NEW HAVEN, Conn. -- Four years after fleeing Kabul, Afghanistan, New Haven resident Hashima Moradi and her family resettled in Bridgeport, beginning the long process of rebuilding their lives.
"I still remember the airport. Children were crying, afraid, hungry for their mothers. Some were injured, but no one stopped to help. Everyone was focused on one thing -- survival," she said. "We stood in line from 10 at night until six in the morning."
She said that when the line finally began to move, they entered a room where officers checked their passports and placed wristbands on their arms. Then they waited another six hours to board a massive military aircraft with no seats.
No one smiled -- they were exhausted, and happiness was nowhere to be found, Moradi said.
Elena's Light, a nonprofit that helps refugee women and children build bright futures, held a press conference Friday on the anniversary of the fall of Kabul. The event gave the Afghan community and advocates a chance to voice concerns about ongoing impacts since the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan four years ago and the Taliban taking over the country.
Fershteh Ganjavi, founder and executive director of Elena's Light, said that when Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan, fell four years ago, the world witnessed scenes of desperation, fear and heartbreak.
"But for us, for the Afghan people, it was not just something we saw on the news. It was our families, it was our friends, it was our home," she said. "Many of us left everything behind in a matter of hours. We came to the United States not only carrying our few possessions, but also our hopes, our dreams and our determination to rebuild our lives in safety."
Moradi remembers the tears falling from her mother's face. She said she had to watch her mother cry, her father try to hide his emotions and her younger brother look terrified.
Once they arrived in Bridgeport, they reunited with her siblings who lived in the city and began rebuilding their lives. Now the family lives in New Haven and Moradi is set to finish her senior year at a boarding school in Oregon.
But four years later, on the anniversary of Kabul's fall, Moradi said she still misses home -- visiting her grandparents and cousins, going to school and walking through her neighborhoods.
Ganjavi said more than 800 families, about 4,000 individuals, have resettled in Connecticut since 2021 through programs, including immigration visas, co-sponsorships and refugee resettlement.
Many of them live in New Haven and the surrounding areas, Ganjavi said, but remain in limbo without permanent status, legal protection or security.
"They face the constant fear of deportation every minute," she said. "That fear is not just paperwork, it is the fear of losing your children's future, the fear of returning to a place where your life is in danger."
The press conference comes not long after an ex-U.S. military interpreter from Afghanistan identified as Zia was detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents while filling out paperwork for a green card, said U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn. Zia is from the New Haven area.
The Afghan community is calling on federal and state leaders to take urgent action by reinstating temporary protected status, reducing the asylum backlog that leaves families in limbo for years, and providing emergency legal and financial support to organizations working with immigrant families at risk, Ganjavi said.
"The chaos of August 2021 led to one of the largest evacuations efforts in American history," said Arash Azizzada, co-founder and executive director of Afghans for a Better Tomorrow.
Azizzada said the nation welcomed more than 200,000 newly arrived Afghans seeking that sense of security throughout the country since then.
"Sadly, they have not felt that or seen that comfort and safety since the attacks on our community by this administration," he said.
While America lost the war, Afghans are the ones who were caused insufferable pain, Azizzada said.
"But America can do right by us and by our community by allowing newly arrived Afghans to thrive without fear in New Haven, in Connecticut and throughout this country," Azizzada said. "Afghans deserve dignity, not bans. Afghans deserve dignity, not deportations. Afghans deserve dignity, not detentions."
Blumenthal urged his colleagues in the Senate to pass the Afghan Adjustment Act.
If the act is passed, it will help provide support for Afghan nationals who supported the U.S. mission in Afghanistan, help adjust the status of Afghan nationals and provide special immigration status for at-risk Afghan allies and relatives of certain members of the Armed Forces, according to the International Catholic Migration Commission.
"We promised they could come after they protected our troops," Blumenthal said. "They are translators, they were guides, they were interpreters, they were guards and the Taliban will have no mercy if they are sent back there."
Blumenthal recently visited a detention center in Plymouth, Massachusetts, where they are holding Zia.
"He has five children. He calls them every day, and they cry when he calls," he said. "There is no reason, zero reason for Zia to be in prison."
Blumenthal said Zia has a hearing on Sept. 8.
"It is immoral, unconscionable and shameful for the greatest country in the history of the world to break its promises and put in prison innocent people who have helped this country and who are here because they regard America as the beacon of hope and opportunity, and yes, freedom and the rule of law," Blumenthal said.
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