From sanctuary to scrutiny: Afghans in America face the weight of Trump's immigration clampdown

Thousands who escaped the Taliban after the fall of Kabul are at risk of deportation under aggressive new policies

Sayed Naser was due to attend a family wedding in September 2023 when the Taliban killed his brother, he says, forcing him into hiding and eventually prompting him to flee Afghanistan.

Mr Naser says he worked with US forces during the country’s two-decade war, as a translator and logistics contractor at several military bases. This made him and his family a target for reprisal attacks after the US withdrawal from Afghanistan and fall of Kabul.

Fearing for his life, Mr Naser escaped to Iran before obtaining a humanitarian visa for Brazil. He travelled to the country in 2024 and, from there, made the treacherous overland journey through the Darien Gap to Mexico, covering thousands of kilometres.

Migrants cross the jungle of the Darien Gap. AFP

Advocates for Mr Naser say he was paroled into the US legally at San Ysidro using the CBP One app, a mobile tool developed by the US Customs and Border Protection to schedule appointments for non-citizens seeking to enter the US at designated spots along the country’s southern border.

The app has since been made defunct by the US administration of President Donald Trump as part of the government’s clampdown on immigration.

Mr Naser applied for asylum when he arrived and also has a continuing case for a Special Immigrant Visa, which gives a way to permanent residency for foreign nationals who have worked with the US government and face serious threats because of their service.

When Mr Naser attended a court hearing for his asylum case in San Diego on June 12, he was detained by two masked agents with the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency.

Sayed Naser is detained by ICE agents while attending a hearing at an immigration court

Footage of the arrest shows Mr Naser being handcuffed while he explains his situation to the officers. “For more than three years I worked with the US military back in my home country," he tells them. “I worked in a very dangerous part of Afghanistan … I have all the evidence.”

Advocacy groups backing Mr Naser say an immigration judge dismissed his asylum case, granting a motion by the Department of Homeland Security that it was “improvidently issued”.

Shawn VanDiver, who was in the US Navy and is president of AfghanEvac, an organisation helping to relocate and resettle Afghan allies of the US, told The National that Mr Naser is now at serious risk of being deported to a country where he faces an uncertain future.

“With one stroke of a pen, Sayed was thrust into a secretive, fast-track deportation pipeline that offers no courtroom and no lawyer," Mr VanDiver said.

“That could see him flown out of the country within days – possibly not even to Afghanistan, but to any third nation President Trump picks.”

The US Supreme Court in a recent ruling allowed the Trump administration to deport migrants to countries other than their own without offering them a chance to show harm they could face, handing the President another win in his pursuit of mass deportations.

Venezuelan migrants after being deported to Venezuela in May. Reuters

That case was filed after the administration tried to send a group of primarily South-East Asian migrants to politically unstable South Sudan. Reports suggest officials are also considering sending migrants to Libya, despite previous US condemnation of that country’s treatment of those detained.

Brian McGoldrick, a lawyer working for Mr Naser, told The National his client was “very dejected” on learning that his asylum case had been dismissed.

If he is not immediately deported, he could spend the foreseeable future in detention while authorities come to a ruling. “It's already been a long process for him," Mr McGoldrick said.

The department did not respond to a request for comment on Mr Naser's case. Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary for public affairs at the DHS, told PBS: “We were working with the Pentagon and we found there was no verifiable information that Mr Naser worked with the US government while he was in Afghanistan.”

US Marines are shown Lashkar Gah, in the Afghan province of Helmand, in August 2017. AFP

His advocates say her comments are untrue, and that he was vetted through the CBP One app and his application for work authorisation in the US.

“Broadly, the Department of Defence didn't keep records,” Mr VanDiver said. “The record-keeping was on the Afghan wartime allies themselves.”

Democratic senator Chris Coons of Delaware called Mr Naser's detention “one of the most heartbreaking betrayals of the Trump administration.”

“He should not be facing imminent deportation," Mr Coons said.

Mr VanDiver added: “Masked ICE agents, like the Gestapo, are snatching people up and throwing them in jail. They stood with us in war. This is the thanks they get. People are absolutely terrified … they don’t know what to do.”

‘No other option’

On a hot and humid day in the outskirts of Richmond, Virginia, Abdullah Zarify is rolling out handmade rugs in the city’s Watan Market, a business he built himself after escaping to the US as the Taliban seized Kabul.

Mr Zarify worked with an American defence contractor during the US war and, along with several members of his family, was among the tens of thousands of Afghans who were evacuated on military planes as the militants entered Kabul in 2021.

“We didn’t have any other option”, he told The National.

Mr Zarify, 29, secured an SIV through his employment and has since obtained permanent residency in the US, where he now lives with his wife, three children, two brothers and mother. His two sisters remain in Afghanistan and his father has died.

Abdullah Zarify displays handmade rugs at Watan Market in Richmond, Virginia. Joshua Longmore / The National

“I want a peaceful life”, Mr Zarify said. “We had to leave our country to save ourselves and save our children … nothing is guaranteed there.”

As part of the continuing clampdown on immigration, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem announced in May that the US government would suspend Temporary Protected Status – an immigration classification granted to people from certain countries facing unsafe conditions – for Afghans.

“Afghanistan has had an improved security situation," Ms Noem said in a statement, which noted that allowing Afghans to stay in the US was against the national interest. “Its stabilising economy no longer prevents them from returning to their home country.”

TPS is set to end for Afghans on July 14. It comes as the State Department continues to advise against all travel to Afghanistan with its highest warning of “Level 4: Do not travel”, because of civil unrest, terrorism and kidnapping across the country.

US Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. AP

“US citizens are advised not to go to Afghanistan," Mr Zarify says. “If [Ms Noem] says it is safe … why do you give an advisory to US citizens? I know my country’s situation and I know my people don’t deserve to be deported.”

While Mr Zarify’s status in the US is considerably safer than those on TPS, he sympathises with fellow evacuees under threat of deportation, saying he has heard of cases in which Afghans have been tortured by the Taliban for speaking out about their rights.

He is also a vocal critic of the group’s stance on women. The Taliban has barred women from travelling without a male guardian and stopped girls from attending high school.

A woman walks through a bird market as she holds her child, in Kabul, Afghanistan, in May 2022. AP

“Who wants their children to be uneducated?” Mr Zarify asks. “I have a daughter and I want her to go to school. Uneducated means blind … do you want to raise your children blind?”

‘Amnesty for all’

The Taliban has urged Afghans hoping to live in the US to return to Afghanistan, with Prime Minister Hasan Akhund promising to protect those who worked alongside US forces.

“For those who are worried that America has closed its doors to Afghans … return to your country … you will not face trouble,” he said in a speech that was broadcast on state media to mark Eid Al Adha.

In June, Afghanistan was included in a US travel ban on citizens from 12 countries, in what Mr Trump says is a move to protect America from “foreign terrorists”.

That came as an Afghan national who was evacuated amid the fall of Kabul and moved to Oklahoma, Nasir Ahmed Tawhedi, 27, pleaded guilty to plotting an election day terrorist attack in the US on behalf of ISIS.

Taliban supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada has, according to Mr Akhund, “granted amnesty for all".

Taliban Prime Minister Hasan Akhund addresses a gathering before Eid Al Fitr prayers in May 2022. AFP

Mr VanDiver has rejected the idea that it is safe for Afghans to return to their country.

“The folks that served alongside us are marked for death by the Taliban … we get pictures all the time of Afghans who are killed," he says.

“Sure, the Taliban has all this propaganda out there … we know what’s really happening and we know it’s not safe. I have some oceanfront property in Arizona to sell you if you believe the Taliban has an amnesty.”

Mr Naser, who is being held at the Otay Mesa detention centre in southern California, has indirectly addressed Mr Trump since being detained.

“Please don't turn your back on us”, he said in a message delivered by Mr VanDiver during a press conference. “Keep your promises, let me live in peace with my family in this country that I love.”