By Rick and Lita Sample
In the wake of recent immigration changes and massive deportations, we find in the San Francisco Bay Area a group that is not thought of much while these travesties are happening. It is the plight of Afghan refugees.
After 2021, when the U.S. pulled out of Afghanistan, 100,000 Afghans came to the United States. These refugees are primarily those people who risked their lives to help U.S. soldiers in many ways, acting as interpreters and tutors in the Afghan language, working as cooks and other jobs. Most of them came as humanitarian parolees. This is a temporary legal status given to them which came with the promise of citizenship.
Secondly, there are Afghans who came with P-1 and P-2 visas who were aid workers, journalists or others who didn’t work directly for our country, but did help to promote democracy in Afghanistan.
Congress has failed to pass any legislation that helps these Afghans find a way to citizenship. This looks unlikely to happen in the foreseeable future. Because of this, and although they are here legally, Afghans who reside in the San Francisco Bay Area are at risk of being deported.
The U.S. can’t send Afghans back to Afghanistan and there are reports that deportees are being sent to places like Guantanamo Bay, Panama or other countries where the conditions are horrible and inhumane. Women and children are shown to be held hostage in hotel rooms and then sent to jungle camps where they are guarded with no options for legal help or for communication to their loved ones.
Currently, 10,000 to 15,000 Afghans are still waiting in Pakistan for American visas, which had been promised to them. Although there was a refugee admissions program in place, where many Afghans had already been approved to come to the U.S., a pause has been made and no one from Pakistan is now been allowed to come to the United States. Because of this, Pakistan has threatened to return all of the Afghans back to Afghanistan by March 31, 2025, if they are not resettled to another country.
Whether in Pakistan or in the United States, these refugees are at risk. If they are forced to go back to Afghanistan, they will face prosecution, persecution, torture, prison or death. And, if Afghans are sent to alternate places to be “detained,” their loved ones may never know what happened to them. These are people who risked their lives to help the U.S. They are good people who have not committed any crimes and who deserve to be protected.
I challenge everyone to pray for the thousands of Afghan people who are at risk of deportation. Pray that their legal status would be upheld since most of them desire to become U.S. citizens. Pray for those stuck in Pakistan that another welcoming country would be willing to receive them. Pray for us as we minister among the Afghan refugee community.
References / articles: facts/numbers come from these:
https://www.cnn.com/2025/02/06/asia/pakistan-trump-afghan-repatriation-intl-hnk/index.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/28/world/americas/panama-migrants-deportees.html