Still Waiting
I was really hoping to have good news to share with you today. Roshan and family should have the documents they need to get on one of the military planes to the US. Same with Isa and his family. But neither could reach the airport today because of Taliban fighters preventing them from getting to the airport.
We have been getting wonderful support from Susan Wild’s office and Bob Casey Jr’s office. We also have two immigration lawyers who are in regular communication with updates and suggestions.
I am continuing to assist several of our “nephews” to complete the paperwork to help get their families to safety. And we are trying to get a way out for friends of Arif who qualify for the Special Immigrant Visa program, and for Arif’s brother and sisters who are in limbo in Kabul, and for Hedayat’s mother and siblings stuck in Kabul. If these people could make it to another country, we could help them from there, but there are no safe ways out of the country except via the airport in Kabul.
Assuming that eventually they are able to get past the Taliban and into the airport, and onto an airplane to the US, we have no idea what happens next, but at least they will be safe.
Many people have asked about making a financial donation to help cover legal and transportation costs. Each application for Humanitarian Parole costs $575 – that is just the fee to submit the application with USCIS. The boys will be responsible to pay for whatever the government determines the cost of the flight to be for their families. I think usually that is around $2000 per person. Then there will be other fees for applying for asylum and eventually, we will want to start compensating the lawyers who have been so instrumental in helping us help the kids and their families. And of course, there will be the very happy expenses of finding places for them to live and getting them what they need to set up their new homes.
I am so looking forward to that! That will be the best problem to have.
