AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
On January 22, President Trump signed an executive order suspending America's refugee program. Aid groups estimate nearly 10,000 people had their travel plans and hopes for a new life abruptly upended - among them, four children from Afghanistan who were waiting to join their family already in the U.S. New England Public Media's Nirvani Williams brings us their story.
NIRVANI WILLIAMS, BYLINE: News reports in 2021 depicted a chaotic scene in Afghanistan as scores of people tried to leave the country.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Chaos at Kabul's airport. A crush of thousands desperate to get out.
WILLIAMS: Among the people desperate to leave Kabul in 2021 was a father of seven and his family. He'd been in the Afghan military and aided Americans during the Afghan War. We're not fully identifying the family because they're afraid of facing deportation. NPR has verified the family's documentation.
On the day the father and his family left Afghanistan, the airport was chaotic.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: (Speaking Pashto).
WILLIAMS: He says when he walked into the airport, he saw flash bombs and heard gunshots. Smoke filled his eyes, and he could barely see. He could only manage to carry two of his children. His wife carried another. He told his two adolescent daughters to each carry one brother - one of whom was a toddler - and to stay close behind.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: (Speaking Pashto).
WILLIAMS: "We didn't have much time to decide what we should do," he says. The U.S. military evacuation plane was about to take off, and in the frantic rush, he had to make a choice - one, he says, that devastates him to this day. He boarded the plane leaving Afghanistan without four of his children in order to save the rest of his family.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: (Speaking Pashto).
WILLIAMS: "It is a nightmare to think about," he says. "It was stressful, crowded. I could only carry so many kids in my arms." His two adolescent daughters, who could not board the plane, scrambled out of the airport with their younger brothers in tow. An American aide, who was in contact with the father, made sure the children got to their grandparents' house outside of Kabul.
After a long flight into the U.S., the father, his wife and three boys landed in New Hampshire, where a resettlement agency helped the family. After a year, he moved to Massachusetts and was granted asylum in the U.S. At the same time, the father was desperate to reunite with his four children left behind in Afghanistan through the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program.
After three years of careful planning and anxious waiting, the father got a notification this January that his children had arrived at a field office that processes U.S. refugees in Qatar. Field workers were finalizing travel for the kids. They even had a date of arrival in the United States - January 24th. But on January 22nd, Trump barred all refugees from entering the country. The father, desperate to see his children again, pleaded with lawyers working at the field office to find a solution. The mother said she ached with worry.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: (Speaking Pashto).
WILLIAMS: A lawyer in Qatar submitted another form to U.S. immigration officials - a petition for refugees and asylum seekers. It worked. Two and a half months after they were supposed to arrive in the U.S., the children's travel was approved. A family member sent the children money to buy plane tickets. Finally, in March, they arrived in the United States.
UNIDENTIFIED CHILD: When we met in the airport, we were very happy. Like, we hugged each other, and my mom and those two - my two sisters started crying of the excitement. And we took a photo there.
WILLIAMS: That's one of the children who made it out of Afghanistan with his father back in 2021. He's 13 years old. When this all happened, he was 9 and thought he might never see his siblings again.
UNIDENTIFIED CHILD: When we came back home, we were very happy. And we sat down, and it was almost time to, like, break our fast, and we all broke it together.
WILLIAMS: It was the holy month of Ramadan when everyone was able to be together again. The youngest child of the family, a 3-year-old born in the U.S., was eyeing chocolates scattered on the coffee table.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: (Speaking Pashto).
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #3: (Speaking Pashto).
WILLIAMS: He likes the red and the blue.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: (Speaking Pashto).
WILLIAMS: He jets into the kitchen with a mischievous smile, and laughter fills the room.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: (Speaking Pashto).
WILLIAMS: This family is so grateful to be together again, but their story is rare.
Federal courts have ordered the Trump administration to allow at least some refugees into the U.S., but the White House hasn't yet complied with that order. NPR reached out to the State Department for comment but did not receive a response. It has admitted 59 white Afrikaners from South Africa as refugees.
Meanwhile, the father of this family remains anxious. His family has applied for green cards, but he worries about Trump's immigration crackdown, which has even swept up people who had legal status in the U.S.
It's difficult to keep the dread at bay, the father says, but he's trying.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: (Speaking Pashto).
WILLIAMS: "It was really clear that we were living an uncompleted life before the kids came home," he says. "Now, I feel complete."
For NPR News, I'm Nirvani Williams in Springfield, Massachusetts.
(SOUNDBITE OF RICHARD HOUGHTEN'S "GLASSY RAIN") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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