They fled Afghanistan. In the US, they have freedom – but fear a return

After the fall of the Taliban, more than 21,000 Afghan evacuees submitted asylum applications; 3,100 were able to extend their temporary protected status through May 2025

Almost three years after Esmatullah Sultani rushed to Kabul's international airport, at the time besieged by Taliban forces who were seizing control of Afghanistan, the 24-year-old man walked into a busy neighborhood market near Sacramento, California.

Sultani greeted many of the stallholders, fellow Afghans, and ordered kebabs for lunch in Dari, a language spoken by more than 35 million people in Afghanistan.