The Sunday Story: An Afghan climber in limbo
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Last night in kabul, the united states ended twenty years of war in afghanistan, the longest war in american history.

And I shara to, and this is a sunday story. It's been nearly two years since the U. S. Withdrew all troops from afghanistan on August ari of twenty twenty one. The final days of evacuation at the couple airport were chaotic and deadly .

scenes of panic at the apples. Thousands of afghan now scrambling .

to get out when those last U. S. Military plans departed. Thousands of vulnerable people were left behind. But in the weeks that followed, Augusta of the evacuation efforts continue. These were efforts arranged by private individuals in non government groups.

Often they involved overland wots past taliban checkpoints to an airport in the northern city of missouri city evacuations, boarded charter planes and arrived in the U. S. V.

A. Military bases in the middle east. Now over ninety seven thousand afghans have been brought to the U.

S. There were a variety of government programs, but a majority of afghan refugees admitted to the U. S. Came on a program called humAnitary arian parole.

These were afghan who believe they would be targets of the mu taliban government activists who worked on behalf of women's rights or human rights, journalist, artist and university students, and also Young women who feared their lives would change dramatically under taliban rule. Unlike those with refugee status, parolees stay in the U. S.

Is temporary, and there is no guarantee pathway to lawful permanent residency in the U. S. They live with the risk of becoming undocumented or deported when their status expire.

Today, about seventy seven thousand afghan parolees live in the U. S. In a state of limbo. In this episode of the Sunny story, we follow the journey of one parole.

A Young afghan woman in a minor, boxy meana, was nineteen years old and living with her family in carb. When the city failed to the taliban. She's now spent nearly two years in the U.

S. On humAnitarian parole. Independent journalist lawn delana Miller has been following me a case for over a year. Let me hand IT over to laun to tell mean a story.

mean as long journey to the U. S. Includes a bus ride in the middle of the night, two flights in sixteen weeks spent in three different refugee staging areas. But I want you to know more about who mean a was before her escape. So i'm going to start her story in her hometown of cobble, back in twenty nineteen, before the taliban took over and he was still a high school student.

I remember like one day I I was um playing soccer in our school yard and you know some of the parents they saw me practicing and then they went to the our school office and they reported me playing soccer as a very as not appropriate mean I was an ambitious student .

at her old girl school in cobo and SHE really wanted to go to university .

and I I was thinking, you know like what's inappropriate about playing soccer? What's inappropriate about doing this ports? I'm not breaking any rules one day.

Mean, I walked into her classroom early, and there was a group of girls you'd never seen before.

Then they just started talking about climbing and show me pictures.

beautiful photos of mountains and lakes. They told her they were climbers, part of an american organization called the sand. And a sense mission was to empower Young woman by teaching .

them how to climb mountains. I asked him a lot of questions. If it's safer, IT IT was a new idea. He was a totally new idea.

Afghanistan is a mountains country, but climbing as a sport is pretty rare. Among afghans, and especially among afghan women, there are barriers to entry, like transportation, far away places, tones of specialized gear and a lot of necessary training. But that night when he got home, mean, I couldn't stop thinking about those pictures and those other girls.

I just gave IT a shot like I decided to go for a day and see if I like IT. And I did not tell my family about IT. And then when I participated the first day, I just I loved IT.

So in the winter of twenty nineteen, mina started attending practices at the ascent office in cobo. SHE started learning about climbing techniques and equipment, and before long he was traveling to rural parts of afghanistan with a group of other girls. They went far away from cobo, camping in the mountains at night and then climbing those mountains in the morning. When the sun rose, the girls went on a trip to bombing on province about two hundred kilometres outside of cobble. And mean, as parents were from that province.

there is A A very famous lake in bombito province. It's called by, and I had been to that place like A A thousand times before and you know all I did was, you know like taking pictures in front of waterfall and you know, that's all I did. But that one time that I travelled with the son was very different because I got to see bomb in from a different aspect. I was watching those waterfall and just, you know, like thinking how to climb and was, he was amazing.

To get to bomb on, the team had to drive through contested areas, and the taliban will did a lot of power in these world places. So trip leaders looked at intelligence reports and consulted security experts in local contacts to ensure that the girls were safe.

My family thought that it's um it's dangerous for us as a group of girls to travel alone just you know like the society being very conservative. They think you know like some people would. They could get out and do something that really hurt you.

But I thought I can predict myself. We are like two hundred thirty girls. We're a lot. No one can know. Heard is.

yeah, something was changing inside of me. A and IT helped her to see her country and her place in IT in a new way.

Climbing IT just gave me an opportunity to get away from that society, from all those rules and regulations in afghanistan, which was really suffocating and exhAusting sometimes, you know, to go away from everything from the city, from the crowd, people's judgments of girls and how they should behave. I would say even, you know, going to the very far away villages and you know to the most conservative societies in afghanistan, I felt like always say that I felt the potential in afghanistan to grow. We begin with afghanistan and the dramatic fall of the capital .

cobo was the final destination in the taliban s lightning fast offensive.

The taliban is now effectively in controlled.

including in the capital cobo. On August fifteenth twenty twenty one, the taliban captured 的 afghan women fear for their livelihoods.

and in some instance, is their lives. Everything was happening so quickly, like we got, we were turning on the T. V, and he was no, like female presenters. All of them have disappeared from the screen. And then, like industry, you not, you couldn't see any females mean .

his parents wouldn't let her leave the house. And that had heard rumours that the taliban was searching homes in offices for evidence of people involved with american gos.

That's when we got terrified. Mina had never .

known life under the taliban. SHE was born in two thousand two, and sh'd grown up in a time of relative freedom and stability for afghan women, but her family is hazara, which is an ethnic minority in afghanistan. And in the past, the taliban had targeted the hazara community.

So at home, minus family talked every night about the worst case scenarios. What would happen if they found mina's brother's police uniform, and could mean that be in danger if they discovered to is part of an american organization? I mean, I couldn't see her future any more. If should, should be able to keep climbing, if should, should be able to attend university.

like those two weeks, like that desperation and feeling of hopelessness. I could imagine a life like that, like the past two weeks that spent, and I didn't want to spend my whole life like that. Those feelings were so powerfully me, but I couldn't think of not leaving the country. Mean, I started .

emAiling her context at a cent who were based in the U. S. And they really wanted to help, but they also couldn't promise her anything.

I, I wanted to go to airport. I knew that he was explosions happening there, and there are taliban with guns. But maybe I was thinking there is a possibility that I, I could get, pass them by the airport gate, and there is a chance for me to get evacuated.

And I was pushing, I was trying to secretly get out of the house and go to the couple airport. T IT didn't work like my parents. They were so scared and they were not letting me go.

The last U. S. Military plane left the airport.

The city was called after the rush, and I had no hope. And I thought, I am not, I can't. There's no way I could get out of the country.

But then on August thirty first, her phone ring.

he was like, ten, thirty, eleven at night. But I just saw this, a number calling me. And under that he was from texas, and I was, okay. This is weird because I don't get get calls from texas.

Usually on the other end of the line was .

an afghan man and telling OK, I said, yes, I am.

He didn't say his name, but he got straight to the point. He gave the plate number of a bus in the location across town that he needed to get to right away. SHE only had thirty minutes.

And I was like, who are you with lots of questions. Who are you? Where is this place i'm going? Where where this bus will take me? He told me that I cannot answer to any of your questions, but if you want to get evacuated, you should trust me.

But I don't know, that night I was just out of the hopelessness. Ss, that I i've gone through the past days. I just thought the best decision is just to take this risk and just to, you know, turn my head to all my family members.

They were, they were like in tears and trying to keep me with them, but I had no other way. I just told them that. I, I should go.

I must go. I cannot. There's not second chance for me if I stay.

Mina said her goodbyes quickly. SHE covered her face and her brother drove to the bus station. Then SHE got on the bus.

Twelve hours later.

SHE arrived in the northern city of missouri sheriff at a temporary staging area for refugees.

He was a wedding hall. He was supposed to be for wedding. There was no bets to sleep in. He was, we were supposed to sleep on the floor with no mattress or on chairs.

whether once would have been glittering lights and party guests stressed in their finest, there were now hundreds of people gather together, all uncertain about what would happen next.

When I got to the wedding hall, I saw girls, and I was like, okay, I know some people here.

IT was her teammates from a sand .

that was a good relief for me.

Mean, I never found out who the man from texas well, but SHE did learn that a sent was behind her in her teammates, evacuation. And together they waited at the wedding hall for twenty one days, waiting for someone to call their names. And then one day, finally, they read my name from the list.

SHE wasn't told much.

except that he was going to board another bus and that this one would take her to the airport.

And IT was all these telephone checkin'. IT was scary to look into, just stand from of them, and to look at them, and to talk to them.

And then somehow he was on a plane.

I had no feelings, like, no feelings of excitement. But I remember like the last minute when the, when I thought, okay, what if this works? I just called my mom. I said, I think I am getting out of a country. I'm on a plane.

Up until this point, everything had happened so fast. And then sitting there on the plane mean, I started looking around to all the other passengers. Most of them were with family, and they were crying. And mina began to wonder if he had made a mistake. But even though her mom had been so worried about her leaving now, SHE was on the phone and reassuring mina about her decision to leave.

And SHE said that I I know that you made the right decision. You you have always been the rebellious one in the family, and now just go and see the future, and future for you will be so different than mine, and you will go to a country we are. There are a lot opportunities for you to grow. And you can go to college and you can become the person that you have always dreamed about.

But mean his journey was far from over.

Will be right back.

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We're back with a sunday story with journalist lawn. Dana Miller, minus flight from afghanistan, landed at the U. S. Military base in katar, where he had a blur of interviews. Then SHE was on a plane again to a refugee singer at a military base in new jersey.

In new jersey, an immigration official asked me not a question that he hadn't been asked before in afghanistan in katar, what is your case number?

And I said, I I literally don't know what you're talking about and I don't think I have any case number and that's when they told me that i'm a Polly.

Meaning the other climbers, they were all paroles. But what does that even mean?

We have lots of questions in our mind, uh, like, okay, when will we get our Green card? How long will I take for us? Are we able to go to university or what are the benefits will get? And we were using the term like refugee for ourselves. But they were like, okay, it's parole. You should not expect to get your Green car soon.

They told her that under parole, SHE had a two year temporary stay in the U. S. SHE would have to apply for a permanent status. And her two years, I started now IT, was late october twenty .

twenty one. What does that mean that we are here temporary? That means they can get get us out of this country and send us back. And they say, well, IT is possible.

I have to say, when I first met me a on a climbing trip last year, and I learned about her evacuation, I assume SHE was a refugee. I'd never heard of her all. And IT turned out that a lot of people haven't.

The afghan that fled the taliban and twenty twenty one are often referred to as refugees. And that makes a lot of sense. Na left your country with no sense of when sh'll ever safely return.

She's starting her life from scratch. And SHE identifies as a refugee. So when I learned that parole was the status granted to seventy seven thousand afghan coming to the U. S. IT made me wonder, what was the purpose of parole and where did IT come from? I reached out to a historian to try to understand coral.

Bon tempo, associate professor of history at the university at albany, si al.

has writing extensively about the history of american immigration policy and how it's today, especially when IT comes to responding to emergencies with speed and urgency, like when thousands of afghan s. Fled overnight.

And so here you're stuck in that situation. If you are a member of the administration saying, okay, we want to help these people, but how do we do IT quickly so that we can actually deliver help in a timely fashion?

Before biden asked this question, another president in another time had exactly the same question. Over sixty years ago, during the cold war.

the iron curtain slam down the block k of all communication with the west, angry IT face a shocking Price for a brief moment of liberty and hope.

During the hungarian refugee crisis of one thousand nine hundred and fifty six, two hundred thousand people left hungry. IT was the biggest refugee emergency in europe. In the world war two, president ison, how's administration was eager to support refugees, but he was limited by america's own strict immigration quarters. Carb tempo, again.

the national origins, quote, a immigration system said that you could only granted about eight hundred visas per year to people from hungry. Eight hundred visas would do nothing to help tens of thousands of humanities. It's a literal drop in the bucket.

What can the U. S. Government do? The ice on our administration is searching around for illegal vehicle to bring the hungarian an to the united states. The vehicle they hit upon is the perl power buried .

in the one hundred .

and twenty page immigration bill of one nine hundred and fifty two was one provision. And this would change the american immigration system forever.

The attorney general can admit individuals to the united states on an emergent basis, meaning that those individuals could buy, pass, basically all of the immigration controls that were in place.

Perl power was designed to provide google room for emergencies. Lawmakers were aware that sometimes people would have to come to the U. S. Quickly.

speed the entries of folks who might need like emergency medical care or something like that. And IT was definitely seen as something that would be used on a case by case basis.

but the isenhour administration interpreted that line as a way to grant emergency entry for tens of thousands of refugees. Within two years, IT became clear that hungarian refugees weren't returning to communist controlled LED hungry in one thousand nine hundred and fifty eight, president ison hour asked congress to pass the hungarian adjustment act.

I request the congress promptly ly to an act, legislation to regularize the status in the united states ungan refugees brought here. As per release.

IT would allow every hungarian pulled into the us. A pathway to permanent residency and eventually citizenship. And that's how humAnitary arian parole got started.

Because president ison, how's team? We interpreted a line in an immigration bill to save hungarians. And this happens a few more times. This was the scene of ten oil in the capital, havana, following the cuban revolution of thousand nine hundred and fifty nine, about a million cubans came to the us.

and most of them were on parole. Me is not lucky enough to have been chosen for to fight the curfew and stood outside the embassy gate, begging for seat on the helicopters.

And again in one nine hundred and seventy five, after the chaotic c withdraw of U. S. Troops during the fall of python, about one hundred seventy thousand vietnam es enter the U. S, S. paroles.

And so this is the pattern then that is set. You are the a newcomer's in, and then a few years after that, you pass an adjustment act that provides a pathway to permanent residents.

But this ad hawk system for add mitt refugees was disorganized, and legislators on both sides of the I. O. Wanted to formalize the process.

So in one thousand nine hundred eighty, congress passed the refugee act to create a whole new refugee admissions stem separate from the immigration system. And with this new system in place, pro more less went back to its original unlimited usage. For a few decades, IT seemed like paris big moment was mostly over until twenty twenty one .

last night in kabul, the united states ended twenty years of work in afghanistan, the longest war in american history.

The problem you run into in the twenty first century is speed, and the process by which one obtains a refugee act. VISA is anything but quick. IT goes without .

saying that a slow process isn't an option for refugees whose lives have changed overnight. But IT can take years to get through the refugee system. And so by in like ison hour saw a way to get around our backlog, refugee admission system.

And parole seems to be a very good option.

But here is where the afghan situation breaks from history. It's been two years into this day. The afghan an adjustment act still hasn't passed. The afghan n adjustment act would provide a path to permanent status for paroles. IT was first introduced last year by senator amy club.

r. IT is our responsibility to provide these afghan refugees with the assurance that they can stay here and rebuild their lives.

But he was stalled in congress and then SHE reintroduced .

at this spring in limbo.

And the bill, it's facing a steep uphill battle in congress. But you also brought you in tens of thousands of afghans who had holy, inadequate wedding.

We have to understand there is a danger .

to this country. The idea wedding keeps coming up. As the main objection to the bill, there are by partisan proponents of the bill who point to the extensive background checks that are already required. And theyve responded by adding increased security measures. But even the revised bill hasn't gained enough republican support, which means seventy seven thousand afghan paroles like mea still have no guaranteed legal path to permanent residency in america.

It's hard to to live a life temporarily, and now I have no control over my life. It's other people in high positions deciding for my life.

When we come back, i'll pick up me a story in north CarOlina where she's been navigating her uncertain future.

You're listening to the sunday story. Stay with us.

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moment mini .

stepped off the plane and unt U. S. Soil, the clock started ticking on her parole status.

Meaner, urgently needed to figure out where he was going to live and descend the U. S. Climbing nonprofit that had been behind her evacuation. They were also trying to find a way for the Young women to stick together. And a glove in is the climate in psychology professor in rolling north CarOlina.

If SHE saw this effort on social media, so he volunteered to help us send fundraising, secure host families and also to be a host herself. So in december of twenty twenty one, mean, I got on another flight this time to rally. And that's how you meet in. And i'm so curious like what your impressions were of each other looking and you're looking at each other. And well, recently I called me and and to talk about that moment in the eight months that they live together in twenty twenty two.

And I think we are all kind of looking each other, not knowing anything about each other, and thinking, oh, god should want to live together.

Yeah, yeah. That's right.

And together with and husbands, m, they became like a little family. They'd all go to the climbing gym together a few times a week. They cooked, they listen to music, and they went on weekend trips to the mountains. Meanwhile, mean, his family was calling her almost every day. Her mom was especially concerned.

And my mom was, like, are you, you know, like participating in the tour? You know, help them with stuff. Don't be in just you be polite and behave appropriately.

They were kind of like roommates, but timea and was also a mentor.

The reason that I feel so close to him is because when I got here, when I felt so helpless and sometimes very embarrassed of not knowing the things that every everyone knows here from the very smallest thing from, like, going to store and buying staff, the very basic things, it's like starting from scratch. You know, I I learned so much from them with the help .

meaning applied for and got a job working as an administrative assistance at north Caroline estate just by co.

incidentally. We work in the same building. Yeah, she's on the third .

floor and on the .

Simon floor. Yeah yes.

IT was a nice and stable job. Mina was even able to move to her own apartment, but he was hard to work among college students when what he really wanted was to go to college herself. But mean, I tried to push that thought away.

He just felt impossible for me. I had enough people around me who were just telling me about, you know, like the amount tuition that I had to pay for all these colleges and I knew that I cannot afford IT for everyone that I mentioned that you know I want to get a full scholarship. They say, you know like false scholarships are for genius and I don't think that i'm a genius so I was thinking like um maybe not for me.

But with and support, mean is slowly started to look at applications.

I I made IT so hard on end because I procrastinate lot with writing essays and everything. So IT helped me a lot to get back to writing. And I started writing about myself, and I was my story. You know, the things that I could not say, but I could write about.

mean, I worked on our essays and tried to figure out the common APP, the online plan for many colleges use to receive applications. But an immediately started to run into issues.

I had to um fake that I was her high school counsellor because you just can't it's a road block. You can't send IT in without passing through these these bottles that .

but you can't like you've click to the next page unless .

you fill in the without a high school counsellor giving information about her school and all these other things.

There was also an issue with schools is expecting sealed official. And this was not something that could be arranged for mean, as all girl's high school in cobble, which was closed because of the taliban .

IT is impossible in so many ways. I can't even describe IT. That school does not even have an email address that they can send something from.

And then there was the financial aid. Cost was the biggest concern for me. A an an wasn't sure if mean would qualify for financial aid, but he went to the website for federal student aid or faster afghan .

humAnitary arian per lees are eligible for fassa IT, says a writer in the website. But I was so hard to actually .

do and walked me through this.

So for example, the questions on fast a about uh your parents finances but not yours so mean is independent um SHE doesn't get any help from her parents so they asked questions like are your parents on medicaid? Are your parents receiving snap benefits? Or your will know the answer to those are all no. But the reason you should get special consideration is because he is all those things. Basically, they lead you down our trail of unanswerable able questions.

And made dozens of phone calls. And when he finally got a hold of an admissions officer or administrator, often they had no idea what humAnitary arian parole was. And sh'd have to explain minus status and and figured out work around for a lot of things. But some things were inpenetrable like, and thought mea should be eligible for instate tuition in north CarOlina. A refugees are, but parolees aren't.

And then when I was told no, I tried IT again, and I was told no, and I tried IT a third time. And then I was told really no like stop lady but um they basically said, if you want this change, take IT to the legislature and make a vote on IT.

The paperwork was endless. That year, besides college applications, there was another even more complicated application full of unknowns, and the stakes were higher. That was mean as asylum application and without the afghan adjustment act, mean a second best option for securing permanent status in the U.

S. Is applying for asylum. Asylum and refugee status are basically the same, but while refuge applications are filed from outside of the U.

S, asylum seekers must be physically present within the U. S. To apply. So all this time, while mean is writing, her college says she's also gathering evidence for her ongoing asylum case, trying to piece together a complete account of what her life had been like in cobble and why SHE had been forced to leave her country in her family.

The night that I left my family, I was not looking in the far future. I was not thinking of not being able to see them in years. And I was so quick I just say goodbye and I got on the bus. I know it's it's been years since that night.

Nana's immigration layer has told her that he would likely be at least five years after her asylum cases accepted before he can bring her parents to the us.

which is very frustrating and disappointing for me. So a reunion is is like a sweet dream for all of us.

There have been no updates on mean as asylum application since her interview with an immigration officer in december of twenty twenty two.

I think the day that I hear back from the government, whether they accept me or they will not, that moment will be the time that I think of my, my long term future in this country.

But this spring, mean a did start getting accepted into colleges, abololo in state roads college, the new school, north CarOlina, a state columbia university in new york. And then one day in march, he got in the email from south mark college .

in pensylvania. And when I got that email, I opened the letter and I looked at IT. And i'm always, always very afraid of celebrating good and then finding out that, no, there is always something to find out.

So I shared IT with and and then yeah and then he said, like SHE texted me and say they gave you a full scholarship. That was like, why really? And at that point he was like a relief for meals.

Like finally. IT just failed to right to me to go to store more. Every year, August, something good or bad happens for me, is the month of big change. And this August, i'm going to school. I don't know what next August is going to be like.

This August would have been the two year mark when the parole program for african's would have started to expire, but this spring, presented by an extended Pearl for afghans. So now mina and her teammates have two more years of safety, but also two more years of uncertainty. As mean, as asylum case winds its way through backlog, dev gration courts the fight for the african.

An adjustment act is ongoing, but it's good locked. At the end of july, the sponsors of the bill LED by senator amy club atr tried to get IT included in the national defense authorization act, but IT was blocked by republicans who have introduced a separate adjustment act. One bat, among other things, would significantly reduce the president parole powers all together.

And this would have implications for many groups of people, not just afghans. Since twenty twenty one, president biden has used his parole power to bring in tens of thousands of ukrainians hander's cubans. Sick arrogance. In veneur ans, half a million people are currently on humAnitarian, an parole. Which brings me to something historian Carol bond tempo said to me at the end of our interview.

the immigration system is not well suited for twenty first century america. We have a bunch of imperfect answers for a lot of things. When IT comes to the policies surrounding newcomer's asylum policy is even more broken than whatever paro policy is. In other words, instead of thinking through just parole, I think we need to think through the whole thing. Parole is just part of the puzzle, and I would urge a reconceptualize ation of the puzzle itself.

This week, meana started school in swor th mar, knowing that her parole status could expire during herself of more year.

I kind of don't want to think ahead of what will happen. I when I enjoy like my college life and I think climbing is is the way she's .

going to join the fourth more climbing team .

because I enjoy climbing long. So I think that's a good way to make friends and to find you know, my community.

And in this month of big changes, she's been thinking of couple.

And now, you know, one thing that really makes me happy is to imagine the day that afghanistan is free again, and I go back to afghanistan and the things that I would do. And I think I cherish IT so much now that I am far like I, I want to go back to cupboard city. That's what I really won from the bottom of my heart.

How are you could travel, bother a couple, the allies, the most streets and bazaars and cobol, it's it's all the pictures that we have in our head. And those streets are full of people, and there are food trucks everywhere. And it's so much noise and just people who are really, you know, happy with very simple and small things.

This episode was reported by law n. Ela Miller. IT was produced by Justin yan. Our editor is jane smidt. Additional editing from liana sim strom and iran a gucci.

Our engineer was just ual can rehab is our intern music from audio network first, calm music and ROM tn. Our blue Lawrence is the author of the book valley of giants, stories from women at the heart of assembly climbing. This story was first reported at the U. C.

Berkeley graduate school of journalism and edited by serene marathi mari, with additional support from queen a cam and ana sessile, special thanks to mariner cold deal charcoal and yael hacker, the sunday's story is made by imperious enterprise storytelling unit leana syn strom is our supervising producer and iran the gucci is our executive producer. Am a character up first, is back tomorrow with all the news, you need to start a week. Until then, have a great rest of your weekend.

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