‘Would have been nice if niece were here’: Trump’s travel ban shatters Afghan family’s dream

Mohammad Sharafoddin, his wife and young son walked at times for 36 hours in a row over mountain passes as they left Afghanistan as refugees to end up less than a decade later talking about their journey on a plush love seat in the family's three-bedroom suburban American home.

He and his wife dreamed of bringing her niece to the US to share in that bounty. Maybe she could study to become a doctor and then decide her own path.

But that door slams shut on Monday as America put in place a travel ban for people from Afghanistan and a dozen other countries.

“It's kind of shock for us when we hear about Afghanistan, especially right now for women who are affected more than others with the new government,” Mohammad Sharafoddin said. “We didn't think about this travel ban.”

President Donald Trump signed the ban on Wednesday. It is similar to one in place during his first administration but covers more countries. Along with Afghanistan, travel to the US is banned from Myanmar, Chad, the Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen.

Trump said visitors who overstay visas, like the man charged in an attack that injured dozens of demonstrators in Boulder, Colorado, earlier this month, are a danger to the country. The suspect in the attack is from Egypt, which isn't included in the ban.

The countries chosen for the ban have deficient screening of their citizens, often refuse to take them back and have a high percentage of people who stay in the US after their visas expire, Trump said.

The ban makes exceptions for people from Afghanistan on Special Immigrant Visas who generally worked most closely with the US government during the two-decade war there.

Thousands of refugees came from Afghanistan      

Afghanistan was also one of the largest sources of resettled refugees, with about 14,000 arrivals in a 12-month period through September 2024. Trump suspended refugee resettlement on his first day in office.

It is a path Sharafoddin took with his wife and son out of Afghanistan walking on those mountain roads in the dark then through Pakistan, Iran and into Turkey. He worked in a factory for years in Turkey, listening to YouTube videos on headphones to learn English before he was resettled in Irmo, South Carolina, a suburb of Columbia.

His son is now 11, and he and his wife had a daughter in the US who is now three. There is a job at a jewellery maker that allows him to afford a two-storey, three-bedroom house. Food was laid out on two tables on Saturday for a celebration of the Muslim Eid al-Adha holiday.

Sharafoddin's wife, Nuriya, said she is learning English and driving — two things she couldn't do in Afghanistan under Taliban rule.

“I'm very happy to be here now, because my son is very good at school and my daughter also. I think after 18 years they are going to work, and my daughter is going to be able to go to college,” she said.

Family wants to help niece

It is a life she wanted for her niece too. The couple show videos from their cellphones of her drawing and painting. When the Taliban returned to power in 2021, their niece could no longer study. So they started to plan to get her to the US at least to further her education.

Nuriya Sharafoddin doesn't know if her niece has heard the news from America yet. She hasn't had the heart to call and tell her.

“I'm not ready to call her. This is not good news. This is very sad news because she is worried and wants to come,” Nuriya said.

While the couple spoke, Jim Ray came by. He has helped a number of refugee families settle in Columbia and helped the Sharafoddins navigate questions in their second language.

Ray said Afghans in Columbia know the return of the Taliban changed how the US deals with their native country.

But while the ban allows spouses, children or parents to travel to America, other family members aren't included. Many Afghans know their extended families are starving or suffering, and suddenly a path to help is closed, Ray said.

“We'll have to wait and see how the travel ban and the specifics of it actually play out,” Ray said. “This kind of thing that they're experiencing where family cannot be reunited is actually where it hurts the most.”

Taliban criticises travel ban

The Taliban itself criticised Trump for the ban, with leader Hibatullah Akhundzada saying the US was now the oppressor of the world.

“Citizens from 12 countries are barred from entering their land — and Afghans are not allowed either,” he said on a recording shared on social media. “Why? Because they claim the Afghan government has no control over its people and that people are leaving the country. So, oppressor! Is this what you call friendship with humanity?”