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The Afghan refugee accused of carrying out the deadly attack on National Guard soldiers last week came from Bellingham. It's a small city in northern Washington state. Now people in the community fear Afghans living there could be targeted as part of the Trump administration's crackdown on Afghan migrants. NPR's Brian Mann reports.
BRIAN MANN, BYLINE: Any Pacific Northwest day, Jeremy Dorrough stands outside a coffee shop in Bellingham. He's an organizer with a volunteer group called Racial Unity Now that supports the city's small group of Afghan refugees.
JEREMY DORROUGH: I was a Christian, you know, in the Christian ministry. The Afghan community ended up falling to us a lot of the time, simply because there was nowhere else to turn.
MANN: Bellingham is a city of about a hundred thousand people. A cluster of Afghan families numbering in the dozens began arriving here in 2021, after the fall of Kabul. U.S. allies were evacuated from Afghanistan, vetted and offered a fresh start in America. Dorrough says getting them resettled in this northern coastal city has been tough.
DORROUGH: Small community agencies like ours have had to learn on the go.
MANN: Then came last week's violence when an Afghan national from Bellingham drove to Washington, D.C., and allegedly opened fire on two National Guard soldiers. In the wake of the attack, President Trump froze all Afghan refugee claims and ordered a reexamination of Afghans living in the U.S. legally. Dorrough says Afghan families here in Bellingham are in shock.
DORROUGH: Overwhelming fear - they're constantly looking out the window. Are they coming for me tonight? You know, am I next?
MANN: Because of that fear, NPR's efforts to speak directly with Afghan families here were unsuccessful. The local mosques sent NPR a statement asking for privacy and distancing their faith community from Rahmanullah Lakanwal. He's the 29-year-old Afghan who worked with the CIA in Afghanistan, who is now accused of killing one guard member and seriously wounding another. He's pleaded not guilty. NPR was able to reach an Afghan organizer based in Washington State - Mohamed (ph) - who's helping refugees resettle.
MOHAMED: All they are doing is stressing. They are worrying, and they are living in a desperate situation. I receive a lot of messages from them.
MANN: Mohamed, a former interpreter for the U.S. military, agreed to be interviewed only if NPR identified him by his first name alone. He fears losing his own legal status in the U.S. and fears retribution against family members still living in Afghanistan. Mohamed says many Afghan refugees here in Washington state were already struggling to find housing and jobs while learning a new language and acclimating to a different culture.
MOHAMED: They need help with a lot of the basic needs, which is stressing them a lot.
MANN: Jeremy Dorrough says despite years of work and sacrifice as U.S. allies, many Afghan refugees who came to Bellingham were left to sink or swim.
DORROUGH: And we can either abandon them, or we can help them. So we need to help them.
MANN: Some in Bellingham who worked closely with the Afghan refugees say they're even more vulnerable now. Gabriel Harrison is an immigration attorney who represents many of the community's Afghan families.
GABRIEL HARRISON: Universally, the feeling was fear. What will happen to me? What will happen to my family? What will happen to our cases? Are we going to be detained?
MANN: In statements after the shooting in D.C., Trump has questioned whether Afghan refugees contribute in positive ways to American life. But Harrison says most people in Bellingham do see these families as an important part of the community.
HARRISON: They've all been humble, kind, educated people. You know, in asking them, what do they want people to know about their situation was we're not violent. We're not a violent people.
MANN: That view is shared by Skyler Anderson (ph). He and his family are neighbors to the Lakanwal family in the apartment building where federal agents carried out a raid last week.
SKYLER ANDERSON: I mean, their kids were always outside playing soccer and whatnot in the stairwells - never any yelling, screaming or nothing from their apartment.
MANN: Anderson says if Lakanwal himself is guilty of shooting the two guard members, he should be punished. Asked about Trump's crackdown on all Afghans in Bellingham and around the country, Anderson shakes his head and says, I don't think we should deport everybody. Brian Mann, NPR News, Bellingham, Washington. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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