Right now, refugees bound for the U.S. are stuck in transit after the State Department suspended its refugee program late yesterday due to an executive order signed by President Donald Trump on his first day in office. Among those impacted are the tens of thousands of Afghan refugees already vetted by the U.S. potentially separating families, including some here in North Texas, for an indefinite amount of time. A local advocate tells us he’s been flooded with calls over the last several days. That includes a father who was waiting for his wife and children to join him from Afghanistan and now doesn’t know when he’ll be able to see them again. Because of the threat of the Taliban, he was too nervous to share his story. So instead, that advocate shared his story on their behalf.   It’s been 18 years since Javed Nooriwal came to the U.S. as an Afghan refugee. A graduate of Kabul University, he was seeking opportunity. He went on to pursue two master’s degrees after settling in Texas. “We enjoy that life. The liberty, the happiness, the opportunity for growth, the opportunity for economics and everything,” said Javed Nooriwal. In 2021, when Kabul fell to the Taliban, Nooriwal found a role as a refugee rights activist, helping some of the tens of thousands fleeing persecution and seeking a better life. So this week, when President Donald Trump signed several executive orders on immigration that included suspending the U.S. Refugee Resettlement Program, Nooriwal’s phone began to ring. “Some from Qatar, some from Pakistan, some from Afghanistan, many calls from here in the community, what’s going to happen? Which I can’t really give them a good feeling or help with what’s going to happen because we don’t know,” he said. In a memo obtained by NBC News, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in part, “The era of mass migration must end. This department will no longer undertake any activities that facilitate or encourage it.” Nooriwal said he knows of more than 100 North Texans whose loved ones are now left in limbo, families separated with no end in sight.   “Afghans should be exempt from this process because they’re not illegals. They’ve gone through a significant amount of process. They have gone through very, very rigorous type of background check over the course of the past three and a half years,” he said.