The Uncontrolled Push Outside Kabul Airport: Former U.S. DEA Translator Separated from Children for Five Years

Five years after the chaotic U.S. withdrawal from Kabul in 2021, an Afghan woman who once served as a translator for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has obtained a law degree in the United States but remains worlds apart from her two older children stranded in Taliban-ruled Afghanistan. According to NPR, this family separation stems directly from an out-of-control crowd crush outside Kabul airport five years ago, and the subsequent reversals of U.S. immigration policy.

S, 33, recently donned a cap and gown in Northern California, holding the small hand of her 5-year-old son as she crossed the graduation stage—a rare moment of joy in her life. Documents reviewed by NPR show that S had been employed by the DEA since 2018, with duties that included identifying drug traffickers, human traffickers, and individuals planning bombings and attacks against U.S. forces. Her work directly served U.S. counterterrorism and counter-narcotics operations in Afghanistan, and it made her a clear target for Taliban retaliation.

After the Taliban re-entered Kabul in 2021, more than 14 armed Taliban members surrounded her parents' home looking for her. S slipped out of the house with her newborn, picked up her two older children at a relative's home, and headed for Kabul airport. According to NPR, the evacuation led by then-President Biden was chaotic: thousands of Afghans pleaded with U.S. soldiers outside the airport to let them through, while Taliban fighters moved through the crowd firing weapons.

S at the time held orders authorizing her to assist the evacuation as a translator. She asked her mother to stay and watch the children while she went to persuade the guards to let them through. According to NPR, when she tried to explain the situation to the soldiers, the surrounding crowd grew increasingly agitated, and in the crush she was pushed into the airport while her two older children were left on the other side of the wall. She recalled to NPR: "The one image that won't leave me is prying my daughter's and son's hands off me, shouting at them 'I'll be back, I promise.'"

Over the past five years, S has called her children twice a day from her Northern California apartment, reaching them across thousands of miles. Her elder daughter is no longer in school—the Taliban has reimposed its ban on education for girls over 12; her son has just recovered from foot surgery. The youngest son she carried into the United States is now a kindergartner who knows his older brother and sister only by phone. S confided to NPR that she once contemplated suicide, but looking at the young child beside her could not bring herself to do it.

According to NPR, S, with the help of lawyers, sought family reunification assistance from the U.S. government, but immigration procedures repeatedly stalled under Biden, and under Trump immigration policy tightened across the board. A year ago, a lawsuit against the Trump administration cleared the path to family reunification, and S's children passed vetting and were approved to enter the United States. However, hours after an Afghan evacuated in 2021 shot two National Guard members near the White House, Trump announced a permanent immigration pause for so-called "Third World countries."

NPR asked the U.S. State Department about S's children's situation. A spokesperson declined to comment on individual cases and said there is "no absolute right" under U.S. law to bring foreign friends or relatives into the country.

S does not know when she will be able to hold her two children again, and she blames the U.S. government for all of it. According to NPR, the September 11 attacks, which in many ways had brought her freedom, have left a cost on her, on her children, and on the faith she once placed in the U.S. government. She told NPR: "They made me trust them. I will never trust them again."