Swalwell Offers Helping Hand to Afghan Families
From left, Afghan Coalition Executive Director Rona Popal, coalition member Harris Mojadedi and Rep. Eric Swalwell at Friday's press conference in Fremont on getting help to Afghanis and Americans trying to leave Afghanistan. The Afghan flag is at right.
Representative Eric Swalwell’s office is ready to help people get loved ones out of Afghanistan now that the country has fallen to extremist Taliban insurgents, the Congressman told a virtual town hall this past Friday.
He called on the US government to make that exit easier, especially for those who had already applied for visas to come to the US but are now stuck in Kabul airport while they are processed.
“An airport with crying kids is a terrible place to process paperwork,” Swalwell noted.
Afghans and Americans fleeing Afghanistan should be evacuated first and fill out official forms in safety later, Rep. Swalwell said.
“Don’t leave people on the ground because they didn’t check all the boxes,” Swalwell pleaded at a Fremont press conference preceding the town hall. “One box we keep hearing about is a letter for a recommendation from someone you aided on the battlefield,” he said. Not everybody arrived at Kabul airport past Taliban checkpoints with that or other documents firmly in hand, Swalwell added.
Especially at danger are people who worked with the US military, often as interpreters, or with other US agencies there, said Harris Mojadedi, a member of the Afghan Coalition community group. Many of those people have family members in Fremont, the largest Afghan American community in the US, or elsewhere in the Bay area and western states, he added.
Dozens of people with families trapped in Afghanistan wait in line to get assistance from Congressman Eric Swalwell's office.
People had lined up outside Swalwell’s Castro Valley office right after the fall of Kabul last week, despite it being closed for COVID-19, seeking help getting family members out. Some came from as far away as Utah, and many from the Sacramento area, according to an office staff member.
Swalwell told the press conference that many of the people fleeing Kabul, and waiting for flights out of the airport, are American citizens or US permanent residents (green card holders.). He vowed all the help his office could give to get them safely home.
Swalwell is a Democrat who represents the 15th Congressional District, which includes Castro Valley, Hayward, Union City, Newark, Fremont, and the Tri-Valley. The town hall was organized by and held at the request of the Afghan Coalition.
The Congressman began with an update from Afghanistan, where he said that while there were thousands of people at the airport trying to leave the country, there were also thousands of US troops there helping them do so. The US has an agreement with the Taliban to allow people with proper documents, such as a US passport, to safely travel to the airport.
In the virtual town hall, Mojadedi said that many trying to get out are US citizens, green card holders or military staff, and were not always getting through checkpoints. Also at risk, though, he said, were female judges, female journalists and members of religious minorities who were likely to receive harsh treatment if they stayed in an Afghanistan run by the Taliban.
Swalwell said that he was proud that his office had come to be known as “the Afghan American office” across the country, but he echoed Mojadedi’s call for people to contact their local representative first.
The highest priority for visas out of Afghanistan is going to holders of SIV (Special Immigrant Visa) or P2 (Priority 2) visas, Swalwell said. However, people here shouldn’t overlook pursuing the normal family immigration process, information on which is available at the federal website www.uscis.gov/i-130.
Swalwell appealed to individuals and groups in the Bay Area to help refugees and returnees once they arrive here.
“The best thing we can do is to open our minds and our hearts”
He urged individuals, service groups like the Lions and Rotary, churches, and mosques to all help welcome people here and help them get resettled.
Some 1,000 participants submitted questions via the chat function to the virtual town hall.
Swalwell referred attendees to his website for an overview of available help (swalwell.house.gov/resources), and provided a special email address where family members of people who are fleeing Afghanistan (CA15AfghanCases@swalwell.gov).