Ali Faqirzada is an Afghan refugee. He deserves to stay in America | Francine Prose

Key Highlights

• But after the US withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021, the ministry where he, his mother and sister had worked was bombed by the Taliban, and one of its employees was murdered. Understandably concerned that they would be tortured and killed like so many Afghans targeted by the Taliban for their cooperation with humanitarian agencies, the Faqirzadas made their way to Mexico, and from there to the US, where they immediately applied for refugee status.
• Six family members have already been granted asylum after having successfully made the case that repatriation to their Taliban-controlled homeland would likely mean a death sentence. When Ali Faqirzada went for his 14 October interview, it seemed probable that his petition would also be approved.
• According to Malia Dumont, a military veteran formerly deployed in Afghanistan and now chief of staff and vice-president for strategy and policy at Bard, Ali is a brilliant, generous, community-minded student who has worked in New York state as a hospital security guard, a position of great trust and responsibility. In a more reasonable, more compassionate country, the immigration official would have walked around the table, shaken Faqirzada’s hand, and thanked him for how much he has done on behalf of his people and our own.
• In a more recognizably American country, the interviewer would have congratulated Ali on how obviously he is thriving in his adopted land and on the good chance that he will go on to make valuable contributions to our society. But that is not what happened.
• That is not how the story went in Donald Trump and Stephen Miller’s America.