As of next week, thousands of Afghan immigrants could be deported from the United States.

Some of these Afghans had helped the U.S. military, either directly or indirectly, during the war in Afghanistan.

Others were instrumental in human rights work,

or they worked for the country's U.S.-backed government.

But then came August 15, 2021.

That's the day Afghanistan's fragile government fell,

and the U.S. left suddenly in a chaotic withdrawal.

As U.S. forces were withdrawing, the Taliban swept back into Kabul and had took control

of the capital city while U.S. forces were still at the airport.

And that set off a massive panic.

Abby Hausluner is a national security reporter.

She says that this panic was especially acute for these Afghans who had helped the Americans

or supported their causes.

They knew they'd be the main targets of the Taliban.

Many of them were supposed to have special immigrant visas to come to the U.S. You had people who were eligible for these visas, former interpreters, people who had been

waiting and waiting and didn't have these visas yet.

There were people who had the visas in hand where, you know, had yet to actually have a flight

scheduled.

There were various other people who worked for the Afghan government or the Afghan military or NGOs or whatever who were terrified of the Taliban.

And all of these people together tried to get into the airport.

It was chaos.

Hanifa Gerwal was one of them.

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