America promised them safety. Now they fear what Trump will do next. | Opinion
President Donald Trump wants us to believe he's making America safer by targeting refugees. It's all a lie.
Mujib Mehrdad, 40, and his wife, Aria Mushahed, 35, were supposed to be on their honeymoon when Afghanistan collapsed in 2021. Instead of leaving the country for a romantic getaway, they were forced to flee without any of their belongings to escape persecution from the Taliban.
In Afghanistan, Mehrdad was editor in chief of Hasht-e Subh Daily, the most popular newspaper in the country, which received grants from nongovernmental organizations based in the United States. While he didn’t work with the U.S. military directly, his profession opened him up to persecution by the Taliban.
After six months as refugees in Albania, they boarded a flight to Virginia. It was March 2022, and the cherry blossoms were blooming. They were received by U.S. veterans, who presented them with flowers.
“We had a very deep bond with U.S. soldiers when we were in Afghanistan,” Mehrdad told me. “They know us better than politicians.”
Both their son and daughter are U.S. citizens. When their son was born a month and a half ago, Mehrdad immediately applied for his passport, fearing what may come next under the Trump administration.
“The situation is very unpredictable,” Mehrdad said.
The warm welcome Mehrdad received a few years ago is a far cry from the current situation for refugees.
Trump has changed how America treats refugees
Mehrdad’s fears make sense – although the couple has had their asylum granted and are in the process of applying for their green cards, he said that other Afghan families they know are beginning to receive emails telling them that they will have to leave the United States.
On April 11, President Donald Trump announced that he would not renew temporary protected status for people from Afghanistan, opening them up to the possibility of deportation.
In January, Trump paused the country’s refugee resettlement program indefinitely, plunging thousands of lives into chaos in the process. Among the vetted refugees who had their travel plans canceled were Mushahed’s family members, who are now stranded in Pakistan.
Despite Trump's claim that he’s for immigration when done “the right way,” anyone paying attention knows that's a lie. He has repeatedly gone after legal residents of the United States. To Trump and Republican leaders, any foreign national living in the United States is not welcome here, even those who helped the country in war efforts.
Now Trump's even talking about deporting U.S. citizens. It’s nothing short of horrifying.
Mehrdad supports a vetting process for those seeking entry to the United States, but he notes that the Afghan refugees who are here are adding value to our country.
“Those people that served you in Afghanistan, they will serve you in America again,” Mehrdad said when I asked if he had any words for Trump. “They will add value to America, because they’re a young generation of liberal thinkers, and they are skilled, they are a new energy, and they are committed to our shared values.”
The value that immigrants bring to America
What does that value look like?
For the first month Mehrdad and Mushahed were here, the couple stayed at the National Conference Center in Leesburg, Virginia, with other Afghans who had fled to the United States. Then, they began moving around the country as Mehrdad accepted various university fellowships.
“I was doing different jobs,” Mehrdad said. “I was writing, I was freelance, I was driving Uber, I was driving Lyft.”
In 2023, the couple joined Mehrdad’s mother and brother in Virginia. His brother, a former translator for the U.S. Marines, came to the United States for a little bit but ultimately decided to go back to Afghanistan. Since then, Mehrdad said, his brother has been held in a Taliban prison, where his mental health is deteriorating.
“We are suffering, my brother is suffering, my mother is losing her mind,” he said. “She is getting paranoid day by day in America because of her son.”
In 2024, Mehrdad joined the New School faculty as part of its writers in exile program in New York City. The family relocated once again, this time to Queens. In November, the university presented a reading of Mehrdad’s play “The Witches of Kabul,” the story of two young women during the collapse of Afghanistan and the return of the Taliban.
“It was well-received because New York is a city of theaters and artists and poets and writers,” he said. Now, he’s looking for a PhD program to become a professor.
Back home, Mushahed was a physician. She is now studying for the U.S. Medical Licensing Examination so she can practice medicine here.
“It is hard, sometimes it’s frustrating, but we’re adapting to the new reality with its challenges and opportunities,” Mehrdad said.
Although I don’t particularly like that some immigrants are more worthy of entrance to the United States than others, this couple exemplifies the value refugees can bring to our country. They create art. They heal people. They can make our country a better place by being here. Most important, they are safe from persecution here.
Trump threw refugee lives into needless chaos
Trump’s impact on the family goes beyond Mehrdad and Mushahed. Mushahed’s sister and brother-in-law were supposed to come to the United States on Feb. 11. The flights had been booked through Catholic Charities of New York’s refugee resettlement program.
Then, Trump suspended refugee resettlement and canceled travel plans for people who were already cleared to come to the United States, something Catholic bishops are suing his administration over.
Now, the couple and their son are stuck in a Pakistan refugee camp, waiting for answers. To add to the stress, Mushahed’s sister is now eight months pregnant.
“They were estimating to come to the United States before their second baby was born,” Mehrdad said. “But, unfortunately, that didn’t happen. If the second boy is born in Pakistan, there will be lots of problems.”
Those problems include getting a passport for the newborn and adding him to their refugee resettlement case. To make matters worse, the Pakistani government has announced that Afghan refugees would be deported back to their home country, with no consideration for the dangers that await those who return.
“They were thrown into a limbo, now they don’t know what to do,” Mehrdad said. “They can’t go back to Afghanistan, because danger is waiting for them. Imprisonment, maybe targeted killings, maybe torture. And also they cannot get out of Pakistan, and the Pakistan government is milking the situation, every day announcing ‘at the end of this month, we will massively deport you all to Afghanistan.’ It is the worst situation a human being can experience.”
For the U.S. government to go back on its word is shameful. White House officials are willingly throwing people's lives into turmoil. It's not like it's improving lives for U.S. citizens, either.
Who gets to chase the American dream?
Trump wants his followers to believe that he is keeping the worst of the worst out of our country. I fail to see how keeping people like Mehrdad’s family out accomplishes this.
To me, the Republican animosity toward refugees, green card holders and even undocumented migrants is a moral failure on the part of the United States. Almost everyone has an immigration story in their family. We all come from somewhere, and we should all be given the opportunity to chase the American dream.
“I see all of the thousands of Afghans who have come to America,” Mehrdad said. “The majority of them are now working in think tanks, in media. We are working as doctors, we are working as technicians, some of them are learning new skills in their new home, and some of them have joined the labor force working as truck drivers. We are a positive force.”
Follow Paste BN columnist Sara Pequeño on X, formerly Twitter: @sara__pequeno