From WXXI news.

This is connections.

I'm Evan Dawson.

Our connection this hour was made with a flight, a flight booked, and then a flight canceled.

It has happened to many of us, but in this case, the cancellation left the passenger in a possible life or death situation.

The passenger, a woman named Soraya, had worked on women's rights projects with the U.S. Embassy in Kabul.

As she told NPR in January, when the Taliban took control of Afghanistan.

She and her children fled to Pakistan.

It was there that she applied for settlement in the United States and was approved and was able to book a flight to America.

That all changed when President Trump paused the US refugee admissions program.

As NPR reported, he expressed concerns that the U.S. could not absorb large numbers of refugees, and his supporters largely agree, saying principles like Americans protecting Afghans who served US forces shouldn't dictate immigration policy.

Included in the refugee admissions program is the SIV, the Special Immigrant Visa program.

While it's not entirely paused, government support for refugees, relocation and funding for resettlement upon arrival has been halted.

Sibs can still self-fund or be sponsored through private organizations, but the process grows more difficult by the day.

That's the reality for organizations like Keeping Our Promise.

The local nonprofit has expedited its work to resettle as many Afghan sibs as possible in recent months.

Currently, there are more than 40,000 Afghans waiting to be resettled, and 10,000 have had their applications approved.

The limbo has put them in risk here.

And as Soraya told NPR, quote, I don't know what to do.

If I go back to Afghanistan, I will be prosecuted or even killed by the Taliban, end quote, leaders that keeping our promise say the situation has reached crisis levels.

So what's next?

We'll talk about it this hour with an update from our guests, from keeping our promise.

And Alan Smith is the executive director of Cope.

Welcome back to the program.

Thank you.

Evan, it's always a pleasure to be on this show.

And Steven, Katie is with us, a veteran and volunteer with keeping our promise.

Also a dad, student.

Work on a social degree, a busy guy.

Welcome to the program.

Thank you for being here, Steven.

Thanks, Evan.

And let me also welcome Zeke.

Zeke is with us going to be telling his story.

Zeke is not going to be on camera.

If you're watching on YouTube.

We're not using a full name or protecting Zeke's full identity.

But it's nice to have you.

Thank you for being here, Zeke.

So, Ellen, you know, there's a lot of conflicting information or kind of just quickly changing information.

Can you just set the scene right now with what we know about this administration's policy?

Who's affected what's happening right now.

So right now, unlike the regular refugees, I don't know how else to put that.

But the special immigrant visa holders are still being processed.

But as you said, they have to self-fund to get to the U.S. and this is absolutely impossible.

These are people who have not been working since the, you know, fall of Kabul and since we left.

And it's impossible.

So we are actually partnering with no one left behind to bring families here on flights.

the, the program we used to rely on, which was called Miles for migrants, has shut down.

So we're partnering with no one left behind so these guys can get flights and we bring families here to Rochester.

I believe that we are probably the only one, the only organization in the entire state of New York who is still resettling the civvies on the scale that that we're doing.

and as an example, since January, we've resettled 47 families, 165 individuals and, and many of our families who were to get funding through a program called virtual placement, and that would have entitled them to $1,400 per person.

They are not getting that money now to help them start their new life.

So we're relying completely on donations from the community.

do we know the the exact number of Afghans waiting for a chance to come here who have been sort of vetted, approved?

What's what?

Well, so we know that there's 156,000 Afghans with what we call chief of mission approval.

Now, they haven't gone through the extreme vetting that, that actually the Trump administration came up with in 2017.

So it's disingenuous for, our president to say that they're not properly vetted.

so of those, 156,000 118,000 are what we call interview ready, but they need to get to another country to have their interview.

So typically that might be Pakistan or, some of the families are able to get to Kigali, to Rwanda.

but other countries are just shutting, shutting down.

And, families can't get there.

so it's it's a very difficult situation for these families right now.

Stephen, you want to talk a little bit about your own experience and how you see this issue?

absolutely.

So I deployed to Afghanistan twice, once as an infantry platoon leader and then once as, an intelligence officer, in the Army.

I spent time in Kunar Province, Nuristan Province and Kabul.

We could not have done what we did without the help of men and women like it would have been impossible.

they did all sorts of jobs alongside us.

Dangerous jobs, important jobs.

Everything from translating, interpreting to, working with us to engage with local elders, local villages, they were security forces, you know, they did infrastructure, information technology.

They helped build hydroelectric dams.

They helped secure roads, and routes that were critical for our resupply and for the economy of the villages that we worked in and near, it is incredibly important that we support them now.

Just like they supported us.

They risked their lives.

Many of them gave their lives, to abandon them is not only dishonorable, immoral, unethical, but from a very realistic standpoint, it sends a terrible message to anybody that might want to ally with us in the future.

The vice president has said we don't have the capacity to help everyone.

We can't be the world's solution for this.

What do you say to that?

that's a lie.

It's it's it's a lie.

It's a lie.

We are the richest, most prosperous country in the world, right?

we have the capacity to help these people.

We had the capacity to go to their country for 20 years and spend trillions of dollars fighting there to turn around and say, we don't have the capacity to help the small number of people who gave their lives, risked their lives for us doing dangerous jobs right alongside us.

It's disingenuous.

It's a lie.

and it's it's dishonorable and just terrible.

Stephen, when you were doing this work and you were working alongside Afghans, was there conversation about.

I mean, I don't know how if this came up, but was there conversation about, you know, someday when we might be back in the United States, that our country will support you, that we know you're risking?

Absolutely.

Yes.

That.

Yes, absolutely.

And and at my level, right, there were a lot of Afghans who were already American citizens or already had immigrated to America.

They had left Afghanistan because it was a dangerous place for them and their families.

And when the opportunity arose to turn around and go back to help the US military and the US government in their efforts in Afghanistan, they raised their hand and said, send me, I will go.

I'll go back to the place I already fled from in order to try and make it better.

Right.

But there are people who had already left Afghanistan who voluntarily went back to go and improve the situation.

A lot of our interpreters were American immigrants or American citizens held dual citizenship.

you know, they they planned to come to America.

you know, even if they weren't already citizens, a lot of people plan to do that.

Yeah.

Ellen, what about this idea, though, that, hey, if they can self-fund or if you can raise more private donations, fine.

But it it can't be on the backs of taxpayers.

The war was already on the back of taxpayers.

You know, I mean, we we owe it.

We owe it.

And and and here in Monroe County, if you recall, in 2021, Adam Bellow declared that civs were to be treated like veterans, that they were to have veterans status in this county.

And there are other states, Colorado, California.

They recognize civs as veterans as they should.

New York state does not.

and the other thing I want to say that Steven touched on, but there's a lot of our families here.

When when the U.S. invaded after 911, their families were somewhere else.

They were in Iran, mostly Iran and Pakistan, and they went back to serve the United States.

They went back into Afghanistan after fleeing.

They went back to serve the U.S. and the U.S. mission.

And I think that that's really important to remember is that, you know, from 2020, from, 2001, they put their lives on the line and many generational.

So I see fathers and then sons serving who serve the U.S..

So in the spirit of this idea of raising funds privately and trying to keep the work going, what do you have coming up on May 1st?

May 1st is our annual Road to Resilience gala.

It is more important this year than ever, given the fact that these families have no resettlement funds whatsoever.

It puts an additional financial burden on keeping our promise.

But we are going to keep going and we are going to keep doing this work.

I am not stopping.

We haven't stopped for 11 years.

Right?

and you know, we are seeking, people to come and hear the stories of our families.

So it starts at 6 p.m. Thursday, May 1st.

That is a Thursday, I think, at around the country club.

And, you can learn more at keeping our promise.org.

Yes.

If you're if you're interested in a moment, we're going to get Zeke's story, I think, which is emblematic of the work that is happening.

But first I want to ask Ellen and Steven about some of what the this administration and some of their close associates are saying about civvies.

I should ask you first, Ellen, who is the Afghan evac?

Afghan evac is a coalition of groups like keeping our promise, association of Wartime allies that are here locally.

And this group was formed in the evacuation in August, and September 2021, because we were all just scattered and going off into different directions, trying to help people to get out of Afghanistan before everything shut down.

so this group came together so we could not, you know, do double duty on this stuff.

And many of the Afghans, they were so desperate, and they were reaching out to one group and another group and another group.

And, you know, I would hear from someone that they're helping this family, and I'd be like, oh, well, I'm helping that family, too.

So by doing this, we created, you know, one, one group that that could facilitate the informational needs to get people out.

So I want to read portions of an op ed in the American Conservative publication in a piece written by Philip Lindemann, essentially arguing for a no more Afghan, a civics.

And there's multiple arguments in this piece, and I'm going to read, and we'll let our guests kind of respond to each point if you if you want to.

The first point that Lindemann is making is that no one should be surprised by the Trump administration's disposition on this, that they were clear in the campaign about how they felt about refugees, immigrants, people coming into this country.

And Lindemann starts by saying this, quote, while Afghan evac talks about America's honor Vis-A-Vis these foreign nationals, the coalition would have President Trump go back on his word to his voters.

Arguably his strongest campaign promise to end our country's unprecedented migration chaos as Afghan evac lobbies Congress and the white House for more migrants.

The president is deeply engaged in cleaning up the national security and rule of law catastrophe caused by the Biden administration in opening the border to some 8.3 million foreigners.

The 200,000 Afghans admitted from 2021 to 2024 were part of that chaos.

The Biden administration poorly vetted these migrants and failed to confirm that they even helped the American cause in the war.

End quote.

Ellen, what do you make of that?

Well, so again, I'd like to, remind everyone that, those who were vetted went under extreme vetting, and they were also vetted when they were brought to the U.S. military bases here in the U.S..

So no one was just released and not vetted.

It's just not true.

And, in terms of he was clear in the campaign what Trump was clear about in the campaign was that the withdrawal was screwed up.

Right?

he was he never said that we should not welcome these civs into our country.

That was never said.

And so I just want to be really clear.

And as far as Afghan evac lobbying for more migrants over the border, that is just simply not true.

They are very focused on the Civi and the Afghans who served the U.S. or worked for programs like USAID, right, or the civil society, the women professors, the women judges, you know, that is who they are lobbying for, that we can't leave them behind.

Stephen, I take Ellen's point that the the Trump campaign never came out and said, we're going to end the SAB program.

JD Vance did go on podcast and say he questioned.

He said basically anybody who is is from Afghanistan is now claiming to to be an Civi is now.

And he said it was kind of out of control that the claims were exaggerated.

And so he he raised doubts about believing the vetting.

How do you feel about the vetting?

Well, again, the vetting rules that were in place were in place under President Trump in his first administration.

So if JD Vance or President Trump have a problem with the vetting, they should look in the mirror.

They set up the rules.

President Trump set up the rules for the vetting that has been happening, in his first term.

Right.

So to say the vetting is not good enough is an admission that they didn't set up the vetting well enough.

But I don't think that's true.

Yeah.

Do you think the vetting is good?

I think the vetting is very good.

these people were vetted, like Ellen said, when they came to work for us in the first place.

Most of our interpreters had security clearances, right?

Which at the time a lot of our service members did not have.

the vetting is very stringent.

it's for them.

It's for their families.

when they come to the US bases, or when they came to the US bases in the wake of the initial evacuation.

they were vetted there, too.

and and I want to I want to say, you know.

Oh, no one should be surprised is what the op ed said.

I'm not surprised.

I am opposed.

I'm not surprised that they turned around and said, you know, we don't want to support these people.

I am opposed to that stance.

I am, frankly offended by that stance.

I am offended by the characterization of it being chaos or security risk.

or that they're not poorly vetted because none of that is true.

these people have risked their lives in Afghanistan for us, right?

It is.

It would be the equivalent of saying that us service members redeploying from Afghanistan, our security risk are chaos.

If you want to characterize it as chaos, give more resources in order to smooth out what you see as chaos.

Well, and the other thing, I mean, it was chaos at the airport.

At the airport.

None of us are going to deny that.

But there was a process in place when Afghans reached this country or didn't reach this country.

I mean, we had many Afghans stuck in Qatar and and other countries, and they didn't make it here.

So that's really important to to note that they didn't make it here because of the vetting.

okay.

So related to that, let me read the next section of this piece.

And again, this comes from The American Conservative by Philip Linderman.

And it reflects a lot of what the Trump administration disposition towards, the CIP program is says that Afghani schools are opening the doors for other Afghan migrants, not just as civvies.

He says.

In fairness, most of the Afghan evac veterans are probably not sympathetic with the radicals in these open border NGOs.

But still, these veterans must acknowledge when they lobby Republican congressmen and white House officials that Afghan evac is an unholy alliance with groups dedicated to undermining Trump's core policies.

While some in the Afghan Evac coalition perhaps have relatively modest goals for example, just to process all Afghans with putative claims to civil status, their partners in the refugee and resettlement lobby are licking their chops to process hundreds of thousands, even millions of new Afghan migrants.

That is something President Trump should never permit to happen, end quote.

And I just want to say, look, not at no one is talking about people having savvy status who were not who did not serve.

What Afghan evac is asking is that those in the civil society, the judges, the professors, those who may have worked for U.S. programs, like our skate, a stand team here in Rochester.

Right.

That yeah, they be allowed in.

There is no life for them.

And you know what was said at a congressional hearing a long time ago?

you broke it.

You know, if you break it, you buy it.

You know, like like this is it.

You know, we we went in, but no one's talking about open borders here.

That's just it's disingenuous.

So in other words, it sounds like, tell me if I'm wrong, that this coalition that you're part of is saying you recognize that there has been perhaps, chaos and questionable policies on the southern border with with immigration overall.

But the CIB program is in a different category and should not be lumped into that.

Oh, absolutely.

Is that a fair characterization?

Absolutely.

That's a fair characterization.

Okay.

so this is the next section where, Linda, an argument argues that principle should not be governing U.S. national interest.

He says we must recognize that it is out of high principle that the veterans remain bound to the Afghan translator, the driver, the intelligence operative who risked his life to work with U.S. soldiers or Marines, spies and diplomats.

Americans acknowledge the deep ties of fellowship that are forged in wartime.

But this sentiment cannot be the basis, post Biden, of another immigration wave.

The many tens of thousands of such personal commitments Americans made to Afghans must be measured in the context of the long term U.S. national interest, Ellen.

we are doing this work because veterans remain bonded, and we owe it to our veterans and to our Afghan allies.

Okay, Stephen, if our national policies are not based on our principles, what should they be based on?

Right.

Our principles include freedom.

Freedom from harm.

Freedom from want.

Right.

And it has always been my opinion that the United States should shine as a beacon, right?

To the downtrodden, the oppressed.

That's what we are supposed to stand for as a country.

That's how we got our start, right?

That is one of our core principles.

If that is not what our national policies are supposed to be based on, what should they be based on?

I find the idea that we are slandering these people, right?

Terms like migrants.

you know, I think that these people have, you know, people people who write these op eds, they use specific words because they have such negative connotations in their circles.

Right?

We say migrants and we think of, you know, people fleeing, from from these oppressive regimes that tend to be South America.

Right?

that's not the case here.

And I could sit and make arguments about immigration policy all day.

But the focus here is about our Afghan allies, right.

To paint them with this brush of, you know, they are coming here, to mooch off the government or what have you.

Is is dishonest.

It's disingenuous.

it's rooted, I think, in, a bigotry, a white nationalism that wouldn't see any immigrants, wouldn't see anyone coming to this country if not the people who fought and bled alongside us, who would you allow in the country?

Right.

These are the the epitome of the people that you should want here.

They fought for American values in Afghanistan in our nation's longest war.

Right.

If they don't meet the bar for you to let somebody in as a refugee, someone that we should be sympathetic to and welcome with open arms, then who would you allow in?

Right.

That is the counter question.

I would pose the last point that Linderman makes in his piece in The American Conservative is the idea that the future of Afghanistan as a country that we should all want to be stable, is better off if civs stay there instead of coming here.

He writes this yes, Afghanistan is a complicated, multi tribal, multi-ethnic country, but one also with strong traditions of survival and resistance that outlasted the British Empire and Soviet occupation.

There is at least a plausible argument that Afghanistan will be better off in the long run.

If all our allies remain, resist and hold out for their country's future.

If the United States were sinking into oppression, most Afghan evac veterans even facing a national situation as bleak as Afghanistan's, would not respond by emigrating to Canada.

End quote.

What do you think, Stephen?

I think that's a very easy thing to say from behind a keyboard in your office.

I think when it's not your life, your family's lives, your children's lives on the line right?

When it's not you at risk of being stoned to death, executed publicly.

It's very easy for someone to say they should stay there and fight.

I think it is the height of cowardice to suggest that someone else go and fight, which is what a lot of these people do.

and to suggest that the danger is not that real is willfully ignorant of the reality on the ground in Afghanistan.

Helen, I just want to say that, right now we see female apartheid in Afghanistan.

Women have no rights.

They can't leave the home.

They can't speak.

I'm not sure you know what life he would like for them, but that's not it.

And I have seen the videos of stoning.

I have seen the videos of someone disagrees with the Taliban, and they are brought up to the fourth story of a building and and thrown off Lindemann saying, yes, you should stay there and fight against that fight with what?

With?

With the U.S. military.

Couldn't defeat that over 20 years.

Right.

And he expects these people with families to stay there and, and risk their lives rather than come to a place that should be safe for them that they already fought for.

That's absurd.

We're talking to the team from keeping our promise about the latest with severe Special Immigrant Visa program under the Trump administration, and let me just get a little bit of feedback from listeners before we get Zeke's story here.

This is Don in East Rochester.

Hi, Don.

Go ahead.

Hello.

Good afternoon.

Thank you for taking my call.

Sure.

I would like to say that it's the height of hypocrisy.

But it's not surprising from this racist, Nazi like regime that Donald Trump wants to let in 5 million white South Africans, supposedly because they're being persecuted by the ANC government.

But yet he won't allow in.

I don't know how many Afghan refugees there are.

Maybe 100,000 or something already in 100,000 people from Afghanistan.

But he was he's willing to let in 5 million from South Africa who are not being persecuted and who are being led by, Elon Musk, who is an immigrant from South Africa.

It's racist.

Total hypocrisy on the part of this administration.

Don, I appreciate the phone call.

Anything you want to add?

Guest.

Since I own it.

Yeah.

And as he says, there's there's 156,000 with com approval.

Chief of mission approval.

They still have to go through extreme vetting.

And so we are looking at probably 33% of those being approved.

So it's certainly and he's right.

It doesn't even match the numbers from South Africa.

Yeah.

And that's that is why I explicitly said it's a white nationalist policy.

It is.

I don't think Stephen Miller has really to disguise that per se.

I mean, I don't know if, you know, put it exactly that way, but, Stephen Miller is flat out said he doesn't want Muslims in the country.

Yeah, exactly.

Yeah.

Okay.

Don.

Thank you.

Bonnie in Rochester.

Hi, Bonnie.

Go ahead.

Yeah.

Hi.

Good timing.

Because I would agree with the person who just, was, interviewed.

Yeah.

Listen, two things.

One is that.

Yeah, remember, this is who is controlling a lot of.

This is, a person called Trump and one called last.

And this is a pattern they have, and it seems to me, doesn't matter where you're from or what you're doing at some point where you decide, well, we really don't.

We're so pure.

We really don't want too many other people in this country.

And then that is determined.

If you look at their history, their personal history as well, you will see this.

Number two is that this is a time where the last President Biden was involved and I'm sure get based on on Trump's, history.

He loves vengeance.

He lives a vengeance.

So to him, this is probably a vengeance.

no, that's an interesting analysis.

I mean, Trump has talked about has written a lot about vengeance being one of his core principles and driving motivations he's written about in his books.

I don't know, per se.

I mean, I don't know if he's looking at CIB policy in that lens.

Elon, what do you think?

I, I it's hard to guess hard to guess motivations.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Hard to guess motivations.

but Bonnie, thank you for the phone call.

Listeners, if you want to weigh in, is it 44295 talk.

It's toll free.

8442958255263 WXXI call from Rochester.

2639994.

Join us on the YouTube chat if you're watching on the Sky news YouTube channel.

Email the program connections at skywalk.

Alan Smith is executive director of Keeping Our Promise.

Steven Katie is a veteran and volunteer with co-op.

They've got a big gala coming up on May 1st, and they would love to see you there.

This is a time where they are trying to really beef up as much as they can, in the way of resources to help people who are admitted and brought into this country on severe special immigrant visas.

The Trump administration says they don't want taxpayers to fund any more of that.

Flights have been canceled.

And so that's what we're talking about this hour.

More information if you're interested.

Is it keeping our promise, dawg, on the other side of this only break, we're going to meet Zeke and hear his story.

That's next.

Coming up in our second hour.

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For a number of years, I was under the impression that Alan Smith knew everybody in this community.

And, Zeke is someone who Ellen is just getting to know.

In fact, during our brief break, I was asking Zeke who you're not going to see on camera if you're watching on YouTube.

And we're just going to limit two initials here, trying to protect identity.

But I was asking, how long have you been here?

Zeke said a month, I said a month.

That's why I love Ellen.

I mean, for for you.

You do know it.

Almost everybody in this community.

You.

Yes.

But, you know, we also agree to take people in their greatest time of need.

And that was his.

So he needed a place to land, with his family.

So, Zeke, I'm going to ask you just a few questions about your background here.

And Zeke, who is this really humble person and, you know, help me out in the interview.

First of all, you're English sounds just fine.

I can't speak to probably the many languages you do.

And so I'm grateful for the effort.

And thank you for being here.

Tell us a little bit about, the road, your path to coming here in the first place.

What happened?

when my kids, approved and I got the approval, then, I processed my all, documents.

So after I received the appointment in, Kigali, Rwanda.

So the only way I go out, from Afghanistan was the Iran, because the they're good with the Iran, the, current, the government of Afghanistan.

So it was the only way because they are asking whenever you're leaving by by working are asking, where are you going?

What or what are you doing?

You are going there.

So I said, I am going to Iran.

Leaving there like this, saying like this I go to the Iran, the Dubai it and went to the, Rwanda.

So I handled my case there in Rwanda and I got my, visas.

Then I applied to U.S.. Had you ever heard of Rochester?

Did you know anything about Rochester?

no.

it was my first time at the, at the last night before my flight.

I got, I heard this, name from, Camp Stephanie, and she was working with NLP in all, no one left behind.

I, I just comment there for the, tickets because I spend, all my name from my own pocket, from Afghanistan up to Rwanda and up to here.

So she said, there was a, post in Facebook, this, then from the no one left behind, they said that we will take it.

We will buy a ticket for the people who have visa, in their hands.

So, on that days, there was a band flights, announcement everywhere.

So I was in very in a hurry because, maybe I said maybe I will be banned to go to the US.

But your plane made it.

Yeah.

I just, by by my own pocket.

The tickets, because, because of the announcements.

So then, and it came stay free.

introduce, myself to me and then I, I was planning to go to the California, to Walnut Creek.

So then I changed my plan, and I come here.

Ellen Smith is a good person to know.

Emilio.

Really?

Yeah.

She supported us lots.

Yeah.

I'm not.

I'm not surprised to hear that.

and so why don't you tell us a little bit about what you did in Afghanistan alongside the United States?

I was, regional site supervisor for one of the zone of, Afghanistan.

We have we had, six zones in Afghanistan.

I was supporting two zones.

Northern zones.

I was, working for my minister of interior, as a, regional site supervisor.

I had, 21 I supports in airports and ports and parks, provincial headquarters and rescue, regional headquarters.

and, we maintain the network.

I also troubleshoot the computers and, other network equipment and technology equipments.

we also prepare the vertices.

We do conferences for, HQ commanders vertices, and also the presidential, vertices.

So we also had Cisco of, of voice over IP phones.

And we mentioned the everything we had, and network connection, connection to the over Afghanistan.

So, in my area in ArtPrize is also they send emails, the police forces send emails to each other, and also they support the passport, database and also the, Interpol police database.

Also did, did you feel at any point that you shouldn't be doing what you were doing because you could be endangering yourself or your family working with United States?

Yeah, lots.

Bob, I just whenever I went to the, my job, I just, changed my ways every time.

Not going it from one way.

So it was dangerous for me because the northern provinces, there was lots of, threats.

You see, you changed literally how you got to work, you know, the ways I went to my office.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Okay.

and, outside of working with the United States, tell me about your life in Afghanistan.

Where did you grow up?

I, mostly grew up in Kabul, in, Mazar e Sharif and both province in Northern Province.

And, I just learned there and my I started working there.

I worked for over, 13 years for the, Sistema Kg6.

Stephon may know this, and, I was, had contract with them.

And what did you for for much of your life before coming here?

What did you think about your future?

What did you want to do in Afghanistan?

Everybody wants a stable country.

Everybody wants the chance to follow their own dreams.

What were your dreams in Afghanistan?

yeah.

This is the hope of everything.

Everyone.

But, nothing was in our in our hand, as, you mentioned before that, this is that the SCV should stay in Afghanistan and to make their country, it was very difficult because, in whenever the Afghanistan captured, I was at home for very, very, very, strong work I had outside.

I went outside after that.

I wasn't home for four years.

Mean I couldn't go to outside.

And so I, I just thinking every time just now the door will be knocked and ask about me because I had a very big job.

Nine provinces.

I was responsible for everything for police forces.

What what is your hope for how your how Afghanistan can move on or get past the Taliban?

Do you have any hope for that?

well, I can say it, but, as as I, as I was there, it's, very sticky.

Well, can I just say something?

Yeah.

You know, I asked that question of one of our other Afghan friends, and, and I said, you know, do the way we define peace, peace, justice, freedom.

And, do you have what's your hope for Afghanistan?

Do you see peace?

Do you see justice?

Do you see women's rights coming open again?

And he said to me, not in my lifetime.

No.

Well, SSC has been a month.

How are you doing in Rochester?

Very good, very comfortable.

And what do you want to do for work here?

as I said, I'm an engineer and I also try to work as an IT engineer in here.

So, I try my best.

Okay.

what has been the most difficult part of getting used to life in Rochester?

I didn't see anything.

No, everything is good.

Yeah, everything is good.

Yeah, I suppose I mean, Ellen, we've had conversations over the years where I kind of asked that question and often the responses something along the lines of when you go to bed, not knowing if you will wake up safe, and you end up in a place like Rochester.

Rochester is pretty good, you know, I mean, it's it's a different set of worries and and it's not that there's no worries there.

There's worries about rent, living space, transportation, jobs.

I mean, all those things are real, but nobody's quite nobody's coming to your door to kick your door in and drag you out into the street.

I mean, when he says you wonder if there's gonna be a knock out the door on the door.

Yeah, yeah.

So sometimes I, I just, faced with, I didn't lock my door in the morning, I say, oh, I forgot the lock my door.

So it's it's very, And, I mean, I still think you probably should.

You should, but, But I understand what you're saying.

There's xQc.

I mean, and he doesn't.

You know, this is going to be hard for him, but we are supporting him through this time.

Yeah, it would be hard for anyone, right?

You know, I can't imagine having to uproot my entire family and move to an entirely foreign alien country.

And I want to reemphasize something here.

xQc speaks.

What is it?

Five languages.

five languages.

Okay, he speaks five languages.

He is incredibly versed IT engineer.

He has incredible technical skills, right?

That I've seen him demonstrate some of these skills to me.

in the most casual way.

Right.

He is far more skilled at it things than I am, right?

Than 90% of the population is right.

This is somebody we should want as an American citizen.

This is somebody we should want in our country to help with these sorts of things.

He is incredibly capable.

He's incredibly smart.

I've met his family.

They are wonderful, lovely people.

Right?

I mean, it's it's, But I can't imagine having to uproot my entire family and move even as capable as he is.

Move my entire family through multiple other countries.

Right.

And and we're not talking, you know, he went to a chalet in the Swiss Alps to wait for a visa to come to the United States.

They were in some very not nice places on their way here.

And so I can't imagine the stress that that would put on somebody and their family to do that.

But that would be the better alternative than staying where you are.

Right?

And when he came, I didn't have a place for him to live.

He was in a hotel for a while, and then we had to put him in an Airbnb until I could find a house.

So, well, you know, earlier this hour I couldn't figure out I've got a computer screen right here, okay?

I couldn't figure out why I couldn't read it.

And then I forgotten that I changed my password.

Yesterday, I had producer Megan Mac running in here trying to help me during the middle of the show, because I literally couldn't figure out the most basic thing about a computer.

And here you are in a place that is new to you with a pretty deep set of knowledge and skills and, you know, at the baseline, though, Stephen, the first question is, did someone fight alongside this country?

Did someone risk their life?

Yeah, to serve our country.

And it certainly is helpful if they're able to walk into a pretty high, high skilled jobs as someone like xQc is.

but category one is just did you serve this country?

Yeah, absolutely.

And, you know, it's it's like Elon was saying, right?

A lot of these people are judges, teachers, and they have skills like that, and they are, you know, bright, intelligent people.

But at the end of the day, it's about humanity.

It's not about your skills or what you can bring here.

Right.

And I only emphasize the point of like, hey, xQc speaks five languages.

He's very versed in IT skills.

I only emphasize that to show that there really is no good reason, right?

Whether you look at it from a humanitarian standpoint of like, these are our fellow human beings and we owe them the best that we can, especially when they were promised things by our country, whether it was, hey, we're going to get you out, or whether it was we're going to bring democracy and freedom to your country.

And then we were unable to write.

We owe them that just for the fact that they are our fellow human beings.

But even if you want to discard that moral argument and make a more realist, you know, ends justifying the means type of argument, it is a, you know, these are people who have skills, who are intelligent, who are, you know, able to contribute to our country, and should be offered the opportunity to do so even if they don't, though, they fought alongside us, they were promised things by our country.

We cannot leave them behind.

So let me read a little bit of feedback.

Kathy in Chile says, wouldn't you all love to see an organization that does nothing but investigate family histories of people like Linderman and Stephen Miller, and publicizes how many of their grandparents and great grandparents were immigrants, as from Cathy and Charlie.

but I think related to why some people and I think Stephen Milligan, I'm not trying to speak unfairly about his own stated public positions, but I think why he views that differently is, he said he doesn't want Muslims.

The first Trump administration tried to institute a muslim ban.

I think they they talked about immigrants from Norway being more welcome.

I mean, it's not all that subtle.

And Susan says when he asks, who do we want to come to this country?

This administration wants white supremacists from South Africa.

I have to say, Susan, I'm less familiar with the South Africa story, and I try to be up on a lot of things, but I guess I have more reading to do.

about that.

And then Jack wants to know, says, the veteran on your panel.

Can you ask him if his fellow veterans tend to be conservative?

I think polls show that most veterans support the Trump administration's position on this issue.

I don't I don't know, what veterans would say about this issue.

Jack, I, I think Jack's not wrong, Stephen, to say that I think polling shows veterans tend to skew conservative veterans do tend to skew a little more conservative.

But you also see, more, more nuance in their positions for all kinds of things.

I personally and of course, you know, anecdotally.

Right.

But I know a lot of Afghanistan veterans, I don't know a single one who doesn't believe that we should help these people, not a single one.

I know more people who were devastated by the images coming out of Bagram and Kabul during the fall of Afghanistan in 2001. who you know, I don't know a single person who is not on board with helping these people because they know these people, right?

They fought beside these people.

And we have a very deep, ingrained culture of taking care of each other, of taking care of our own, of taking care of our brothers and sisters, right, and not leaving anyone behind.

And that's what we're trying to do here is not leave them behind in a place that is going to kill them.

The other thing I want to say is going back to Lyndon is what he doesn't realize is how many Republican supporters there are on an Afghan evac.

Yeah.

So is how many Republicans.

Oh, yeah.

Yes.

Yeah.

It's I mean, it's a Partizan issue.

It's a it's a diverse group.

and and this is a bipartisan issue.

but J.D.

Vance is an American veteran.

and he's at the top of the political food chain, and, and he is not on the side of Afghan evac.

So, I mean, I, I understand I mean, I don't know where the administration will go next, but, before we do that, let me just ask, do you feel like this is going to be home for you for a while, as does Rochester?

Feel like it will be home for you?

Yes.

Yes, yes.

You want to stay here?

Yeah, I want to stay here and, want to work here, so.

Yeah.

Okay.

well, then let's talk before the hour's up here about what you need most here.

Allen Smith.

What do you need most right now?

What we need is we have brought in 47 families, 165 individuals since January.

And, they did not get their resettlement funds that normally they would get.

And we are having a big fundraiser on May 1st, Thursday, May 1st at the Rhonda Croix Country Club.

And we certainly are looking forward to a big crowd there and lots of support, because the money that is is, donated at this gala is going to directly support our families.

and just so everyone knows, staff salaries this year are covered entirely by grants that are salary specific.

So all the money we raise goes to our families.

Okay.

Steven, do you want to add to what you think is needed next year?

Absolutely.

first of all, awareness, right, of of who these wonderful people are living in our communities, right.

Neighbors should be looking to help neighbors and it's not just, you know, let's help these Afghan refugees.

It's neighbors should be helping neighbors right at any opportunity.

And these people are our neighbors.

keeping our promise.

Always looking for donations.

Right.

Please, please sign up to attend the, the gala on the first.

You can donate.

You can volunteer.

There's a link on the website.

it's how we found Steven.

It's it's, as well.

Well, actually.

So I'm.

I am an MSW student, through, Suny Buffalo, and I was looking for an internship, for that, that program.

And I was linked up with keeping our promise.

And I went in and I did the interview with Ellen, and it was lovely.

It was wonderful.

And I was so moved.

Right.

Not only by Ellen, not only by the organization, but by the fact that, like this, this is a very important topic for me.

It's a very important cause for me personally, as a veteran of Afghanistan.

I was so moved.

My internship doesn't start until September.

And I was like, in the meantime, I will work for you as a volunteer, completely volunteer basis.

Anything you need, let me know.

and so, you know, I've been I've been trying to help where I can.

I've helped.

Okay.

Get settled.

you know, and because it is so important to me.

So there is a link on the website, keeping our promise.org where you can sign up to be a volunteer.

It's quick, it's painless.

There's a background check.

Right.

because there is vetting involved.

So there's a background check, but it's quick and painless and easy.

you know, volunteer, donate.

If you know a neighbor who is, a resettled Afghan, help them.

Right.

Get to know them, welcome them into your community.

you know, make them feel like your neighbor.

That's what we should strive more for.

I think.

Let me close with this, Stephen.

your service was.

When were you active?

So I served on active duty from May 2007 until I. I retired.

I medically retired in November of 2024.

Okay.

so that's a long 17.5.

Yeah.

So it's a long sort of active service.

Did you see a change from the beginning to the end of your active service about how politicized everything felt like?

If you're a veteran, was there less talk about politics in 2007 and and more so now, or does it feel to me just like everything gets politicized?

I think there was definitely politics involved.

there's politics involved in everything.

Everything is political at every level.

I will say it feels I felt much less supported towards the end of my time in the Army.

as a as a service member, as a veteran, I felt like, my service was not looked upon as as important or as valued.

And briefly, because we're going to hit the music wire.

that's a good question.

I think because your politics, because of your public statements, not because of my personal politics, I didn't make any public statements or personal political statements while I was in uniform.

no, I think it was just a shift.

And, the country.

Okay.

Well, will you come back and talk to us sometime?

I'd love to.

I really appreciate having you here.

And it's been nice to meet Stephen.

Katie, who's a veteran and a volunteer with keeping our promise.

Keeping our promise.org if you want to learn more, if you want to attend their upcoming event they told you about on Thursday, May 1st, they'd love to see you there.

Ellen Smith is the executive director.

Thank you everyone.

Thank you.

Thank you here.

And Zeke welcome to Rochester.

Thank you, thank you thank you thank you thank you sir.

And help me out with my computer next time.

Yeah exactly.

We got more connections coming up.

Oh.

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