Afghans in US mark Taliban Kabul takeover amid Trump immigration crackdown

Four years have passed since Hanifa Girowal fled Afghanistan on a US evacuation flight. But every August, her mind returns to the same place.

Like many Afghans evacuated amid the August 15 Taliban takeover of Kabul, Girowal, who worked in human rights under the former Afghan government, still remains stuck in “legal limbo” in the United States. She is steadfastly pursuing a more stable status in the US, even as the political landscape surrounding her, and thousands of other Afghans in similar situations, shifts.“I somehow feel like I’m still stuck in August 2021 and all the other Augusts in between, I can’t remember anything about them,” Girowal told Al Jazeera.

She often recalls the mad dash amid a crush of bodies at the crowded Kabul International Airport: people shot in front of her, a week of hiding, a flight to Qatar, then Germany and then finally, the US state of Virginia.

Followed by the early days of trying to begin a new life from the fragments of the old.

“Everything just comes up again to the surface, and it’s like reliving that trauma we went through, and we have been trying to heal from since that day,” she said.

The struggle may have become familiar, but her disquiet has been heightened since US President Donald Trump took office on January 20. His hardline immigration policies have touched nearly every immigrant community in the US, underscoring vulnerabilities for anyone on a precarious legal status.

There is a feeling that anything could happen, from one day to the next.“I have an approved asylum case, which gives a certain level of protection, but we still don’t know the future of certain policies on immigration,” Girowal said. “I am very much fearful that I can be subjected to deportation at any time.”

Unheeded warnings
Four years after the US withdrawal, much remains unclear about how Trump’s policies will affect Afghans who are already in the US, estimated to total about 180,000.