![]() He's a resident of Goodwin House, belongs to Christ Church and spent a career in foreign service. He has a safe life in Virginia, going to school and working a decent job at Goodwin House's front desk, welcoming a community that has been so welcoming to him. ![]() He talks with his family frequently and sends them money when he can. He needs one more credit to get his diploma and then he's planning to study computer programming at Northern Virginia Community College, paid for with a scholarship from his high school. BH's application for asylum was accepted and he's on his way to becoming a permanent resident. Thousands of them struggle with English and have only temporary work permits. On paper, BH is luckier than most Afghans in the U.S. But the new bill would include additional screening, and advocates say it mirrors a similar effort in the 1970s to help refugees settle permanently in the U.S. Still, a report by the inspector general for the Department of Homeland Security found that some Afghans who made it to the United States were not fully vetted, because of inaccurate or incomplete information supplied by the evacuees. when they lacked documentation or were suspected of crimes. ![]() officials who point out that dozens of Afghans were not allowed into the U.S. Some Republicans argue that the Afghans who arrived here were not carefully vetted, a view dismissed by U.S. It has bipartisan support but it's languishing in Congress. And yet he does." "Hello, how can I help you?"Ī bill in Congress called the Afghan Adjustment Act would speed permanent residency for the tens of thousands who were airlifted from Kabul International Airport. And when I see that, I can't imagine how you go to school the next day. "I mean, he has sent me pictures of a brother who's been stabbed. I mean, he has sent me pictures of a brother who's been stabbed. But most of the money the church raises still goes to rental assistance. Some of the Afghans end up moving to the distant suburbs, where the rent is cheaper. Many of the refugees were interpreters for the Americans in Afghanistan because the pay was good. The members have been trying to help the new Afghan refugees, thousands of whom have stayed in the Washington area. When a teacher found out he lived alone and was financially strapped, the school staff reached out to Christ Church in Alexandria, a church founded in the 1700s whose parishioners included George Washington. He studied hard and worked, doing odd jobs, not able to socialize much. He got an apartment and enrolled at Alexandria City High School as a junior. And the refugees got three months of financial assistance. The State Department offered counseling help for jobs and education. So BH flew back to Dulles Airport in Virginia. "Then I found out about Virginia, it has a good education system. It's a good place.' And I said 'I don't have any relatives here,' " BH says. "Everybody in the camp had a relative in the U.S. ![]() There, he finally reached his mother on the phone back in Kabul. The plane arrived in Doha, Qatar, the first leg of a flight to the U.S. He had only the clothes he wore and his papers. He soon found himself on the floor of a massive C-130 aircraft packed with refugee families. "I called them several times and no one was answering because there was a crowd and no one heard the phone ring," BH says. The rest of his family was nowhere to be seen. When he presented his documents to an American soldier, he was ushered through. BH was separated from his family in the crowd and ended up at the gate. In the crush of thousands of terrified Afghans, some were trampled to death. "Everyone was afraid." BH says he was scared, too. "Everyone was pushing each other and they didn't, you know, care about old people and children," he recalls. BH remembers the last time he saw them, 10 of them - parents, a grandmother, brothers, nephews and his uncle - clutching their documents and pressing through a desperate crowd at Kabul International Airport, trying to board planes as the Taliban swept into the city. militaries, making the whole family suspect.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |