AMNA NAWAZ: Some 200,000 Afghans who were left behind during the Biden administration and its botched 2021 withdrawal have now been left in further limbo by the Trump administration's suspension of the refugee program.

Many fought alongside U.S. soldiers and received refugee visas last year, but they now fear they may never be allowed to come to the U.S. Nick Schifrin and producer Sonia Kopelev spoke to refugees hoping to fulfill an American dream they thought they'd been promised.

NICK SCHIFRIN: For nearly two decades, they fought, sacrificed and lived side by side with their American partners bound by a mutual mission, create a safe, smart Afghanistan, that dream now replaced by the nightmare of Taliban persecution.

What would happen if you were forced to go back to Afghanistan?

"MOHAMMED," Former Afghan Soldier: People like me, that they have a lot of information, especially work with the U.S. Special Forces, they are not going directly to kill them.

They are going to torture them, their family, their friends.

NICK SCHIFRIN: A man we will call Mohammed and keep anonymous was an Afghan Special Forces soldier who served with U.S. Green Berets from 2019 until the U.S.' 2021 withdrawal.

He filmed this video, their missions, often at night, always dangerous against a common enemy.

"MOHAMMED": We have been serving, fight shoulder by shoulder to each other for many years against the Taliban, al-Qaida and other terrorist groups in Afghanistan.

We lost a lot of our colleagues, 150 people that I personally knew them.

I'm so proud of what we did in Afghanistan for humanity and for freedom.

NICK SCHIFRIN: During the Biden administration's chaotic evacuation, Mohammed, like so many other Afghans, tried but failed to evacuate via Kabul's airport.

So he fled first to the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif, where he filmed these scenes, and then eight months later he walked across the border into Pakistan.

He wasn't eligible for the Special Immigrant Visa, so he applied for a P-2 refugee visa, and was approved in April 2024 through a program designed for Afghans left behind.

All that remained, the processing of his flight to his new American home.

MAN: To better align with American principles and American interests.

NICK SCHIFRIN: But, soon after inauguration, President Trump suspended the Refugee Admissions Program.

An executive order reads: "The U.S. lacks the ability to absorb large numbers of refugees in a manner that does not compromise the availability of resources for Americans, that protects their safety and security and that ensures the appropriate assimilation of refugees."

"MOHAMMED": We are not immigrants.

We are wartime allies.

And 20 years before, America, when came to Afghanistan, they promised to Afghan people that we are with you people and we are standing when no one should be left behind.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Those left behind, the Taliban have hunted mercilessly.

And now the Pakistani government has imprisoned Afghans living in the country, including entire families, and deported 40,000 back to Afghanistan.

"SAMIRA", Afghan Refugee in Pakistan (through translator): If I go back to Afghanistan, which is beyond my imagination, of course, the Taliban knows that I was cooperating with the U.S. government, and they might kill me.

NICK SCHIFRIN: A woman will call Samira is a human rights lawyer from northern Afghanistan who worked with the U.S. and foreign aid organizations to help the war's youngest victims.

She provided food, medicine and clothing.

After the Taliban takeover, she went into hiding before fleeing with her family to Pakistan.

"SAMIRA" (through translator): We sold our home, all our belongings and left our beloved country to save our lives and have stayed in Pakistan for the past three long years with a lot of hope and American promises, living without any income and suffering financially and emotionally here.

NICK SCHIFRIN: She too was approved for a P-2 refugee visa and was waiting for her flight, which means the dreams of her daughter are deferred.

Afghan children can't attend Pakistani public schools and Samira can't afford private school, so her daughter has not been able to study for three years.

"SAMIRA" (through translator): She cries every day and asks me to send her to school, but I keep promising her that soon we will go to the United States and you can continue your education in an American school.

I do not know how to explain to her my promises.

I really do not have any answer now.

SHAWN VANDIVER, Founder, AfghanEvac: The idea that the United States was helping get these folks to their American dream offered some level of protection, whether they were in Pakistan.

They were being allowed to exist there.

And now the Pakistani government has said, no, you got to get out by March 31 unless the United States picks up refugee processing again.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Shawn VanDiver is the chairman of AfghanEvac, a coalition of 250 organizations that worked with the Biden administration to resettle Afghans who worked with the U.S. SHAWN VANDIVER: Every one of these people is somebody who stood up for the idea of democracy.

Because of something that they did, they're at risk or something -- somebody in their immediate family did.

NICK SCHIFRIN: And many immediate families have been separated since the chaotic evacuation, awaiting a reunification they now fear may never come, including an Afghan woman we will call Zahra.

She worked for the U.S. military and says her family of four, two older kids, one younger son, has been cut in two.

ZAHRA, Afghan Refugee in America: We entered to the airport on August 17, which was two days after the fall of Kabul.

They told us that we don't need to bring any family members right now.

As a single mom, it was hard for me to believe that, but there was not any other choice.

But I couldn't leave my 4-year-old baby because I was breast-feeding him.

NICK SCHIFRIN: At the Kabul Airport, she spent days without food or water and was no longer able to breast-feed her 4-month-old son.

ZAHRA: When they saw the baby, they saw dehydrated, and me, and, like, walking with no shoes and stuff under the sun, they forced me to take a plane, forced to go to a second country, leaving my two other kids.

I have been promised that they will be reunited with me as soon as possible.

Now it has been almost four years.

And now I am struggling here with my almost-4-year-old baby.

He underwent a brain surgery.

He got a tumor resection on January 15.

And, for me, it's so hard to be alone, take care of my youngest son here, and being worried about my other two kids in Pakistan without any resolution.

NICK SCHIFRIN: And in the middle of that incalculable sacrifice, her father was executed by the Taliban.

Today, her children's refugee visas that had been approved are now blocked, and the sacrifice feels insurmountable.

ZAHRA: Handling the death of my father, separation of my two kids, struggling with a baby here alone without any support is just awful situation.

I would regret working with the -- for the United States government for all of my life.

NICK SCHIFRIN: An ally abandoned, an American promise broken.

For the "PBS News Hour," I'm Nick Schifrin.