Sayed Sadat came to San Diego from Afghanistan on a special immigrant visa almost three years ago.
It’s a unique visa that the federal government offered to Afghan and Iraqi nationals who worked for the U.S. government during the wars in the Middle East. The visas are offered both to honor their service to the U.S. war effort, and also to protect them because they are now targeted in their home countries for their association with the U.S. military.
Sadat is among the approximately 200,000 Afghans who relocated to the U.S. through this visa program after the country fell to the Taliban following the U.S. withdrawal in 2021.
But Sadat’s father, who worked as a power plant operator with the U.S. military for more than a decade, is still stranded in Afghanistan.
“He is suffering from that service,” Sadat said.
Thanks to bureaucratic delays and Trump-era funding cuts to relocation programs, Sadat’s father and tens of thousands of other Afghans have yet to get out.
He was approved for a transfer to Qatar more than a year ago. But the Trump administration’s funding freeze to relocation providers has kept that transfer in limbo.
Sadat said neighbors back in Afghanistan know his father worked for the American government and that Sadat is living here now. Fear of being targeted by the Taliban keeps his father in a constant state of terror, he said.
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“He doesn’t go out,” Sadat said. “He stays home as much as he can.”
When he does leave the house, he rarely takes the same road twice and brings an extra set of clothes to change outfits. All to keep him from being followed, Sadat added.
A familiar story
After relocating to San Diego, Sadat found work as an immigration assistant for the Partnership for the Advancement of New Americans (PANA). The organization helps refugees and new immigrants adjust to life in San Diego.
PANA’s staff works with a lot of Afghan nationals in San Diego and said they’ve seen all of the different ways the Trump administration has tried to limit legal immigration from Afghanistan.
Maria Chavez, PANA’s immigration legal director, points to the cancelling of CBP One asylum appointments, eliminating Temporary Protected Status for people already in the U.S., shutting down the refugee program and resurrecting a travel ban that bars most Afghans from coming to the U.S.
“It goes to show that it was never really about ‘the right way,’” she said. “These are individuals who are following the rules.”
Chavez said eliminating various humanitarian parole programs for people who entered the country legally essentially creates a new group of unauthorized immigrants.
“They don’t know what to do,” she said.
PANA hosts know-your-rights workshops on a regular basis. But the rapid-fire nature of the administration’s policy changes creates a lot of confusion.
Chavez encouraged people impacted by these changes to reach out to immigration lawyers. But acknowledged that they may not be able to solve every problem.
“Even though we may not have all of the answers and we can’t necessarily protect you the way we used to be able to, we can at least help you navigate all of the constant changes,” she said.
More than anything, Chavez said it’s important for San Diego’s Afghan community to know that people here in San Diego have their backs.
“Things are scary, I get that. We are also afraid and feel hopeless at times,” she said. “But there’s a whole community of people here who are willing to fight for you and support you in any way that we can.”
