WASHINGTON, D.C. – Nisreen will not be able to vote in the U.S. elections in November.
However, the 27-year-old has a message for the presidential candidates, on behalf of Afghans like her who fled when the US withdrew its troops from Afghanistan in August 2021.
“I really want them to hear us, especially those voices that worked for the United States,” Nasreen, who asked to use a pseudonym, told Al Jazeera.
Friday marks three years since the last U.S. troops left Afghanistan, ending a two-decade military presence that began with the ouster of the Taliban government in 2001.
But the chaotic nature of the military withdrawal—and the rapid re-establishment of Taliban rule—cast a long shadow over American policy.
The withdrawal, which has been a source of ongoing bipartisan criticism, has become a prominent talking point in the 2024 presidential race, with Democrats and Republicans trading blame for the lives lost as troops depart.
But Afghans like Nasreen say an important perspective has been lost in the conflicts that have erupted in an election year: their own.
“This election is not only important for America, it is also important for Afghans,” said Nasreen, who lives in the San Francisco Bay Area in California.
“For Afghans who have migrated here and Afghans living in Afghanistan… especially women, this election will have a huge impact.”
Two parties, one disagreement
What happened in 2021 is the story of the involvement of the major players in this year's presidential race.
In 2020, the administration of Republican President Donald Trump reached a controversial agreement with the Taliban to withdraw all US troops from Afghanistan within 14 months.
A few months later, Trump lost his reelection bid, and his successor, Democratic President Joe Biden, oversaw a frantic evacuation of American citizens, coalition allies, and tens of thousands of vulnerable Afghans as the deadline approached.
By August 2021, the Taliban had swept through the country in a lightning offensive, regaining its former strength. Its forces entered the Afghan capital, Kabul, on August 15. The last American aircraft flew out of the city on August 30.
In those final days, a bomb attack killed about 170 Afghans hoping to enter the airport, as well as 13 members of the U.S. military.
Government investigators have blamed both the Biden and Trump administrations for the chaotic situation: Trump for reaching a deal seen as favoring the Taliban and Biden for moving forward with the plan without putting in place safeguards to stop the Taliban.
Trump has also faced criticism for restricting the ways Afghans can escape to the United States.
Now he is once again the Republican nominee for president. Meanwhile, Biden's running mate, Kamala Harris, is leading the Democratic ticket.
Continuous failure
But advocates say both parties still have to face an ongoing dilemma: how to protect the hundreds of thousands of Afghans who fear repression under Taliban rule.
Many of those who remain in the country are potential targets for the Taliban, especially if they work for the US military or the US-backed government.
Even among those who were evacuated, many remained in a state of permanent limbo, with no clear path to U.S. residency or citizenship. Others found legal paths to the United States too narrow and sought more dangerous ways to enter the country.
For her part, Nasreen said that she worked as a translator at the US Embassy in Kabul.
After fleeing, she was able to obtain residency in the United States through the Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) program for Afghans who worked for the U.S. government.
Another displaced woman, who asked to be identified only as Nazanin, fled Kabul on an evacuation flight with her 16-year-old sister after the rise of the Taliban.
She has since been granted asylum in the United States, but said she sees only broken promises from both parties, leaving many other Afghans in the United States and Afghanistan in limbo.
“I don't think Afghan voices are heard by politicians,” she told Al Jazeera.
“My message to the presidential candidates is that you do not represent the majority of the refugee community or the Americans I know or see on social media and that your false promises will be heeded.”
Inappropriate migration routes
Arash Azizzadeh, executive director of Afghans for a Better Future, a human rights advocacy group, said members of the Afghan community in the United States, like himself, feel “a sense of anger and disappointment” this election season “when we look at both candidates.”
“We feel pretty much invisible this election season,” he added.
Azizzada’s group has spent the past three years pushing for more immigration pathways for those fleeing the Taliban, including increased special visas for Afghans who worked directly with the United States and permanent residency pathways for other displaced people.
But little progress has been made, Aziza Zadeh explained.
“It has been a hallmark of the Biden presidency to see anything to do with Afghanistan as radioactive,” Aziza Zada said. “Democrats have gone through this election season without any mention of Afghanistan or the Afghan people.”
This includes not mentioning the 160,000 Afghans who have been successfully relocated to the United States since the withdrawal, which Azizzada sees as a victory for Democrats.
The Biden administration has expanded processing of special immigrant visa applications, which had virtually stopped under Trump.
However, by March, 60,230 applicants had submitted all the required documents and were awaiting preliminary approval to move forward in the process, according to the U.S. State Department. Another 75,000 were also in the process of applying.
The administration has also increased processing of Afghan refugees, with 11,168 refugees admitted so far in fiscal year 2024. This is up from about 6,500 refugees admitted in fiscal year 2023 and more than 1,600 refugees in the immediate aftermath of the drawdown, in fiscal year 2022.
However, critics say the legal avenues available to Afghans at risk remain woefully inadequate.
Afghanistan as a “club”
While Democrats have been largely silent on the issue of withdrawing from Afghanistan, Azizzadeh noted that Republicans have embraced the issue this election cycle — but only as a “partisan cudgel and tool.”
That was evident on Monday, when Trump hosted a campaign event at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia. He joined the families of several soldiers killed at the Kabul airport for a memorial there.
Hours later, Trump addressed a conference of National Guard members in Detroit. Facing military personnel and their families, he highlighted Democrats’ role in the troop withdrawal from Afghanistan.
“The humiliation in Afghanistan, caused by Kamala Harris and Joe Biden, has shattered America’s credibility and respect around the world,” Trump told the crowd.
He pledged that “every senior official who played a role in the Afghan catastrophe will submit their resignations and have them on my desk at noon on Inauguration Day.”
In a later statement, Harris defended the withdrawal, saying the Biden administration “has demonstrated that we can still take out terrorists, including the leaders of al-Qaeda and ISIS, without having to deploy troops to combat zones.”
For Azizzadeh, there is one word to describe the absence of any mention of Afghans in the election rhetoric: “degradation.”
Political opportunity?
However, some human rights advocates saw reason for hope in the inclusion of Afghans in the DNC's political platform, released earlier this month.
The bill calls for “provisions to streamline applications for vulnerable Afghan allies” through the U.S. refugee program and “a process to adjust the status of evacuated Afghans to lawful permanent residents.”
Many Afghans evacuated during the U.S. troop withdrawal were allowed to come to the United States through a “humanitarian release” program, which allows them to live and work in the country. However, it does not provide a path to permanent residency.
But legislation known as the Afghan Amendment Act, which would create this pathway — as well as other means of supporting Afghans in the United States — has stagnated in Congress.
The legislation has stalled amid “headwinds” from deep partisan divisions over immigration, said Joseph Azzam, a lawyer and president of the Afghan American Foundation.
Republicans have largely opposed increased immigration, he said. Meanwhile, Democrats have “moved to the right” on the issue.
“Any kind of signal that they are sympathetic — or that there are exceptions, or that there are people who do not fit into this increasingly extreme approach to immigration — is seen as a political mistake,” Azzam said.
However, Azzam said candidates should view the issue as a political opportunity rather than a burden.
He noted that influential veterans groups support increased immigration pathways for Afghans who served alongside the U.S. military, including through the Afghan Adjustment Act.
Veterans also form a powerful voting bloc in swing states like Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Georgia, he added.
“The five or six states that are likely to decide this election also have some of the largest populations of veterans in the United States,” Azzam said. “If you can mobilize a few thousand people and their families on this issue in a key state, that’s the election, right?”
“respects his commitments”
When Afghan refugee advocates were asked what issues they wanted to hear on the campaign trail, they cited a myriad of issues: from immigration reform to increased funding for resettlement services.
For example, immigration attorney Laila Ayub helps lead the ANAR Project, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that provides legal services to recently arrived Afghans.
With few options for legal immigration available, Afghans are making dangerous journeys across the southern US border, she told Al Jazeera, which makes her concerned about the focus this election season on border restrictions and asylum.
“Afghan Americans, like me, are voters, and we need to hear proactive support for our community, not just in terms of national security,” she said.
“Our society has been affected by decades of American foreign policy and military presence, and there is historical precedent for enacting protections.”
Nahid Samadi Bahram, director of the nonpartisan Women for Afghan Women organization in the United States, said she hopes for a presidential candidate “who cares about women’s rights, someone who cares about immigrant rights.”
She spoke to Al Jazeera just days after the Taliban issued a new set of “vice and virtue” laws, which ban women from being heard in public, among other restrictions.
Bahram added that she would like to see more funding for legal and mental health services for Afghans in the United States. She explained that many community groups rely mostly on donations from foundations and individuals.
“I am optimistic about these elections, and I hope that the elections will bring a lot of vitality to the situation in Afghanistan and to the evacuation process,” she said. However, she acknowledged that “it will be very difficult.”
Khalil Anwari, who works for the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, a nonpartisan nonprofit, said candidates should see supporting Afghans as sending a broader message to the world about the power of American ideals.
“For many years, the United States was the leading country in the world when it came to being a place of refuge,” said Anwari, who also fled Afghanistan on an evacuation flight after the Taliban took power. “However, in the last two years, based on the policies that were adopted, it has lost that position.”
He explained that providing opportunities for Afghans to seek safety is a means through which the United States can restore this status and enhance its position on the world stage.
“This is consistent with the understanding that the United States honors its commitments to its allies. This is what people around the world see when the commitments it makes are fulfilled,” Anwari said.
