WASHINGTON – As the Taliban swept across Afghanistan and into power earlier this month, a woman whose husband is in Buffalo – a woman who longs to join him – received a letter making that idea sound worse than impossible.
"We have informed and warned you many times to present yourself to the court of Islamic Emirates, but you ignored our orders," said the letter from the Taliban, the nation's new fundamentalist Islamic leaders. "This is your last chance; you will be killed if you didn't come to the court. This is your death warrant."
As the U.S. winds down its mission in the last days of the evacuation effort, local veterans who served in American's longest war look at what's happening now with grave concern.
The woman's family contacted Rep. Brian Higgins' office on Aug. 13, and the congressman's staffers have been working frantically to try to help her ever since. The Buffalo-based families of other Afghans longing to escape keep reaching out to Higgins' office, too, and as of Monday, Higgins' staffers were trying to help at least 125 such people.
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In the meantime, staffers for Rep. Chris Jacobs, an Orchard Park Republican, worked to rescue about 20 people from Afghanistan. Aides to Rep. Tom Reed, a Corning Republican, are also trying to help about 20 people hoping to flee the country.
Most of those people are Afghans who aided U.S. troops, or relatives of those Afghans. The woman who received that threatening letter from the Taliban is married to a former interpreter for the U.S. government, said Higgins' office, which provided excerpts from the letter to The Buffalo News.
It is unclear whether it is even possible for any of those people to escape Afghanistan now, given that the U.S. announced that it ended its military mission in the country on Monday.
"These situations are tragic," Higgins said. "You know, these Afghan nationals were our interpreters, they were navigators, they were drivers," aiding the two-decade U.S. military mission in Afghanistan.
"It's frustrating," Higgins added. "The bottom line is we're doing the best we can."
The vast majority of the people whom the local congressional offices are trying to help are Afghans, but Higgins's office said he was trying to aid one American who was trying to return to America from Afghanistan, and Jacobs' office said he was also trying to aid Americans as well as Afghans.
Citing security concerns, the congressional offices were reluctant to offer details about individual cases. They said they still hold out hope that some of them would make their way to America.
“Even with Aug. 31st deadline now here, my office is still working diligently to assist both American citizens and visa applicants who are still trapped in Afghanistan," Jacobs said. "I urge anyone from my district who is still in need of assistance to contact my office."
Chaos ensued in Afghanistan in mid-August as President Biden executed his predecessor's decision to end the two-decade American military mission in one of the world's most historically troubled countries – a chaos that's not at all far away for dozens of Afghan immigrants living in Western New York.
What's more, it is a chaos that local members of both parties blame on the Biden administration.
"The lack of planning is deplorable," Higgins said. "You don't leave and then activate an execution plan. We're talking about tens of thousands of people whose lives are imperiled."
Jacobs was equally critical of the Biden administration's actions in Afghanistan.
"This crisis did not have to happen," Jacobs said. "It was a direct result of the terrible decisions made by President Biden. After we get everyone out safely, we must hold the Biden administration accountable for this disaster."
New York's two U.S. senators, both Democrats, have been less publicly critical of the Democratic president's actions. But both of them – Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer and Sen. Kirsten E. Gillibrand – have also been involved in rescuing Afghans who long to come to the U.S.
Schumer's office said staffers had been working on individual cases just as the Buffalo-area House members had been. In addition, Gillibrand joined Senate colleagues from both parties to send Biden a letter asking that the government pay special attention to evacuating those who served the U.S. military mission in Afghanistan.
Asked for comment on Monday, Schumer said: “My top priority remains safely evacuating Americans – especially New Yorkers. I have been in regular communication with civilian and military leaders across our government to ensure that we can get Americans, including Western New Yorkers, coalition members and at-risk Afghans home safely as soon as possible."
Reed, the Corning Republican, also expressed concern for those left behind.
“President Biden's colossal failure in haphazardly withdrawing troops from Afghanistan is why it is so vital for us to do this work to bring these people to the United States safely and securely," Reed said.
