Wali Ahmadzai is building a new life — and a new business — in Florida with the help of HIAS affiliate Gulf Coast JFCS. But nearly a year after arriving in the U.S., he is one of thousands of Afghan evacuees still unsure when or how they will gain permanent legal status.
In the year since the fall of Kabul, HIAS has resettled over 4,300 Afghans through the tireless efforts of its staff, resettlement partners, and volunteers. But the work to ensure that Afghan evacuees are able to build new lives in the U.S. is not finished yet.
Good news may be on the horizon for Afghan evacuees who came to the U.S. following the Fall of Kabul nearly one year ago: the newly-introduced, bipartisan Afghan Adjustment Act (AAA) would provide a clear pathway to permanent status for those still in legal limbo.
Housing was an afterthought when Oksana Bezkorovaina arrived in Poland from bordering Ukraine with her daughter Masha and sister, Maryna. The trio had been through the wringer trying to make it out of their home in Kharkiv, where they would sleep in the basement with their shoes on — ready to flee at any moment.
In 1985, Ken Burns interviewed two 10-year-old boys on the boardwalk in Brighton Beach for a film about the Statue of Liberty. Nearly 40 years later, those two boys, Alexander and Yevgeny Vindman are speaking out in support of refugee resettlement in a new Ken Burns/New York Times short.
