Lives of Afghan refugees in Virginia was upset by movements ordered by Trump

Fredericksburg, Virginie (AP) – Kat Renfroe was at mass when she saw a volunteer opportunity in the bulletin. His Catholic parish sought tutors for young Afghans, recently arrived In the United States.

There was a personal connection for Renfroe. Her husband, now retired from the navy, had deployed four times in Afghanistan. “He simply never talked about another region as he did on people there,” she said.

She signed up to volunteer. “It has changed my life,” she said.

It was seven years ago. She and her husband are always close to the young man she taught, with her family. And Renfroe has made a career of Work with refugees. She now oversees the Fredericksburg Migration and Refugees Office, which is one of the Catholic charities of the Arlington diocese.

This denominational work is now in danger. As part of President Donald Trump Immigration repressionIts administration prohibited most refugee entrants in January and frozen federal funds for programs. Across the country, local resettlement agencies like its own Obliged to dismiss staff or close their doors. Refugees and other legal migrants were left in limbo, in particular Afghans who supported the United States in their native country.

The upheaval is particularly poignant in this part of Virginia, which has both close ties to the army and to reinstall Afghans, as well as the religious communities that support the two groups.

Located south of Washington, DC, and stuck among the military bases, Fredericksburg and its surrounding counties are home to tens of thousands of veterans and active service staff.

Virginia has reinstalled more Afghan refugees per capita than any other state. The Fredericksburg region now has halal markets, Afghan restaurants and school awareness programs for families who speak Dari and Pashto.

Many of these Afghans based in the United States are still waiting for family members to join them – hopes that appear on indefinite Hold. Families fear that a new travel ban will emerge with Afghanistan on the list. A subset of Afghans already in the United States could soon face the deportation while the Trump administration ends their Temporary protected state.

“I think it’s difficult for the military families, especially those who served, looking back at 20 years and not having the impression that there is a certain confusion and perhaps even a certain anger in the situation,” said Renfroe.

The American Catholic Bishops conference announced in April put an end to its partnership several decades With the federal government to reinstall refugees. This decision was made after the Trump administration interrupted federal funding for the program, that the Conference of Bishops channels local Catholic charitable organizations.

Fredericksburg’s Catholic Charitable Board Office continued to help current customers and operate without layoffs thanks to the support of its diocese and public funds. But we do not know what the future of the local agency will be without federal funding or arriving refugees.

“I will continue to pray,” said Renfroe. “That’s all I can do with my end.”

A confessional service inheritance

Religious groups have long been at the heart of the resettlement of American refugees. Until the recent modification of the policy, seven of the 10 national organizations associated with the United States government to reinstall refugees were based on the confession. They were helped by hundreds of local affiliates and religious congregations.

Catholic charities of the Diocese of Arlington have been working with refugees for 50 years, starting with Vietnamese After The fall of Saigon. For 10 years, most of its customers have been Afghans, with an influx arriving in 2021 after The Taliban returned to power.

Confessional groups of the region such as the large church of Renfroe – St. Mary’s in Fredericksburg – were essential to help new arrivals in Afghan get up. Volunteers from local congregations provide houses, provide meals and lead families to appointments.

“As a church, we carefully care. As Christians, we carefully care, “said JAI Rogers, who led the Afghan ministry in his Southern Baptist church. “As soldiers, we also have an obligation to them as people who have committed to helping the United States in our mission there.”

The husband of Rogers, Jake, a former sailor, is one of the pillar pastors, a network of 16 baptist churches in the south which minister of the military. Their flagship location is near Quantico, the north base in northern Virginia, where nearly 5,000 Afghans have been evacuated to After the fall of Kabul.

With Southern Baptist Relief Funds, Pilin Church hired JADI Rogers to work part -time as a volunteer coordinator in the base refugee camp in 2021. She helped organize programming, including children’s activities. His post was under the auspices of the American Catholic Bishops conference, which the government contracted to help direct the camp.

For the founding pastor of Pillar, Colby Garman, the effort was an easy decision. “This affected so many lives from our families here who had served in Afghanistan.”

“We were told to love God and love our neighbor,” said Garman. “I said to our people, it is an opportunity, a unique opportunity, for us to demonstrate love for our neighbor.”

Christians have called to take care of refugees, from politics apart

In five months, while the Afghans left the base for locations across the country, the support of the camp has moved to the wider community. Pillar began to host an English course. The members of the church visited local reinstalled families and tried to keep track of their needs.

For a couple at the pillar church in Stafford nearby, in Virginia, it meant opened his house to a teenager who had arrived alone in the United States after being separated from his family at Kabul airport – a situation they heard by the church.

Katlyn Williams and her husband Phil Williams, then Marine in active service, were adoptive parents for Mahsa Zarabi, now aged 20, during her years of a junior and senior high school. They presented it to many first Americans: the beach, the return, learning to drive.

“The community was great,” said Zarabi. “They made me very welcome.”

It frequents the nearby university; The Williams are visiting him monthly. During Ramadan’s sacred Muslim month This spring, they broke quickly with her and her family, now safely in Virginia.

“She has and will always be part of our family,” said Katlyn Williams.

His friend John Rogers, while being careful not to speak on behalf of Pillar, said that looking at the recent recentrage in the federal refugee program “was” very difficult for me personally “.

Veterans And army members tend to vote republican. Most Baptists in the South are among Trump’s white partisan supporters. For these reasons, the pillar pastor Garman knows that he can be surprising for some that his religious network has been firm to support refugees.

“I fully understand that this is the case, but I think it’s a bias not to know who we are and what we are doing,” Garman said after a recent Sunday service.

Later, sitting in the Church office with his wife, Jake Rogers said: “We recognize that there are truly faithful Christians who could be on each side of the refugee policy.”

“Whatever your point of view on the position of our national position,” he said, “we, as disciples of Christ, should have a heart for these people who reflect the heart of God for these people.”

Unity by faith and work of refugees

Later in the week, nearly two dozen Afghan women gathered around a table at the Fredericksburg refugee office, while the children played with toys in the area. The subject of the class was personal care, led by a member of Afghan staff. Along the rear wall awaited rice and chicken dishes, part of a celebration-showing meal to mark the end of Ramadan.

Suraya Qaderi was sitting at the front, the last customer to arrive at the resettlement agency before the US government suspended newcomers.

She was in Qatar while waiting to be authorized to take a flight to the United States when the Trump administration started Cancel approved travel plans For refugees. “I was one of the last last,” said Qaderi, who was authorized to continue.

She arrived in Virginia on January 24, the day the administration sent Stopping work orders to resettlement agencies.

Qaderi worked for the electoral commission in Afghanistan and has received a special immigrant visa for its close ties to the United States government. She was a child when her father disappeared under the previous regime of the Taliban.

The return of the Taliban government was like “the end of the world,” she said. As a woman, she has lost many of her rights, including her ability to work and leave the house without accompaniment.

She studied Islamic law during her university years. She believes that the interpretation of the Taliban of Islam is wrong on women’s rights. “Islam is not only for them,” she said.

The resettlement office includes not only Catholic employees, but many Muslim employees and customers. “We find so many common points between our confessions,” said Renfroe.

His Catholic faith guides her work, and this maintains it with the uncertainty of what changes in funding and policy will mean for his organization, which remains determined to help refugees.

“I am happy to start being a volunteer again if that’s what it takes,” said Renfroe.

Whatever the government contracts, she wants the families of local refugees to know that “that we are still there, that we care about them and that we want to make sure they have what they need”.

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