EL CAGON, California – On Tuesday, R-Bonsal MP Darrell Isa announced that the seventh family in the El Cajo school district, whose children have left Afghanistan, will return to California.
“For months, my staff and I have joined in an unprecedented community effort to bring this family, these children home,” Isa said in a statement. “Today we can say that they are definitely on the way back to us.
“There are so many people to thank for making it possible,” he said.
The father of the family, who Isa’s office says should remain unknown as other relatives in Afghanistan are still in danger, was at home in San Diego County when Kabul fell to the Taliban. The mother, their four children, had to go into hiding and move out of several shelters as they escaped the Taliban for several months.
“I am very grateful to Congresswoman Isa և and her staff who did so much to bring my family home,” the father of the family said in a statement issued by Isa’s office. “We can not wait for everyone to be together again.”
On August 31, the US military officially withdrew from Afghanistan, ending a 20-year conflict that began shortly after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.
Isa was first contacted by David Miyashiro, the Cajon Valley Union School District District Superintendent, in August, who was told that several families, including schoolchildren, had not been able to flee Afghanistan.
“From the day David first called me, our lives have changed. We have embarked on the daily mission of rescuing these families,” said Isa. “David and the team he put together, from the beginning, worked tirelessly to bring everyone home.”
Isa’s office has helped evacuate more than 40 members of his congressional staff from Afghanistan since the Taliban took power.
“We are very grateful to Congressman Isa և and his staff for their support during this process,” said Miyashiro.
In October, the San Diego County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved a plan to resettle Afghan refugees.
Supported by Supervisor Joel Anderson, the council instructed the county to work with Congress to use the Taliban’s frozen assets to pay for the resettlement of Afghan refugees.
The US Treasury Department has frozen most of the assets of the Afghan government – 9.5 billion dollars.
According to Anderson’s office, about 58,000 Afghans are expected to arrive in the United States, many of whom have been forced to flee their homes without property.
Whether or not the exact number of Afghans relocating to California is known, according to Anderson’s office, is likely to be in communities where they have friends and family.
While the county has no direct role in determining how many Afghan refugees will be resettled in the county, Anderson said he could very much be prepared to settle incoming refugees through the Immigrant-Refugee Office.
Council President Nathan Fletcher, a Marine who was stationed in Iraq in 2004, said the US government could keep its word to the Afghans who have helped US forces for 20 years.
He added that before they set foot on US soil, Afghans are checked by a number of US intelligence and law enforcement agencies, and later re-checked by US customs officials.
Isa said his office was still open.
“Even as we know these missing schoolchildren are returning home, they remind us that many more, maybe a few hundred, are still stranded in California than in Afghanistan,” said Isa. “Our work is not near the end yet.”
– City press service