About a week after the Taliban forces swept the cities of Afghanistan, the happenings on the field became even worse.
“He is very terrified of what’s going to happen to his family,” Ann Block, an immigration attorney who works with a man from Castro Valley, said. Her client and his family are currently stuck in Afghanistan’s capital city, Kabul.
Block said the man attempted four times to reach the airport with his family. None of their tries became successful.
“They can’t leave. They can’t get here. It’s too dangerous for them even to go to the airport. I’ve never had that situation occur. In 35 years, I’ve practiced immigration law for 35 years,” she said.
The story is not new to Spojmie Nasiri, too, who often hears the same.
Also, an immigration attorney based in the East Bay, Nasiri is working with about 50 Afghan families. Among the situations that hindered her clients to flee the conflict include tear gas, gunfire, stampedes, as well as checkpoints manned by the Taliban.
The two immigration attorneys both said their clients are certified by the state department to pass the qualifications for evacuation back to the U.S. They were provided with visa paperwork but there are matters that still fail to align.
“They inundated this visa paper where everybody could go and get it whether you’re a citizen, a resident, a pending case, or you just wanted to get out of Afghanistan. So the soldiers started saying, that case is not real, it doesn’t have your name on it, it doesn’t have your case number on it. Therefore those who legitimately needed to get in, could not get in, and still cannot get in,” Nasiri exclaimed.
The attorneys retain a firm stand amid the fear and confusion, ABC7 reported.
“We need to be able to get these people out. That relied on us, that trusted the U.S. Government to do right by them. And there has to be a way to do that,” Block said.
