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This Monday, the last American plane left Afghanistan. This marked the end of more than 20 years of American military presence in that country. However, after the withdrawal of U.S. troops, there were still U.S. citizens on Afghan territory.
General Kenneth McKenzie acknowledged that they were unable to evacuate all the Americans during the evacuation plan implemented by the White House, and among those who remained was a three-year-old boy. His story and that of his family is heartwarming.
ABC of San Francisco told the story of this child who was born near Sacramento and his passport shows that he is an American citizen. The media outlet indicated that he concealed his identity and that of his father, a social worker and other family members who are all permanent U.S. residents, for fear that they would be captured by the Taliban.
James Brown, Veterans Advocate, reported that he received a call with the case and has managed the entire process for the family to return to the United States. “I received a call Sunday morning at about 6 a.m. from a friend of mine who’s an active duty Marine Corps officer stationed overseas, and he basically felt like his hands were tied and he needed some help getting this family out,” he told I-Team.
Attempting to flee
According to ABC, the information reached Congresswoman Jackie Speier and she wrote a letter, “I believe it is of particular and urgent concern that these individuals be allowed to pass through the gate and be given safe refuge at Hamid Karzai International Airport … so that they might be available for departure.” But the reality was that when the family tried to reach the airport, they were captured by the Taliban.
“They were stopped by a Taliban checkpoint, and they received physical beatings at the gate and they were pushed back where they had to flee and return to a safe house,” James Brown explained to ABC.
It was eventually learned that the boy’s family is trying to leave Afghanistan with other American families and are attempting to do so through options other than the U.S. government.
