They were waiting for a flight. Then Trump closed the door on Afghan allies.

Nasir, a legal adviser to the Afghan Air Force during the war, helped authorize airstrikes against Taliban fighters. He remains in Afghanistan, where he has lived in hiding since the Taliban captured him in 2021 while awaiting approval to settle in the United States.

He had already passed a background check and only had to undergo a medical exam before the process was completed, he said. But this past week, he and tens of thousands of other Afghans found their path to the United States blocked by an executive action signed by President Trump.

The order halted the resettlement program that brings thousands of legal refugees into the country each year. Among the majority today are Afghans who have helped the American war effort and are looking for a new start and a sense of security in the United States.

Nasir, a former lieutenant colonel who asked that his full name not be used, wrote in a text message that Mr. Trump “also ignored the interests of Afghans in this decision, but failed to consider the interests of the Afghan people.” the United States as well. “

“How can the world and America’s allies rely on the US government?” he added.

The US Refugee Program, in place since 1980, allows legal immigration for vetted individuals who have fled their country due to persecution, war or other threats. In suspending the program, Mr. Trump said that continuing it would burden communities that are ill-equipped to handle refugees.

Mr. Trump’s executive order, titled, “Restoring America’s Refugee Program,” takes effect Monday. It says that the secretary of state and the secretary of state for homeland security can accept refugees on a case-by-case basis, but only if they decide that it is “in the national interest and does not threaten the safety or welfare of country.” United States.”

The order did not specify when the moratorium would end, saying it would continue “until such time as it is consistent with the interests of the United States to allow the entry of refugees into the United States.”

At least 40,000 Afghans sought resettlement in the US before the order came into effect on Monday and refugee flights were halted the following day, according to #AfghanEvac, a coalition of 250 working groups. to help Afghans immigrate.

The suspension is especially devastating for the 10,000 to 15,000 Afghans who, according to #AfghanEvac, have been fully screened and prepared for flight. It’s also a major blow to the roughly 200 American service members trying to get their families out of Afghanistan.

A deserter in the US Army at Fort Liberty in North Carolina, who asked to be identified by the code name Mojo, said he has spent the past year helping his sister and her husband apply for refugee status. refugees entering the United States from Afghanistan.

Mojo, 26, was an interpreter for the US Army in Afghanistan. He said he joined the U.S. military two years ago after leaving Afghanistan in 2021 under a program that grants visas to Afghans who have directly served the U.S. military or government.

His sister and brother-in-law, both doctors, are hiding because they fear the Taliban will retaliate for Mojo’s military service, he said. They recently completed the permanent refugee review process and were approved to live in the United States, he said. All that was left was to arrange a flight out of Afghanistan.

“We were so close to getting them to safety — and all of a sudden it was shut down,” Mojo said by phone from Fort Liberty, formerly known as Fort Bragg, where he serves with the 1st Airborne Division. 82.

When his sister heard the news, Mojo said, “She started crying — and I cried with her.”

Shawn VanDiver, president of #AfghanEvac, called the executive order a betrayal of Afghans who supported the US government or military.

“Everybody is frozen in place — it’s heartbreaking,” he said in a phone interview.

Suspects include former members of the Afghan army and security forces, as well as judges and lawyers involved in the prosecution of Taliban members. Some of the judges and lawyers persecuted by the Taliban are women.

Mr. VanDiver said that suspending the resettlement program did not solve the problem of illegal immigration at the US southern border — a focus of Mr. Trump’s campaign. Individuals in the program cannot apply on their own, but must be referred by a US government agency or non-governmental partner.

“The lack of protection for our Afghan allies sends a dangerous message to the world: that the commitment of the United States is conditional and temporary,” said Mr. VanDiver.

Hundreds of thousands of Afghans who fled after the Taliban takeover have arrived in neighboring Pakistan. Many live in the capital Islamabad, where they have resettled in the United States and other Western countries through embassies and refugee agencies there.

Many fear they will be sent back to Afghanistan now that their path to the United States has been cut off. Pakistan has already expelled hundreds of thousands of Afghans due to rising tensions with the Taliban.

“For three years, we have endured incessant harassment from the Pakistani authorities,” said Ihsan Ullah Ahmedzai, a journalist working for a US-funded media outlet in Kabul, the Afghan capital, before fled to Islamabad in 2021. “But we hoped that we would soon go to the United States,” he said.

That hope is now gone. “Trump’s order is like a bomb,” Mr. Ahmedzai said. “It destroyed our hope and made us vulnerable again.”

Noor Habiba, who worked with a U.S.-funded women’s rights group in Kabul before fleeing with her husband and two daughters to Islamabad, said she hoped she would make it to the U.S. until now February or March.

“We cannot go back to Afghanistan,” said Mrs. Habiba. “Women have nothing to live for under Taliban rule.”

Immigrant advocates worry that Afghans already in the United States may also be at risk. Immigrants allowed into the country under the Biden administration’s program could be quickly deported with the powers Mr. Trump gives to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, according to an internal memo obtained by The New York Times.

After the withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan in August 2021, the Biden administration began a program that would allow 76,000 displaced Afghans to enter the United States on humanitarian grounds, according to the Migration Policy Institute.

By 2023, more than 90,000 Afghans have resettled in the United States, according to Mustafa Babak, a partner at Emerson Collective who specializes in reparations.

The number of refugees from Afghanistan and other countries accepted into the US resettlement program has varied widely under Democratic and Republican administrations.

Under President Barack Obama, a total of 85,000 refugees were accepted in 2016. In 2020, the final year of Mr. Trump’s first term, the number is up to 11,000. the number. President Joseph R. Biden Jr. condemned. the program, accepting 100,000 refugees last year, the most in three decades.

The program requires applicants to undergo a rigorous screening process that includes background checks by the FBI and other agencies, biometric screening, medical exams, interviews and multiple security reviews.

Zahra, a US sergeant, said five close family members who were hiding in Afghanistan intervened in the process when the executive order blocked them.

He said he came to the United States from Afghanistan on a scholarship in 2016. He will join the U.S. Army in 2021, he said.

“My family is very worried,” Zahra, 30, who asked that her full name not be published, said in a text message. “We’ve been hanging on to the little hope we’ve been given.”

He added: “This suspension of evacuation flights takes away that little hope and leaves them with an uncertain future.”

Mojo, the US Marine, said he feared Mr Trump would block the resettlement of more refugees, but believed he would free Afghan allies because of their support for the US mission.

“I still have hope” for release, he said. “I mean, he’s my boss’s commander.”