'Travel deleted, travel deleted': Refugees scheduled to come to Seattle are now in limbo

Abdul and his family are from Afghanistan but spent the last two months at a refugee camp in Doha, the capital of Qatar, waiting for a flight to the U.S.
Just last week, they were told to pack their bags; they’d be leaving for Sea-Tac International Airport the next day.
“They were ready for the flight. They were waiting just for the call,” said Abdul’s brother-in-law, whose middle name is Khan, translating what Abdul said in Pashto. (Abdul and Khan asked KUOW not to publish their full names because they have family members who are still in Afghanistan.)
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Abdul worked for the U.S. Army as an educator for Afghan troops, teaching them to read and write. After the U.S. left Afghanistan and the Taliban took over, his family wasn’t safe.
“They were not feeling safe anywhere — outside the home or inside home,” Khan translated for Abdul. “They had fears of when they’re going to be killed.”
Even after they were told it was time to travel, Abdul still worried.
“Before our flight, one other flight was cancelled,” Abdul said. “That was a big concern for us.”
Last year, Washington state welcomed more than 6,000 refugees. But an executive order from President Donald Trump last week paused the program because, it said, “the United States lacks the ability to absorb large numbers of migrants, and in particular, refugees, into its communities in a manner that does not compromise the availability of resources for Americans, that protects their safety and security, and that ensures the appropriate assimilation of refugees.”
As of Monday, no new refugees will be allowed in for at least three months — or until the Trump administration determines if the program is “in the interest” of the country.
The order said flights would be stopped as of Jan. 27 — but some refugees’ travel was cancelled right away, even before that date. For example, one refugee resettlement organization, Lutheran Community Services Northwest, had all their flights cancelled last week.
But Abdul and his family were some of the lucky ones — their travel went ahead.
“Just when they are on board to the airplane, then they feel, ‘We’re going to make it, and we are safe right now,’” Khan translated for Abdul.
Lindsey Walker, the family’s case worker at World Relief Western Washington, said she and her colleagues had dozens of flights for families and individuals scheduled for February and March.
“And I was going through my email, swiping through, and it was just, ‘travel deleted, travel deleted, travel deleted, travel deleted,’” she said.
Walker spent the past week talking to refugees whose families were supposed to join them in the Seattle area in the coming months — but now won’t be able to.
“[They] now have had their travel canceled after waiting for all of that time for everything to be approved, and finally get the plane ticket to enter,” she said.
One of her coworker’s clients is a single mom from Venezuela who’s here with her baby.
“She has to figure out how to be able to both take care of her child and earn money for her rent, and her mother finally was scheduled to travel, and her mom's flight just got canceled,” Walker said.
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Daryl Morrissey, director of refugee resettlement for Lutheran Community Services Northwest, clarified that the designation “refugee” means someone who has been thoroughly vetted and invited to the U.S.
“It's a life saving program, so the idea that it might stop or be severely curtailed again — it just tears up my heart,” Morrissey said.
Abdul and his family are staying, for now, with Khan and his family at their apartment in Federal Way.
The day after they arrived, they enjoyed a spread of Afghan dishes, food they missed during their time in the refugee camp in Doha.
Abdul’s daughters, who are 6 and 3 years old, were wearing matching sparkly jeans and white sweatshirts that said “Cutie.” They didn’t stop smiling, and the 6-year-old kept dancing — instead of walking — across the room.
“The dancer,” Khan, her uncle, said, and everyone laughed.
Khan and his family came to the Seattle area in early 2020. They were supposed to arrive earlier than that, but got held up by all the pauses and bans during the first Trump administration.
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“I was waiting for my interview in the U.S. embassy in Afghanistan, so I was waiting like more than six months till they resumed the process, the program,” he said. “That was a tough time for me.”
While he was waiting for the interview, his twins were born. So, he had to get their documents in order before he could start the process again.
Although most refugee visa holders can no longer come into the U.S., in theory, people from Afghanistan with the “special immigrant visa,” like Abdul and Khan who worked for the U.S. military, will still be allowed in.
But Abdul was not sure whether the same opportunity would be given to his family members who remain in Afghanistan. That uncertainty was the one thing he didn’t want to talk about.