Afghan refugee Siam Pasarli finds life in America bittersweet. In Chicago, he owns an employment business and feels safe from Taliban retaliation.
Yet, despite risking his life to support the American mission in Afghanistan, he now feels America has turned his back on him and his family. He hasn’t seen his wife and two young children for more than two years and says their separation feels like “mental torture” for all of them.
Like most displaced persons, Passarli resettled in the US under a temporary status called humanitarian parole. This protects her from deportation and allows her to work – but it does not give her a path to permanent status, making it impossible for the time being to sponsor her relatives.
Once a spokesman for the US-backed Afghan Chamber of Commerce, he says he was a prime target of the Taliban – and lost many of his allies.
Passerly recalls, “I was afraid of my shadow. I couldn’t trust anybody.” He said the Taliban killed several of his friends by planting bombs under their cars.
In the chaotic days after the fall of Kabul two years ago, it took Passerly five days to get through the crowds to the airport.
Along with thousands of fellow Afghan colleagues, he was eventually moved to Bahrain and then to US bases in Wisconsin before resettling in Chicago and opening his staffing business, where he aims to connect employers with fellow refugees.
a few blocks away, also in Chicago, is located Muslim Women’s Resource CenterWhich supports hundreds of Afghan refugees with job training and asylum cases.
Like Passerly, many of them have been separated from their loved ones. “They want to know when their husbands are coming, or when their 4- or 5-year-old children who have been left alone in Afghanistan are coming,” said Sima Qureshi, the center’s executive director.
Qureshi says that of the roughly 2,000 evacuees supported by his center, not even 20 have received green cards. She urges Congress to pass it Afghan Adjustment Act Legalizing the people hanging in the balance.
“This is the most important thing for the Afghan community, because they really want a piece of mind,” he said.
In a statement on the two-year anniversary of the US withdrawal, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said the Biden administration is “committed to ensuring the safety, security and well-being of newcomers to Afghanistan” and that “our allies deserve the certainty and stability, which only Congress can guarantee through legislation.”
As for Passarli, he arranged for at least his wife and children to move to Germany.
But their extended family is still stuck in Afghanistan – and feel guilty for being so far away.
He said, “I can’t see my country in this condition. It hurts me. It’s painful. I couldn’t say goodbye to my father, my mother.”