Afghan refugee talks about adjustment, trauma and fears over immigration crackdown

A significant majority of Afghans welcomed the United States’ efforts in Afghanistan that overthrew the oppressive Taliban regime in 2001. The popularity of U.S. troops’ presence on Afghan soil was evident in the estimated 150,000 to 300,000 Afghans who assisted the U.S. throughout the 20-year campaign. 

Under the Afghan Allies Protection Act of 2009, the United States reciprocated by committing itself through Special Immigrant Visas (SIVs) to evacuate any Afghans who participated in our country’s mission if their lives were ever endangered by a future hostile government.

In 2020, President Trump began the process of US withdrawal via the Doha Agreement with the Taliban, with a phased drawdown of U.S. troops over the following 14 months. The democratically elected Afghan government at the time, already weak, was further delegitimized by its absence from the Doha negotiations, while the Taliban’s one-on-one talks with the United States conferred upon it sudden political legitimacy. 

Left behind

In August of 2021, the Afghan government collapsed when the Taliban mounted an offensive and seized control of the capital of Kabul, and President Ashraf Ghani fled the country. What followed was mass chaos as the U.S. began an attempted mass evacuation, not only of U.S. personnel but of Afghanis who had helped the U.S. cause and who had been promised protection in such an event.

Though the United States conducted one of the largest airlifts in history and was able to evacuate more than 120,000 people over the final week of August, then-President Biden came under criticism for failing to keep in place 2,500 U.S. stabilization troops and was now forced to leave behind an estimated 175,000 Afghans who had worked with the United States.  

Those who got out of Afghanistan came to the United States either through Special Immigrant Visas, humanitarian parole or the Refugee Admissions Program. Now, with President Trump’s aggressive and restrictive immigration policy along with a commitment to a goal of deporting one million immigrants annually, those protections for Afghans have become tenuous.

'Everybody is afraid'

One Afghan woman who wishes to remain anonymous and who we will refer to as Maryam, spoke at an Appleton Area National Organization for Women event on Tuesday. She talked about her work with the U.S. embassy, the trauma of leaving everything behind, the chaos of trying to evacuate, her family’s adjustment to living in Wisconsin and her fears of what the Trump administration’s policies might mean for Afghans and other refugees. 

“Everybody is afraid (today),” she said. “They have a lot of questions that nobody can answer. Immigrant Legal Status really don't know how to answer these questions because things change so fast. And everyone is asking, why I cannot bring my family here? They have been waiting for years. My kids have been waiting for years to come. But why are they not coming?”

Just this month, the Trump administration indefinitely paused all immigrant visas for 75 countries, including Afghanistan and put a halt on the SIV program for those who helped the U.S. during the war. 

Furthermore, the Trump administration is seeking to re-screen the more than 200,000 Afghanis who were admitted after the war, strip Afghans of Humanitarian Parole and Temporary Protected Status, permanently pause asylum processing and even re-review those who have already legally received asylum.

Maryam worked for seven years as a Deputy Manager of the Lincoln Learning Center in her province. At the LLS, which operated through the U.S. Embassy and the Afghan Ministry of Information and Culture, Maryam oversaw classes on everything from leadership to how to perform during a job interview to how to fill out a resume, and more. Though the center was open to everyone there was a special emphasis on women, including self-defense and women’s advocacy in a country whose culture had long denied them the same rights as men. 

With the Taliban back in power women can once again only go to school through sixth grade and cannot work.

Trying to flee

With the collapse of the Ghani government, Maryam and her family were among the potential targets of the Taliban but there was risk in just trying to get to the airport to flee the country.

“So when the Taliban came to (our province), my husband and child went to Kabul,” she recalled. “You can watch on YouTube how the evacuation was at that time. It wasn't good. It was unbelievable. Anyone who was working with a foreign country, no matter the United States, Germany – whoever – they just wanted to come out of Afghanistan, and they rushed to the airport with their documents.”

Maryan watched what was happening amidst all the chaos – including a suicide bombing at the airport that killed 13 American service members and 170 Afghan citizens – and decided she did not want to risk it.

“If someone fell down, they couldn't stand up,” she said. “People just will walk on them. So it was a very scary moment. So for like two weeks, this was happening, and everyone was rushing to the airplanes to get out of the country. We were not able to get out of Afghanistan during that time, so we had to stay in Kabul because people didn't know us there.”

Finally, Maryam and her husband and child were able to leave after obtaining visas to Pakistan, eventually making it to Wisconsin through Qatar in January. Acclimation to an Upper Midwest winter was just another in a series of traumas – many still to come. Given three days to leave their house they had to leave virtually everything behind.

Trauma and more trauma

Still, she counts herself lucky, given that she got out with her family intact.

“(When you have to leave like that), you don't know who to say goodbye to,” she said. “Some people didn't even have the chance to take their families with them, because they were at risk and they had to leave. A lot of families are separated still. And you know the situation today, how it is they still don't have a hope to have their families come. They are teenagers here that haven't seen their moms or dads for years.

Helping others

Maryam found work with a Wisconsin relief agency helping other refugees get settled in Wisconsin even while she herself struggled with acclimation and emotional health. She admits to being depressed and plagued by the trauma of what she left behind and how she might forge a new life in a new culture. Helping others seemed to give her emotional resilience, she said.

“I had to be a person for other women, a support person, a person who answers a lot of questions,” she said. “So I started the women's group for a lot of women who were isolated, who were struggling. They had a lot of questions about even very basic things. They didn't know how to navigate the health system. They didn't know the transportation system, education and U.S. laws.”

Another thing foreign to Afghan culture is mental health. Maryam said in Afghanistan, no one talked or even thought about such things. Now, she said, she’s happy to see refugees beginning to understand the importance of self-care. Through all the trauma and the hardship of acculturation, she said, she sees signs of light, especially when it comes to independence for women.

“They didn't used to drive back in Afghanistan, and you didn't need to because of public transportation,” she said. “And now, almost all of the Afghan women I know in Appleton, they are driving. You cannot imagine how excited I feel when I compare them with the first group that we started, who were like, ‘no, my man doesn't want me to work, or they don't like us to go to school, or they can pick us up for doctor's appointments and things like that.

“But now it is the woman who is doing the doctor's appointments. They go to English classes. It is very interesting that the women who didn't even go to a single class at school back in Afghanistan – now they read in English. And whenever you ask them, they're like, I want to continue after my English, I want to take a diploma. I want to go to college which is just very, very heartwarming.”

Fear out of Minneapolis

So much of the support that mattered most to Maryam and her family, she said, was simple outreach and connection, being invited to a neighbor’s house, for instance, or receiving help on any number of daily activities people raised in our culture take for granted. She said she was heartened by realizing just how many groups in the area – Hope and Help Together and Fox Valley Literacy, among others – are working to help acculturate immigrants – especially those weighed down by trauma and grief.

But Maryam said what is happening in Minnesota with ICE cracking down harder than ever has everyone feeling frightened, under assault and uncertain. 

“So we don't know the answers to what is happening,” she said. “Nobody knows, and everybody is scared. I have a friend in Minneapolis who works in the schools and she says a lot of Afghans say, ‘We don't want to send our kids to school.’

“Their kids don't go to school just because they are scared of the situation. A lot of people who have used passports are being detained. So, yes, everyone is scared, no matter their status.”

Afghan refugee talks about adjustment, trauma and fears over immigration crackdown © 2026 by Kelly Fenton is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0