Afghan couple in WA anxiously awaits reunion with infant they were forced to leave behind
Six months ago Liya Hamrah was born in Pakistan. Her parents, Ahmad Hamrah and Tahmina Zalmai, had migrated to Pakistan from Afghanistan two years earlier. Tahmina worked as a security guard with the U.S. Army before it withdrew from Afghanistan in 2021, and Ahmad worked as a reporter for Khurshid TV.
Once the Americans withdrew from Afghanistan, the couple was unable to immediately leave the country. They received death threats from the Taliban for their support of the U.S. and spent a year in hiding before securing permission to leave Afghanistan for Pakistan.
Their troubles didn’t end when they got to Pakistan, however. Ahmad said it was difficult to find work there that paid enough to support him and his wife as well as their other family still in Afghanistan. So Ahmad and Tahmina applied for asylum in the U.S. Their daughter, Liya, was born while they waited for a response, and two weeks after her birth the applications for parole by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services were approved.
Ahmad and Tahmina were told it was their only chance to get to the U.S. but that they weren’t allowed to bring their daughter with them since she hadn’t yet been born when the paperwork was filed and was not included in the application.
“I told my wife that we don’t have any choice,” Ahmad said.
They couldn’t return to Afghanistan, and Ahmad was convinced there was “no future for (them)” if they remained in Pakistan.
He said he was told by a person interviewing them at the U.S. Embassy in Pakistan that once he and his wife arrived in the U.S., they could fill out an application for Liya to be allowed to come as well, and the request should be approved in a month or two.
Four months later, Liya’s application is still under review. Her parents worry that they’re running out of time.
If Liya isn’t allowed to come to the U.S., she could be removed from the care of relatives in Pakistan and deported to Afghanistan. If Ahmad and Tahmina return, they face violence from the Taliban — and lose their chance at having a better life for their family in America.
Arrival in Whatcom County
The couple arrived in Washington without any family or resettlement resources.
The Lynden-based organization Racial Unity Now is helping to advocate for Liya’s approval to come to the U.S.
Executive Director Jeremy Dorrough said the couple happened to meet someone else from Afghanistan at the airport. They explained their situation to the man, Dorrough said, and he offered to let them stay with his family in Ferndale.
While they were in Whatcom County, Tahmina needed to see a doctor about a post-partum infection. A person with Racial Unity Now took her to a doctor, and the family has been working with the organization ever since. The couple currently resides in Lynden.
Racial Unity Now focuses on addressing and educating people about systemic racism and discrimination in the community. Dorrough said now, more than ever, such attitudes are being directed toward immigrants.
Dorrough and Racial Unity Now volunteers have been working to advocate on behalf of Liya, contacting representatives and senators in Washington, D.C., and asking them to expedite her case. The last update provided by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services states that the agency received the requested “evidence” for Liya’s case on Feb. 4.
A spokesperson for U.S. Sen. Patty Murray confirmed her office has been in contact with Liya’s family but could not provide additional information due to privacy concerns. U.S. Rep. Rick Larsen is also aware of outreach from community members, according to a spokesperson, and “shares their concern.” Larsen is prohibited by privacy rules from sharing information about an individual’s casework communications.
On Thursday, U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell informed Ahmad that U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services told her it pulled Liya’s case to expedite it after she inquired about it. She said the application was “tentatively approved,” and while she did not have a timeline for the next steps, is “hopeful it will be very soon. “
“Through every way we tried, nothing is working,” Ahmad said.
According to reporting from Reuters and the New York Times, President Donald Trump may soon be passing a new travel ban that could prevent people from Afghanistan and Pakistan from entering the U.S. Dorrough said this and other anti-immigration policies from the White House have been “escalating that sense of urgency” for Liya’s case.
Advocates and the family are asking community members to contact their representatives in Congress and ask them to help with Liya’s case. Racial Unity Now has posted a sample script for people to use when communicating with senators and representatives.
“It’s like (Liya’s) just another statistic,” Dorrough said.
Ahmad could not put into words what it would mean to be reunited with Liya.
If she was able to come to the U.S., he said, “that’s everything for us.”
Editor’s note: The video that accompanies this article is a Scripps News report from Jan. 22, 2025.
This story was originally published March 22, 2025 at 5:00 AM.