After risking their lives to help U.S. forces, Afghans in Iowa fear legal limbo

The two men spent years working alongside U.S. forces and agencies in Afghanistan.

Both were evacuated during the 2021 collapse of the Afghan government and entered the United States through humanitarian parole. The U.S. immigration tool allows temporary entry for individuals facing urgent humanitarian crises. Recipients are typically allowed to stay for a limited period — often up to a year — may receive work authorization and must have a financial sponsor. Approval hinges on compelling circumstances, extensive vetting and security checks.

But now, amid a wave of new Trump administration immigration restrictions announced after an Afghan national was charged in a deadly shooting of a National Guard member in Washington, D.C., in late November, they say their futures in Iowa feel suddenly unstable.

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Afghan evacuees in Iowa who spent years working alongside the U.S. military and government now find themselves in legal limbo — paroled in during the Kabul airlift, but still waiting on asylum decisions, losing government benefits and jobs, and fearing deportation to a country where they say they would be targeted for revenge.

Many are separated from wives, children and parents still in Afghanistan, where girls are barred from school and families hide from the Taliban, even as those in Iowa stress they were heavily vetted, pay taxes and have no criminal record. They say they are asking not for special treatment, but for the country they defended to give their families a safe, stable future instead of what one evacuee describes as being “alive, but with no hopes and no future.”

With federal policy in flux, and due to fear that their legal status could be reviewed, revoked or used to justify detention or deportation, the two men — who both live in the Des Moines area — spoke with The Gazette on the condition of anonymity so that sharing their stories publicly would not increase the risk to themselves or their families.

‘We were checked everywhere, and many times’

One of the men — who agreed to be distinguished by their first initials of A and M — came to the U.S. on parole, was granted asylum and later received a green card, becoming a legal permanent resident. Through this status, he was able to petition to bring his wife and children to Iowa. They arrived here at the beginning of this year.

He said U.S. personnel urged him to leave Afghanistan and he made it out during the chaotic final days of the 2021 U.S. withdrawal. He emphasized the repeated security checks he says he and other evacuees underwent along the evacuation route, beginning in Afghanistan and followed by additional security screenings in Qatar, Germany and the United States.

“We were checked everywhere, and many times,” he told The Gazette.

The other man, through A’s translation, said U.S. agencies already have his fingerprints, biometrics and full service record from nearly two decades of work with the U.S. military, yet he remains stuck in limbo.

Losing jobs, benefits and stability

M spent 19 years supporting U.S. missions in Afghanistan, working alongside the U.S. Army and special forces, according to A, who served as a translator.

He has applied for asylum, which has not yet been granted.

“He said he has a family here, and they applied for asylum, like two years ago, and there's no decision on it, so he's still waiting for his asylum approval,” A said.

For M, that instability has already meant lost work. He said he lost a job at an auto parts manufacturer in the Des Moines area. With his asylum case still pending and the Trump administration ending Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Afghans, he said he has effectively lost the authorization that allowed him to hold a job in Iowa.

TPS was first granted to Afghan nationals after the U.S. withdrawal and the Taliban’s return to power, and later extended. But in May, the Department of Homeland Security announced it would terminate TPS for Afghans, despite what advocates describe as an ongoing humanitarian crisis and Taliban reprisals against those tied to the U.S. mission.

Advocates warn without humanitarian protections, thousands will be left in legal limbo, unable to renew work permits, cut off from the stability they need, and vulnerable to ramped up detention and deportation operations by federal immigration enforcement agents.

M described the fear of deportation to Afghanistan — where he believes the Taliban and others would target him and his family because of his work with U.S. forces.

“And it's frustrating me, because I cannot go back to Afghanistan,” A translated for the other Afghan man. “If they deport me, so it would be like a like 100 percent risk to me and my family.”

National crackdown after D.C. shooting

The alleged shooter in the National Guard attack — Rahmanullah Lakanwal — is an Afghan national who entered the U.S. in 2021 through the Operation Allies Welcome evacuation program established under the administration of former President Joe Biden. Lakanwal was granted asylum earlier this year under the Trump administration, according to reporting by the Associated Press and other outlets.

Since the shooting, the Trump administration has announced a rapid series of immigration restrictions, including pausing asylum decisions, reexamining green card applications for people from “countries of concern,” including Afghanistan, and halting visas for Afghans who assisted the U.S. war effort.

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The stepped up effort to restrict immigration has been harshly criticized by refugee advocates and those who work with Afghans, saying it amounts to collective punishment and a waste of government resources to reopen cases that have already been processed.

The Trump administration contends the new policies are necessary to ensure that those entering the country — or already here — do not pose a security threat.

The White House has blamed Biden-era policies for allowing what it called “unvetted criminals” into the country, while Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has suggested Lakanwal may have been radicalized after arriving in the United States. At the same time, advocates note it remains unclear what additional vetting might have uncovered before his entry and argue the government has failed to provide adequate mental health and reintegration support for Afghan allies who endured years of war before resettling in America.

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Iowa Migrant Movement for Justice (Iowa MMJ) staff said Afghan clients are seeing their lives put on hold by the pause on immigration applications. It freezes many pending green card cases, which in turn delays family reunification and cuts off a pathway to food assistance and health care benefits, said Ann Naffier, Iowa MMJ managing attorney and co-legal director.

Work authorization, she added, becomes fragile without a green card — because temporary work permits can take months to process and now may not include automatic extensions.

Recent policy changes stripped many refugees of SNAP and Medicaid. Now, with green card applications paused, Afghans have to wait even longer to regain those benefits, which leaves parents working low‑wage jobs trying to cover food and health care for large households entirely on their own, Naffier said.

Elena Casillas-Hoffman, Iowa MMJ communications specialist, said many Afghan families are already “starting from nothing” — and that the loss of stable work and safety nets hits hardest precisely when families are trying to rebuild.

‘Absolute panic’ and fear

Naffier said Afghans in Iowa are terrified. They’ve lived through war, many have PTSD, and they know that one horrific act can trigger stigma and racial profiling.

“Yeah, panic, absolute panic,” she said of clients’ reaction to the post-shooting crackdown.

Casillas-Hoffman said Afghan clients’ fear is compounded by heightened immigration enforcement activity in Iowa.

The Afghan men said the deadly shooting of National Guard members in Washington, D.C., horrified them — but they fear its aftermath is now being used to paint all Afghans as threats, despite what they describe as exhaustive screening. A said evacuees were fingerprinted and photographed repeatedly in Kabul, in transit countries and again in the United States, adding that he and others were screened “like four or five times,” with some taken aside for questioning before being allowed to enter.

M, through A’s translation, said he believes claims that Afghans were not vetted are unfair and that “crime is individual; it shouldn't be like a collective punishment,” arguing that those who have done nothing wrong should not lose their status, jobs or safety because of one person’s actions.

Vetting, oversight and a stalled bill

Iowa’s Republican U.S. senators have sharply criticized how the Biden administration handled the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan and the emergency airlift that brought tens of thousands of Afghans to the United States.

In a recent Q&A posted by his office, U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley pointed to the Aug. 26, 2021, suicide bombing at the Kabul airport that killed 13 U.S. service members — including a Marine from Red Oak — as part of what he described as the “tragic aftermath” of a “poorly planned departure” that led to a rushed evacuation reminiscent of the fall of Saigon.

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Grassley said his congressional oversight uncovered what he called “a glaring problem” in the administration’s vetting of Afghan evacuees and argued that the government “dropped the ball on proper precautions to rigorously screen every Afghan national cleared to resettle into the United States.” He said he has pressed the Department of Homeland Security, Department of Justice and FBI for answers to ensure evacuees who pose national security risks are identified and removed.

Citing information he said was provided by the Director of National Intelligence, Grassley said that as of August 2022, about 1.6 percent of more than 100,000 Afghan evacuees had “links to terrorism or other derogatory information,” which he said amounted to more than 1,600 people who could pose a threat.

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Grassley also referenced last month’s deadly shooting of two members of the West Virginia National Guard near the White House and the arrest of another Afghan evacuee in Texas accused of threatening to bomb a building. He said those cases underscore the risks of inadequate screening.

“The failure to thoroughly vet Afghan evacuees puts Americans in harm’s way and poses serious consequences yet unknown,” Grassley said in a statement. “I’m glad the Trump administration is responding to my oversight requests and for its efforts to fix the failures of the Biden administration’s resettlement of Afghan evacuees. My oversight will continue.”

Iowa Republican U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst wrote on X on Dec. 2: “The Biden admin failed to properly vet Afghan nationals that Biden brought into our country after his failed withdrawal. My Afghan Vetting Accountability Act would fully screen and vet those Afghans to ensure they are not a national security threat.”

The legislation, reintroduced in early 2025 by Ernst and Republican Sen. Rick Scott of Florida, would require federal authorities to identify Afghans paroled into the U.S. during the 2021 evacuation, verify that each underwent full security screening and subject them to ongoing, periodic vetting for as long as they remain on parole. The bill would also mandate that DHS share evidence of that screening with national security agencies and law enforcement, and require DHS and its inspector general to report to Congress within six months on the results — including how many evacuees were found ineligible to remain in the country and why.

But Iowa immigration advocates argue Congress has also left Afghan evacuees without a clear, uniform pathway to permanent legal status — and that the most direct fix remains stalled in Congress: the Afghan Adjustment Act.

Reintroduced in August by U.S. Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks and cosponsored by fellow Iowa Republican Zach Nunn, the bill would provide a conditional path to permanent residency for tens of thousands of evacuees paroled into the United States after the 2021 fall of Kabul, while strengthening vetting and improving government coordination and reporting. A companion bill was introduced in the Senate.

‘Alive, but with no hopes and no future’

For A, the policy fight is about his children’s future as much as his own safety.

“And now they're very happy, and especially like my daughter, like she never been to school in Afghanistan, and now she goes to school here,” he said. “So if they go back … it means they would be uneducated.”

If removal becomes inevitable, M said he would beg to be sent to a third country — “but not Afghanistan” — warning that return there would mean he and his family could be killed for having been “the eyes of” the U.S. government.

A said most Afghans he knows are not asking for special treatment — only the chance to live safely and rebuild.

“If someone is here just for peace, and want to … study here and learn something and support the community or support the family,” he said, adding many don’t even expect government help. What they want most, he continued, is safety and a future for their children — “to go to school and to be doctors and engineers.”

But without stable legal status, A warned, those dreams disappear.

“They will lose all those hopes and so they will be alive, but with no hopes and no future.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Comments: (319) 398-8499; tom.barton@thegazette.com