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During the summer of 2021, Azita Jawady and Hamid Sadra, a youthful, adoring couple residing in Mazar-e Sharif, Afghanistan, were eagerly anticipating the arrival of their first child. They felt optimistic about both their personal future and the prospects of their nation. Despite enduring decades of conflict, Afghanistan appeared to be progressing towards a brighter path.
At least in urban areas, women could attend school and university, enter the workforce and participate in public life. Jawady believed this was a lasting transformation since the end of the first Taliban regime in 2001.
Jawady expressed, “Over the course of two decades, we dedicated ourselves to building a prosperous Afghanistan. Our society was open-minded, embracing social activities like dining out and collaborating with men. The idea of Afghanistan regressing never crossed our minds.”
But on Aug. 15, 2021, their lives changed in an instant. Two weeks before the U.S. military ended its 20-year presence in Afghanistan, the Taliban took control of Kabul and the country. Jawady, Sadra and many others didn’t expect it to happen so quickly — if at all.
Tens of thousands of Afghans who had worked for the U.S. government or other Western entities were now at risk. That included Jawady, who was a social worker for the U.S. Agency for International Development, and Sadra, who worked for ArtLords, an Afghan artist-activist group that had done work for the U.S. Embassy and painted murals with themes of peace, health and human rights on the blast walls that protected buildings from bombs across Afghanistan — themes that conflicted with the Taliban’s stringent rules against behavior considered un-Islamic.
Speaking English posed a significant risk, as proven by an incident at a security checkpoint where a Taliban fighter inquired about Sadra’s occupation in English. Sensing that he was being assessed, Sadra feigned ignorance, unwilling to engage.
He confessed, “I was truly terrified, my entire body trembling uncontrollably. I remained silent.”
They feared for their lives, and for the life of their unborn son, and fled the country on Dec. 1, 2021, on a flight arranged by nongovernmental organizations including Sadra’s employer. After staying at a military base for a month in Qatar — where Jawady was treated for Bell’s palsy, a partial facial paralysis, usually temporary, that she thinks was triggered by stress — they were sent to a U.S. Army base in New Jersey, then to Green Bay, Wisconsin, and finally arrived in Austin in February 2022.
More than 97,000 Afghans have come to the United States since the Afghan government collapsed in 2021, according to a U.S. State Department spokesperson. Federal data indicates at least 3,800 Afghans came to Texas as refugees or with special immigrant visas during that time.
Texas has welcomed a minimum of 17,000 Afghan refugees and individuals with special immigrant visas since fiscal year 2010. However, California holds the highest record, as it has received at least 40,000 Afghan arrivals during the same period.
Texas has long been one of the top states for refugee resettlement in the country. Almost 220,000 refugees arrived in the state between 1980, when the U.S. Refugee Resettlement Program began, and 2018, according to research conducted by Germany’s Georg-August-Universität-Göttingen and the University of Western Australia.
The majority of the latest Afghan refugees have been granted entry into the United States through humanitarian parole. This provision allows individuals who are experiencing an urgent humanitarian crisis to temporarily reside in the country. Although they do not receive green cards or permanent residency, commonly known as green cards, they are entitled to public benefits and can also request temporary work permits.
Afghan parolees are granted a maximum of four years to either find a permanent solution to remain in the country or depart once their parole ends. The Afghan Special Immigrant Visa, commonly known as SIV, is the most viable pathway for obtaining a green card. Individuals who have worked for the U.S. government in Afghanistan for a minimum of one year, along with their spouses and children, qualify for this visa. Numerous SIV applicants have served as interpreters for the U.S. military.
In 2021, the Department of Homeland Security estimated that more than 40% of Afghan parolees were eligible for SIVs because of their previous work with the U.S. government. But what should be a minimum nine-month visa process is currently taking at least 10 months to navigate, and has climbed to as much as 33 months in recent years.
The State Department has historically been slow to process SIVs, but it became a crisis when thousands of Afghans eligible for those visas arrived in the United States after the fall of Kabul. The State Department was understaffed and reported receiving “hundreds of thousands of emails” between August 2021 and October 2021. It took at least a year to clear the backlog of inquiries.
Currently, Jawady and Sadra are prioritizing their attention towards things within their control. This encompasses adapting to their new life as refugees in Austin, where they reside in an apartment located approximately 15 miles north of downtown, alongside their 1-year-old son Qmars. Qmars is a calm and adorable boy with fluffy spikes of dark hair.
Sadra, an artist from Afghanistan, transitioned from working at an online retailer’s fulfillment center to becoming a technician specializing in testing building materials for construction sites. Adjusting to life in Austin and grappling with the city’s exorbitant living expenses, Sadra developed a strong work ethic and became a workaholic. Meanwhile, Jawady dedicates her time to tutoring English to fellow Afghan refugees and educating them about accessing healthcare services in Texas through a nonprofit organization.
Trying to navigate the complex web of federal, state, and local organizations responsible for providing assistance with healthcare, food, housing, and even baby supplies like diapers and formula for their son has been an overwhelming and disorienting ordeal.
Jawady expressed her belief that American people might have unique advantages for babies, possibly through the assistance of nurses. She explained that being a first-time mother had proven to be quite challenging for her. She noted that in America, there were high expectations, but the reality was distinct from what she had anticipated.
Their immigration status is a constant concern for them. Jawady submitted an SIV application and has received no communication from immigration authorities since four months ago, when they informed her that her case was in the initial stage. Sadra, on the other hand, is not eligible for an SIV as he did not have official employment with the U.S. government. Consequently, he applied for asylum in April.
Receiving asylum gives someone temporary permission to stay in the United States and the ability to apply for a green card after a year. The best-case scenario for the family would be that Jawady receives an SIV, which would cover Sadra and Qmars too.
Felix Villalobos, an attorney representing RAICES, an organization that offers free and affordable legal assistance to immigrants and refugees, reported a significant influx of Afghan individuals in Texas following the fall of Kabul. In response to this surge, Villalobos established a rapid response team to provide guidance to Afghan families, primarily focusing on special immigrant visas and asylum. He approximates that RAICES has already assisted around 400 Afghan refugees in San Antonio alone, where the organization is based.
Villalobos expressed that the work required a significant amount of time. He acknowledged that the individuals involved were not to blame and were currently grappling with the fact that they found themselves in a foreign country. Additionally, they faced the possibility of losing their legal status in the coming months and were desperately searching for a solution to remain because returning was not an option for them.
A system under stress
Refugees in Texas face difficulty in accessing free or affordable legal assistance, depriving them of the best opportunity for a favorable decision in their case. Collaborating with an immigration attorney could significantly improve their chances, but limited financial resources pose a significant barrier.
Villalobos is a rare find in the field of law. With time running out, he is striving to complete approximately 200 applications for Temporary Protected Status (TPS) in the upcoming months. As his clients’ parole status approaches expiration, he aims to secure their protection against deportation. TPS serves as a safeguard for individuals hailing from countries deemed unsafe by the U.S., granting them temporary respite from removal. While TPS recipients are authorized to work on a temporary basis, they are not entitled to public benefits, unlike those granted parole.
He is not convinced that the process of extending his clients’ parole for two more years will be smooth or in their best interests, even though they are now eligible for it.
Helping Afghan clients over the last year and a half has been unnerving for Villalobos and others. Getting official documents out of Afghanistan can be difficult to impossible since its government fell to Taliban rule and its president fled the country.
Khalil Arab, a refugee advocate based in Houston, highlights that Afghan refugees who lack solid documentation are highly unlikely to receive visas. Arab himself, an Afghan refugee, obtained his special immigrant visa in 2019 after serving as an interpreter for the U.S. military and coalition forces for five years.
According to Villalobos, he asserts that all his clients, even those who have put their lives on the line supporting the military in prison camps, undertaking black ops missions, or facing the Taliban, are qualified for an SIV. He emphasizes that failing to receive a visa after everything they have gone through would be an immense betrayal.
He mentioned that they all had the belief that upon reaching the United States, they would receive their green cards. This belief stemmed from the fact that they would have typically completed the SIV application process before leaving Afghanistan and obtained their green cards upon arrival. However, it took them a considerable amount of time to comprehend and realize that this was no longer the situation.
They have also arrived when the U.S. refugee safety net is badly frayed. The Trump administration drastically reduced the number of refugees allowed into the United States for several years — from 110,000 when Donald Trump took office to 18,000 in 2020. The Biden administration has since raised the limit to 125,000 for fiscal year 2023. But the effects of the previous cuts linger because less federal funding had been flowing to agencies and to the system as a whole.
Ian Kysel, an expert in migration and refugee law and a professor at Cornell Law School, says that created a vicious cycle starting with the federal government ending contracts or cutting off support to some organizations — “starving” the resettlement system, according to a 2020 Migration Policy Institute report — which caused those organizations to lay off workers and limited how many refugees they could work with at a time.
In the aftermath of the funding reductions, the prominent refugee resettlement agency in Texas, known as Refugee Services of Texas, faced a devastating downfall. The organization disclosed a deficit in their budget in March, leading to the implementation of staff reductions and closure of certain offices in early May. Unfortunately, on May 26, it was declared that the agency would be shutting down entirely. Throughout the past seven months, this agency had diligently assisted nearly 1,000 refugees across its seven office locations in Texas.
The system was unable to handle the sudden increase in demand, particularly for specialized assistance like Pashto or Dari interpreters, when Kabul was captured by the Taliban.
In 2022, Khaleemullah Ghazi, an Afghan refugee who had previously worked as an interpreter for U.S. Special Forces and was resettled in Austin after fleeing his country in August 2021, found employment at a Texas resettlement agency. However, he expressed concern over the low compensation for caseworkers, particularly considering the valuable skills required for the job.
Ghazi mentioned that even individuals proficient in three or four languages are only receiving a wage of $16 or $17 per hour. Additionally, each person is burdened with more than 15 or 20 cases, leading to an overwhelming workload for everyone.
The refugees are receiving support from various allies who are dedicated to assisting them. A Houston-based veterans organization called Combined Arms has taken the initiative to advocate for Congress to pass legislation that aims to simplify the Afghan immigration process.
Khalil Arab, the Houston refugee advocate and employee of Combined Arms, emphasized that the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan has stirred strong emotions among veterans, causing what can be described as a profound “moral injury”.
Arab stated that many of them had abandoned their fellow soldiers. Numerous individuals among them witnessed their interpreters or colleagues enduring suffering and going into hiding, while some even experienced the loss of a family member at the hands of the Taliban. Therefore, the anticipation is to offer them a route to legal residency and, ultimately, citizenship.
Still waiting
In approximately seven months, Jawady and Sadra’s humanitarian parole will come to an end. Ideally, within this timeframe, Sadra’s asylum should be granted approval and Jawady’s SIV application should be completed.
But neither is certain.
The good news for Jawady is that processing time for the visas dropped significantly at the end of last year. The bad news is that the recent end of Title 42, a public health order that went into effect at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic and allowed border officials to swiftly deport people who had crossed the U.S. border illegally, could delay refugee processing. Villalobos of RAICES said he’s already seeing the effects.
On May 11, Villalobos expressed that USCIS has prioritized allocating resources to the border, resulting in the cancellation of asylum interviews for our clients. Despite having multiple clients scheduled for interviews next week, they were all abruptly cancelled on the last day of Title 42’s implementation.
However, despite all the hardships his family has endured since leaving Afghanistan, Sadra remains optimistic.
He declared, “There is one thing I have complete faith in: America is extremely, extremely, extremely compliant with the law.”
Sadra appeared unsettled by the closure of Refugee Services of Texas. The presence of a lawyer from the organization had been instrumental in guiding them through the system, and now they were forced to begin anew with another agency. This change had the potential to further prolong processes such as renewing his work permit.
Sadra admitted, “To be honest, we’re not optimistic about it, but we’re left with no alternative.”
In a recent press release, Refugee Services of Texas announced that the management of all their Austin cases will be handed over to Episcopal Migration Ministries.
One thing keeping Jawady and Sadra grounded is their close ties to family and friends in Afghanistan. But they also feel responsible for them. They were the lucky ones who got out, and they worry about their loved ones’ well-being given the damage to Afghanistan’s economy since the U.S. withdrawal. Sadra feels obligated to send money back home.
Sadra emphasized the need to support Afghanistan, as the collapse of the nation resulted in a decline of jobs, education, income, and overall financial stability.
Even now, they continue to bear the burden of witnessing their country’s sudden transformation. Jawady mourns for the girls who are denied the opportunity to receive an education or pursue employment, just as she once did. To an external observer, Jawady’s new roles as a tutor and healthcare advocate for refugees may appear as quiet acts of rebellion against the Taliban regime.
Jawady expressed the immense difficulty faced by all of us, as tears flow in response to the hardships endured by Afghans over the past few years.
After a short while, she recited the Persian rendition of the proverb, “Even this shall pass.”
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