled into the U.S. for , per USCIS. Unlike refugees and those granted asylum, parolees do not have a direct path to permanent residence and future citizenship. That means parolees may end up living in the U.S. unauthorized after two years if they don鈥檛 adjust their status. However, the Biden administration recently announced that,听beginning Oct. 1,听it will听听the Afghan parole process 鈥� for which thousands of applicants still abroad haven't been approved 鈥� to prioritize long-term resettlement strategies. Immediate family of U.S. citizens, permanent residents, and resettled evacuees; Special Immigrant Visa qualifiers; and certain refugee program applicants will constitute the focus of resettlement efforts moving forward, according to news reports.
In the U.S., many parolees in pursuit of permanent residence have been trying for asylum, such as through the weekend workshop that began as a volunteer effort earlier this year, first reported by . Many applicants ask about family left behind.
鈥淭hat鈥檚 the most common question I get, and the most heartbreaking one I have to answer, because there is no way to bring people over here from Afghanistan,鈥� says Tracy Harper, immigration attorney and asylum workshop coordinator听at Catholic Charities in Denver, whose volunteers have helped prepare over 300 applications.听鈥淢y general advice is they need to get out and they need to apply for refugee status in another country,鈥澨齭he told the Monitor before news broke about the next phase of Afghan resettlement.
Ms. Harper鈥檚 Colorado Afghan Legal Project isn鈥檛 alone. As of Aug. 28, USCIS has received around 4,600 asylum applications from Afghan evacuees 鈥� including nearly 300 applications approved and one denied, according to the agency. (Though more than 430,000 such cases have been pending in an overall agency听听covering many countries, USCIS is required to expedite asylum applications from Afghan nationals here on parole.)
Asylum-seekers must apply for asylum within a year of entering the U.S. Though the Department of Homeland Security has suggested that recently arrived Afghans may qualify for an 鈥渆xtraordinary circumstances鈥� exception to this rule, lawyers like Ms. Harper continue to act with a sense of urgency, to be safe.
The legal limbo has also prompted advocates to push for the passage of the Afghan Adjustment Act. Introduced in the Senate in August, the would let parolees who undergo additional vetting apply for green cards 鈥撎齭imilar to adjustments made for Vietnamese evacuees in the 1970s.听
Edrees in Kentucky, who says he faces 鈥渃ertain death鈥� back home, wants the Afghan Adjustment Act to pass to end the uncertainty he and others experience with humanitarian parole.
鈥淭his is not the way you treat your allies,鈥� he says.
A former Afghan translator for the State Department, Edrees applied for a Special Immigrant Visa in August 2021. He says he applied again this August due to an application denial that he believes was made in error听鈥� a denial by a federal agency that once employed him.
Frustrations with American bureaucracy aside, he doesn鈥檛 blame the U.S. for leaving his homeland after two decades.听
鈥淯.S. mothers needed their sons back home eventually,鈥� he says.
Plans, and hopes for the future
Like sisters Aida and Maryam, Edrees stays afloat by keeping busy. He has a job, which helped him buy a car, and has learned to cope with hard emotions by heading to the park. Edrees runs, and runs, and runs until he feels 鈥済ood鈥� again.
As a former lawyer in Afghanistan, he would like to attend law school here, though he鈥檚 aware of the expense. Sanga in Texas also has her sights on the future.听听
鈥淚 have a lot of goals,鈥� she says. Interfaith Ministries for Greater Houston has helped resettle her family, which includes a son born a U.S. citizen this spring.
鈥淚 want a bright future for my children,鈥� says Sanga, who was threatened for her work with the U.S. Agency for International Development. 鈥淚 want to improve my education and get my master鈥檚 degree, Ph.D.鈥�听
Likewise, Aida and Maryam hope to find college scholarships to begin studies here.听
Back in Denver, a tropical humidity hangs in the gym by the end of the muay thai class. Aida and Maryam finish crunches with the rest of the group, then joke with their coach and say goodbyes.听
鈥淓veryone here loves them,鈥� says Amy Reininger, who drilled with Maryam during practice. 鈥淭hey鈥檝e been through so much, but they鈥檙e so inspiring to all of us.鈥�
The sisters exit into the night, catching a ride back home. Their mother won鈥檛 be there to welcome them with a warm kidney bean curry or ask about their day. It鈥檚 unclear when that will happen again.
But they will be back at the gym tomorrow, back for a workout and more.
