Trump orders review of all Biden-era refugee cases

This report is extremely shocking and upsetting. Today, Reuters reported that, according to a memo seen by the news agency, the Trump administration has instructed the U.S. Immigration Department to review all cases of immigrants who were accepted and entered the United States during the Biden administration. This order could apply to 233,000 immigrants who entered the U.S. between January 2021 and February 2025.

This is horrible news, as the Trump administration has already reduced the refugee admission cap. For example, in 2026, the admission cap is 7,500 people, allocated only to white South Africans.

During two years of field research in Washington, D.C., I met with newly arrived Hazara refugees who told me that they had spent between 2 to 7 years for their cases to be reviewed or processed. Most of these reviews are multi-layered. For instance, refugees from Turkey were first vetted by the Turkish government and NGOs. In the second stage, their cases were referred to the UNHCR, and in the final stage, to the U.S. Embassy, which passed them on to be vetted by U.S. security agencies such as USCIS and Homeland Security. 

This means the refugees have already undergone multiple instances of scrutiny and review beyond what is expected. It's unclear what this anti-refugee program is trying to find or what loophole it is trying to uncover that hasn't been seen before.

Now it has become clear that the reason why some refugees and immigrants who have been waiting for nearly four years to receive their Green Card and still haven't gotten it is due to the anti-refugee scheme that the current administration plans to implement.

This will further add to the sorrow and pain of refugees who have already endured. I can't help thinking of the intense psychological and emotional toll it would cause to thousands of families who have barely settled and have started their lives, hoping to enjoy a modicum of peace. What a cruel world we are living in. 

A perpetual fear and life for Hazaras under the Taliban

by Khadim Ali, a Hazara painter, source

For the Hazara people in Afghanistan, life has always been shadowed by a deep-seated dread. To be Hazara in this country is to live with a perpetual, gnawing anxiety, a kind of fear that has taken up residence in the back of your mind and never leaves. No matter the depth of your sacrifice or your willingness to lay down your life for your country, a persistent, haunting fear lingers on the horizon, tormenting your spirit constantly. That fear is a simple, devastating question: "Will the Pashtuns ever allow us to live in peace?" 

This is an existential fear, it strikes at the very core of one's right to exist.

This terror is now manifesting anew in the forced exodus of Hazaras from their ancestral lands, which has been going on since the Taliban's takeover of Afghanistan in August 2021. Since then, over 1,000 families have been evicted from their homes and villages. If we estimate an average family of 6, then 6,000 people have been forced out of their homes. That is still a conservative estimate. 

Recently, the Taliban issued a new ultimatum, this time to the Hazara community of Nowabad, a small yet densely populated area in Ghazni, home to over 18,000 families. The ultimatum says they must either abandon their homes, repurchase their homes, or pay rent to remain in their homes. 

The Taliban have declared the area "Emirate's land," a tactic they replicate wherever Hazaras live and wherever and whenever they want to forcefully remove them. It is a profound act of symbolic violence, in that they basically erase Hazaras' historical and cultural connection to the land, their own land. What anthropologists term as territorial alienation is a precursor to physical annihilation. This is ethno fascism in practice, and for the Hazaras, it always comes down to a choice between three impossible options, a tripartite trap from which they have never escaped.

This pattern is grimly familiar. In 1998, when the Taliban seized Mazar and launched their massacre of the Hazaras, they presented three conditions: leave Afghanistan, convert to Sunni Islam, or be ready to die. They proceeded to carry out both mass slaughter and forced displacement. It appears that the same engine of tribal fascism is now rolling forward once again, following its old, brutal tracks.

For the Hazaras, who were still savoring the sweet victory of the Afghanistani futsal team, mostly made up of Hazara boys, this new threat is a bitter drop in the cup of their joy. It feels like a sudden, cold wave, or a physical blow to the gut that instantly extinguishes any celebration, replacing it with the familiar grip of fear and pain. This is the precarious reality in which the Hazara people now find themselves.

For the Hazara, true peace remains an elusive dream in their own land.

Note: A version of this post was published in Farsi on my Farsi blog

Hazara's resistance: Playing for a country that tries to annihilate them

Amid Afghanistan's contemporary violent history, a different story is capturing hearts and minds, one not of conflict but of celebration. The Afghanistani U-17 boys' futsal team has won the championship of the 3rd Asian Youth Games in Bahrain.

This victory holds profound significance for Afghanistan, which is weary of violence. In a country deeply divided and ruled by the ethno-religious Taliban regime, such a moment fosters a rare and powerful sense of shared identity and national pride.

The achievement is particularly meaningful because the team is predominantly composed of Hazara athletes, an ethnic minority that has long faced systemic persecution and is currently experiencing an ongoing genocide under the de facto Taliban rule. One might assume that their success on an international stage indicates a degree of freedom and acceptance. But the reality is more complex.

First, some of these players are refugees living in Iran; some may have never set foot in Afghanistan. So, in some way, it is a diasporic achievement. Futsal is a popular sport within the Hazara diaspora in Iran. In post-9/11 Afghanistan, upon their return from Iran, refugees brought their skills with them. For international competitions, players are often selected from refugee communities, sent to Afghanistan for bureaucratic formalities, and then dispatched to the competition. But in U-17, I heard from a friend that several team members were chosen from the poor neighborhood of Dasht-e Barchi, west of Kabul. In essence, the national futsal team relies on Hazara players; excluding them would mean having no team at all.

This triumph is now shadowed by a grave concern: Hazara advocates worldwide fear the Iranian government may retaliate by deporting the players and their families. Iran has already forcibly returned over 1.5 million refugees, predominantly Hazaras, to Afghanistan this year. These deportations have been justified by baseless accusations of espionage for Israel, a scapegoat narrative Iran employs following its military embarrassments in 12 days of war with Israel.

Furthermore, this victory is a crucial act of visibility for the Hazara people, who are otherwise entirely marginalized within Afghanistan, even as the Taliban may attempt to claim credit for their success. But the interesting thing is that these boys did not compete under the Taliban flag, which is white, but under the former flag of Afghanistan and its national anthem. The Taliban may claim some credit but it does not mean affirming their cruel state project. It would rather be symbolized as what James Scott calls "weapons of the weak," forcing the Taliban to appreciate the ethnic group they marginalize.

Despite facing systemic discrimination from the Pashtun majority and other groups, the Hazara people have consistently been at the forefront of Afghanistani sports, demonstrating a profound patriotism that stands in stark contrast to the injustice they endure. This legacy includes Afghanistan's first Olympic medal, won by a Hazara athlete, Rohullah Nikpai, in 2008, and a second in 2012.

Amin Saikal: the scholar who advocated for the Expulsion of the Hazara Immigrants from Australia

There is a plethora of studies and surveys on discrimination from host societies directed towards immigrants and refugees in Western countries, but studies on discrimination and prejudice from one immigrant group against another immigrant group are few and far between. In a year and a half of my fieldwork in the Washington, D.C. area, I have found that Hazara immigrants are suffering from discrimination, particularly from Afghan/Pashtun and Tajik immigrants. I will write about this another time, but now, Amin Saikal. 

He is a retired university professor of Afghan origin living in Australia. Born into a family of diplomat and upper-class ethno-hybrid Tajik-Pashtun parents, Saikal holds unearned privileges in life that the Hazara, whom he dislikes so much, cannot afford. "He is unaware of his privileges, and I doubt he would bother now, at the end of his life, to become introspective about the very privileges he is enjoying, tied to historic and enduring racism and biases against the Hazara people," told me Ahmad - pseudonym - an old classmate of his from high school in Kabul. Amin Saikal belongs to the Tajik ethnic group, one of the country's ruling ethnic groups.

He is married to a white Australian woman, another societal privilege that brings him an abundance of social advantage over other racial or ethnic groups, particularly the Hazaras in Australia. They have three daughters, all of whom are successful. Saikal has written many books on Afghanistan and Iran. Despite his academic success and high level of education, he openly harbors a deep-seated animosity toward Hazara immigrants in Australia.

On November 03, 2010, journalist Alexandra Kirk from the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) Radio conducted an interview with Amin Saikal regarding the condition of the Hazaras in Afghanistan and why the Hazaras are risking their lives to arrive in Australia by boat. This was at a time when there was a big search for Hazara immigrants fleeing the Taliban atrocities in Afghanistan and Pakistan, reaching Indonesia, and from there risking their lives on boats to reach Australia.

Instead of explaining the dire situation that the Hazaras lived in, he claimed that Afghanistan is the safest place for Hazaras to live, and should the Australian government expel them to Afghanistan, there would be no problem. They are safe in Afghanistan, he said. Saikal went on to explain where Hazaras could live safely if they were returned to Afghanistan. 

In some ways, he proposed the expulsion of the Hazara immigrants and refugees from Australia back to Afghanistan, a country they were fleeing from because of the systematic atrocities. 

This was a time when Tony Abbott's anti-immigration opposition party was planning policies against migration and asylum seekers. Hazara migrants formed a significant portion of those arriving in Australia by boat, many of whom were fleeing systematic oppression and violence. Most of those who risked their lives were Hazaras living in refugee camps in Quetta or resettled. 

Between 2005 and 2010, as the Taliban began regrouping and gaining ground in the southern part of Afghanistan, violence against Hazaras spiked. On the other side of the border to the south, in Quetta, Pakistan, the situation for Hazaras was deteriorating. In the years 2010, 2011, and 2012, targeted and serial killings of Hazaras in Quetta were rampant. 

Some of those targeted attacks were reported in Human Rights Watch's Farsi reports from those exact years, when Amin Saikal was advocating for the Hazaras ' expulsion from Australia. During the very same years, Saikal claimed that Afghanistan was safe for Hazaras. In Afghanistan, during those years, Kuchis (Pashtun nomads) attacked Hazaras, drove them out of their lands, destroyed their pastures, and the Taliban put checkpoints on the highways, arresting Hazara men and beheading them. 

As a result, hundreds were killed, and thousands were displaced. In the Jalrez, famously called by Hazaras the "death valley," Hazara people were beheaded on a daily basis. It was around this time that Amin Saikal intensified his antagonism and advocacy for Hazara immigrants to Afghanistan by penning "scholarly" pieces painting Hazaras as stewards of their destiny through power they shared with Pashtuns and others. In his interviews, he described Afghanistan as the safest place for Hazaras, ignoring the ongoing genocidal violence. 

In the following interview with ABC Radio, Amin Saikal clearly proposed and justified the expulsion of the Hazara immigrants from Australia. 

You can listen to his interview with Alexandra Kirk but here is the transcript:

ELEANOR HALL: Last night's arrival of two more boatloads of asylum seekers will see the Federal Government overtake a record that had been held by the Howard government.

Labor now presides over the largest annual intake of asylum seekers arriving by boat with the number of arrivals so far this year coming in at 5,547.

The Government says it expects that a higher proportion of Sri Lankan and Afghan refugee claims will now be rejected, arguing that conditions in those two countries have improved.

But Professor Amin Saikal who heads the Centre for Arab and Islamic Studies at the Australian National University told Alexandra Kirk that the measures used to judge whether Afghans should be granted refugee status are too restrictive.

AMIN SAIKAL: Well I think their information by and large is correct. And I think it does provide justification for some of the Government policies.

But what I'm really concerned about is specifically in relation to the status of Hazara because the bulk of the asylum seekers who have come to Australia are made up of people from the Shi'ite sect of Islam in Afghanistan which constitutes about 15 to 20 per cent of the population.

And as far as I understand that the situation is not as desperate for the Hazara population of Afghanistan or for that matter the Shi'ite population of Afghanistan these days as it has been in the past, particularly when the Taliban was ruling the country.

ALEXANDRA KIRK: So what's your concern then?

AMIN SAIKAL: My concern now is that that situation of the Hazaras are pretty much the same as many other groups in their country. And in fact I think the Hazaras are having better security and more stability in the areas where they are concentrated, than has been the case in the past.

I think it singles out the Hazaras as fairly deprived in this group. And what I'm basically trying to say that while that has been really the case in the past, but I think in the current situation in Afghanistan the standing of the Hazaras has improved in the sense that they do have a share in the power structure in the country and they have a share in the running of the government.

And the areas where they are concentrated, that is central Afghanistan and western Afghanistan, is relatively the most peaceful and secure areas in the country.

And of course the governor of Bamiyan who herself is a Hazara and the first woman to become a governor in the history of Afghanistan has important plans, not only for a cultural development but also building a new city for the Hazaras.

And the New Zealanders have deployed their troops and have done a very good job and provincial reconstruction team that they are running.

ALEXANDRA KIRK: Are you saying that it would be safer to return Hazaras to a number of areas in Afghanistan, safer than the guide suggests?

AMIN SAIKAL: I think there is going to be no impediment as far as I can see for the return of the Hazaras to Afghanistan provided that they are, and they are willing to return to their areas where there is concentration of the Hazaras, areas that is in central Afghanistan and western Afghanistan. And those areas are fairly safe.

Of course if you do return the Hazaras to the southern and eastern province of Afghanistan which is the hotbed of fighting between the Taliban and government forces and their international supporters, then obviously their life would be more in danger.

ALEXANDRA KIRK: So you don't think that Hazaras returning to areas where Hazaras are in a majority would face persecution?

AMIN SAIKAL: I don't think so for a minute that that would really happen.

ALEXANDRA KIRK: You think then that the guide is too conservative when it comes to you know whether it's safe for Hazaras to return there, to some areas of Afghanistan?

AMIN SAIKAL: I think that is very, that is the case to a considerable extent. And if Hazaras if returned to provinces where the Hazaras form the majority I think they can feel very safe.

And at the same time you are not going to really suffer any more than many other peoples in Afghanistan who are living, other ethnic groups or sectarian groups who are living in different parts of the country apart from the south and eastern Afghanistan, which is basically where the fighting is concentrated.

ELEANOR HALL: That's Professor Amin Saikal from the ANU's Centre for Arab and Islamic Studies speaking to Alexandra Kirk in Canberra.

In one part, Amin Saikal states that Hazaras in Afghanistan never face problems and could be sent back, particularly to areas where most Hazaras live, such as Hazarajat. He claims there are "areas where there is the concentration of the Hazaras, areas that are in central Afghanistan and western Afghanistan,"  which is a prescription for the expulsion of the Hazaras in Afghanistan.

"I think it’s clear that these are baseless claims. He is perhaps overwhelmed by his prejudice against the Hazara people," Ahmad, his high school classmate, said. 

"He is bitter and mean," Ahmad said, explaining that in high school, he disliked students who performed better than him. "On many occasions, he fought with us. He could not control his anger," he added. 

In 2013, at a conference on Afghanistan in New York, while delivering a presentation by a PhD on the condition of the Hazaras, Amin Saikal stood up from the audience and began shouting, questioning the findings of the student and accusing her of spreading false information. "Stop it! The Hazaras have no problems in Afghanistan." He shouted and did not allow the student to finish her presentation. She wept right there on the stage.

Amin Saikal even propagated the idea that the Hazara refugees were fraudsters because he believed they were Pakistanis. One immigration caseworker wrote on his Facebook page that Mahmoud Saikal, Amin Saikal's brother, who was Afghanistan's ambassador to Australia at the time, once said that he labeled Hazaras as "imposters," claiming they were all actually Pakistanis.

It is known that immigrants bring their pre-existing social and cultural experiences and perspectives with them. In the State of California, in Silicon Valley, the caste system has been practiced by Indians, which is a practice that was recently outlawed by the state. Seattle was the first city to ban case practice. 

In the past several years and during my fieldwork, I came across individuals who said they were discriminated against at the resettlement agencies when the caseworkers were non-Hazaras. So, just like Indians, Afghans/Pashtuns, and Tajiks, individuals like Amin Saikal bring their caste-based discrimination and ethnic prejudices with them to Australia, Europe, and America. 

In the United States, I have documented numerous cases in which Hazaras have been discriminated against by Pashtun and Tajik immigrants and refugees. In the next blog post, I will write about his journal article on the state of the Hazara people in Afghanistan. He basically penned everything he said in the interview and turned it into a journal article, which shamefully paints Afghanistan as the safest place for Hazaras. It was a blueprint for Hazaras' expulsion from Australia.

Note: I initially explored the topic discussed above in 2023 in a series of blog posts on my Farsi blog, which I'm linking here. 

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