Lynden’s newest residents sacrificed everything for a peaceful life.
Ahmad Hamrah and Tahmina Zalmai worked for the U.S. embassy in Afghanistan prior to the Taliban’s return to power in 2021. After years on the run under threat of murder for cooperating with the United States, the two have found a place to stay in Lynden. Unable to get approval in a humanitarian parole case for their baby, who was born during the pending case, the couple’s newborn remains over 6,000 miles away.
Now, Hamrah and Zalmai wait, unsure if they can seek asylum under President Donald Trump’s new policies, worried their baby will grow up without knowing her parents.
When the Taliban regained power in August 2021, the U.S. Army set up an evacuation process inside Kabul, operating five gates of the airport. Unfortunately, just 124,000 people made the cut before the withdrawal deadline. Hamrah said he believes these were mostly people with familial connections or bribes.
Hamrah and Zalmai had received notice that they could go to the airport and evacuate, but they were stopped at the gate.
“It was like zombie movies,” Hamrah said. “Everyone was attacking the door.”
Eventually, an explosion went off from a lone ISIS-K suicide attack at one of the gates, and the security began firing into the crowd.
The incident stranded the couple in Kabul.
“We had no future,” Hamrah said, “and we were really afraid of living in Afghanistan because we knew if Taliban (caught) us, they will kill us because we cooperated with the U.S. Army.”
Living on the run
Out of options, the couple went undercover, moving from province to province, living with friends and relatives. A relative helped them attain a visa for Pakistan, and Hamrah and Zalmai moved in November 2022. They stayed there, waiting for their humanitarian parole cases, granted to people who have no other legal way to enter the United States and who meet criteria for urgent humanitarian reasons, to receive a U.S. visa.
With little income and having to extend the visa every three months, “We started a very hard life in Pakistan,” Hamrah said.
Daily temperatures rose above 110 degrees, he said, and their home had no air conditioning. After a year, they found out Zalmai was pregnant.
Two weeks after the baby, Liya, was born, Hamrah and Zalmai interviewed for their humanitarian parole case to go to the United States. Finally, they received the approval they’d been seeking. However, Liya did not.
“I told them that our baby is like two weeks, and she doesn’t have anything,” Hamrah said. “There’s no one to keep her. Our family, our relatives, so what should we do with the baby?”
The couple was given two options — go to the United States and fill out the application for the baby to follow suit in a month or wait two years and travel together.
Unable to earn enough income in Pakistan to support the family, Hamrah decided to take a chance. It took many tears and long conversations, he said, but their neighbor in Pakistan agreed to provide her home until Liya could make it to the United States.
And so, Hamrah and Zalmai set off for Washington, D.C., in October 2024. When they landed in Seattle, one more problem arose — they were in the wrong Washington.
With no connections and just $200, Hamrah and Zalmai approached an Afghani man who was hauling a cart of suitcases at the airport. They talked for 30 minutes, and the man offered for them to stay at his house, telling them it is far from Seattle.
When he clocked out of work, the man drove Hamrah and Zalmai to his home in Ferndale. They ended up staying there for 23 days until the man’s daughter returned and needed her room.
From there, the two went to Whatcom New Life Assembly in Ferndale, where church leaders connected the couple with Jeremy Durrough, director of Lynden’s Racial Unity Now activist organization.
With very little governmental support, the two relied on the good will of the community.
“We came through humanitarian parole case, so no help was for parole cases, only food stamps,” Hamrah said. “We had food stamps. That’s it. No housing. We didn’t even have the opportunity to work because our Social Security was non-work, so we had to apply for the work permits separately.”
A family divided
Finding refuge at the home of a community member facilitated by Racial Unity Now, the couple applied for work permits and tried to bring their daughter home, finding more delays.
“I tried every single option,” he said. “I make like daily 10–15 emails to (U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services) through the parole cases to people I know here, all the contacts I have, so we can make a way to bring her.”
Each passing day brought more worry and frustration.
“It doesn’t have to take long for a newborn baby,” he said. “She doesn’t have anything for background check. She’s not able for interview, nothing, so why it takes so long?”
As time went on, Hamrah and Zalmai grew more depressed, knowing the baby was not in the best of hands. That’s when Racial Unity Now began raising money for a Pakistan visa for Hamrah’s sister-in-law to move and take care of Liya.
“That was a release for us from depression and all those things,” he said. “We were happy because we see our baby through Zoom.”
‘We better try to do something’
For Ron Polinder, founder of Racial Unity Now, this wasn’t the first time somebody had come to his door seeking help.
“Once we heard that story we said, ‘wow, we better try to do something’,” Polinder said. “First of all, we (the U.S.) didn’t live up to our promises. But then the question is when they come here, how are we going to treat them? They risked their lives for us. Now, do we have a sense of hospitality and so forth that we’re going to welcome people, the stranger? The Bible says a lot about the stranger within our gates and the alien and so forth, and we take our faith seriously. We got to roll up our sleeves and get at it.”
Zalmai spends her nights talking to Liya, Hamrah said.
“She always cries,” he said. “We are just focusing on our baby because when we moved here, as I mentioned before, she was two weeks. Now she’s like five months and going to be six months. Now she knows everything. She knows my sister-in-law. If she gets one year, she doesn’t know us.”
Zalmai does not speak English and is unable to work yet, while Hamrah finds odd jobs in Lynden to remain upright. Unable to afford rent, they continue to move homes, staying with generous community members.
“The paycheck I get, it goes to my sister in Pakistan,” he said. “It goes for my baby needs. It goes for my family in Afghanistan. It goes for (Zalmai’s) family in Afghanistan, and still we are not in a position to have our own apartment or to run things by our own. It takes time, especially when you have a situation like this. Sometimes I feel like giving up, but that’s not the option. I know I have to be strong.”
An interview for asylum will not be scheduled until around August, Hamrah said. Despite being legal in the United States through the humanitarian parole case, he feels uncertain about their asylum case with the changes in federal policies since they’ve arrived.
Despite their difficulties here, Hamrah looks to his future in the United States. Since 2021, the Taliban has stopped retirement funds for people who worked for the previous government. Women are restricted from school and work.
“They provided a situation like put you in a cage and you have no way to go out and then find whatever you can eat,” he said, “so that’s impossible for people.”
Under the new rule, women are banned from going to many public places. Even if Hamrah and Zalmai receive green cards and an American passport, they won’t be able to return to Afghanistan to see their families, Hamrah said.
“There are no dreams in Afghanistan,” he said. “People stop dreaming anything to become a doctor, an engineer, especially for girls.”
Once Hamrah and Zalmai are back on their feet, they plan on calling Lynden home.
“This is the best place for us, and this is one of the quietest place to live peacefully,” Hamrah said. “Very kind people, so I just want to settle here, just get a good job and do our lives here.”
— By Sam Fletcher
Also read in Salish Current:
• “Permission to work boosts local refugees in resettlement,” Jan. 13, 2023
• “Refugee resettlement in Whatcom works to meet growing needs,” April 1, 2022