FREMONT, Calif. (KRON) — About a month after the Afghan government collapsed — more refugees are being welcomed into the Bay Area.
California’s 17th Congressional District Representative Ro Khanna has been working directly with Afghan families.
Rep. Khanna says right now one of his highest priorities is the Afghan people, making sure they’re safe and getting them into the United States.
“We are a nation of immigrants,” he said. “We have a moral responsibility to people in Afghanistan.”
About a month after the Taliban took over Afghanistan, Rep. Khanna says the state department is still monitoring hundreds of cases of individuals trying to get to the United States.
Khanna’s office has been helping, bringing refugees to the Fremont area.
Now he’s meeting with those families.
“I got to play with his 3-year-old and he has a 7-year-old and it was wonderful to see them here.”
He says it took this family a harrowing five days to make it out of Afghanistan.
“They were going to the airport, sometimes getting beaten.”
He couldn’t release their names because they still have family trying to get here.
“We need more charter flights, we need more coordination and more pressure on the Taliban to let individuals out.”
Farzana met with Rep. Khanna. She came to California from Afghanistan in 2011 but she still has family there.
“When the Afghanistan government collapsed all of my family was affected. Not only my family but men and women are suffering right now.”
Her mother was living in Afghanistan during the collapse.
The Red Cross took her to Belgium for safety.
Now Farzana is working with the congressman to hopefully more her mother to the United States.
“When people leave Afghanistan it’s not because they want to leave. They have to leave. They have their own house, their own life, everything but they must leave because they want to stay alive.”
Rep. Khanna emphasized these immigrants add value to our communities.
He says that he’s even going back and forth with a congressman in Montana that doesn’t want 75 refugees — Rep. Khanna is offering to bring them here to the bay area.