Bigger Than We Are

When Afghans first arrived in America after the U.S. evacuation of their country in 2021, Utah welcomed them. The state raised over a million dollars in a public-private partnership to help their new neighbors from Afghanistan rebuild their lives here. But the situation for immigrants - and for Afghans in particular - has changed. Among other developments, the federal government purchased a warehouse in Salt Lake City with capacity for 10,000 ICE detainees. Now, the Afghans who thought they had found a refuge in Utah are uncertain about their future. Stranger Becomes Neighbor documented the effort to resettle Afghans in a state that promised to be a welcoming community. This episode examines the latest efforts by citizens to try to prevent the detention and deportation of their neighbors.