Afghan Americans fearful after Trump order halts refugee program

WASHINGTON, Jan 22 (Reuters) - An executive order by U.S. President Donald Trump to suspend refugee admissions has magnified the fears of one Afghan American soldier who has long been worried about the fate of his sister in Kabul.

The soldier is afraid his sister could be forced to marry a Taliban fighter or targeted by a for-ransom kidnapping before she and her husband could fly out of Afghanistan and resettle as refugees in the U.S.

"I'm just thinking about this all day. I can't even do my job properly because this is mentally impacting me," the soldier with the U.S. Army's 82nd Airborne Division told Reuters on Tuesday. He spoke on condition of anonymity for security reasons.

Almost 200 family members of active-duty U.S. military personnel approved for refugee resettlement in the U.S. will be pulled off flights between now and April under Trump's order signed on Monday, according to Shawn VanDiver, head of the #AfghanEvac coalition of veterans and advocacy groups, and a U.S. official familiar with the issue.

They are among nearly 1,560 Afghan refugees who will be taken off flight manifests, according to VanDiver and the official.

They said the group includes unaccompanied children and Afghans at risk of Taliban retaliation because they fought for the U.S.-backed government that fled as the last U.S. troops withdrew from the country in August 2021 after two decades of war.

The U.N. mission in Afghanistan says the Taliban have killed, tortured and arbitrarily ...
[Short citation of 8% of the original article]