Senator John Cornyn visited with special immigrant visa holders Friday in Dallas, saying the U.S. has a moral obligation to help them. He spent time with visa holders and community leaders in Dallas.
"The big heart and open arms we see here today represent some of the best of who we are as Texans and as Americans," Cornyn said.
Visa holders were working at a clothing facility and community center.
"Thankfully, we have non-governmental organizations who are doing good work, welcoming these Afghan refugees and SIV holders to the United States, helping them learn new skills and new talent," Cornyn says.
Stephanie Giddens is the founder of Vickery Trading Company, a non-profit that helps refugee women learn a skill to become self-sufficient. She says the program is working with 13 women now and expects to work with 100 women over the next five to ten years.
"They are receiving [English as a second language], computer literacy, financial literacy and mental health programming in a trauma-informed environment, so we holistically prepare them for launching at graduation. Then we help place them in jobs at the end of their 21 months in our program," Giddens says
She says the program aims to "break the cycle of dependency" on government programs. Giddens says job training and other classes are projected to save the U.S. government $14.5 million in reduced use of social services over ten years.
"It's tough, to be honest. You get used to being tough, but right now, they are not safe," says Muhammad Fahim, an Afghan SIV holder now living in Dallas.
Fahim says classes and social programs can help make SIV holders and refugees self-sufficient, but many still have family in Afghanistan. He says Afghan citizens who have worked with the U.S. military may now have had their information given to the Taliban.
"They had to do an investigation. They would do finger prints, take your ID, all that sort of stuff. Now, all that information goes to the Taliban," he says. "If they want to find my family, it's just a day or two or hours to find them."
Cornyn says job-training, English classes and mentoring are helping SIV holders, but he says the State Department should conduct a count of how many SIV holders and others who are still eligible to be evacuated.
"Some people suggest the new Taliban is different from the old Taliban. We've heard from some of our friends here that's not the case," Cornyn says. "That was my suspicion, and they confirmed it. The Taliban is bent on retribution and continues to search for, threaten and kill people they find who worked for the United States."
Related
LISTEN on the Audacy App
Sign Up and Follow NewsRadio 1080 KRLD