The children in “my” family play on local soccer teams and would rather play video games than do homework. The high school students are working part-time jobs at fast food restaurants, getting their driver’s licenses and visiting colleges. The parents all have jobs and make continuous sacrifices so their children can have a better life. In short, they are like any other American family.
My involvement with this Afghan family started with the young translator to my now ex-husband, who came to live with us when he was 19 and left Afghanistan. I helped him get his driver’s license and social security card and get accepted into college, so he called me his American mom. He is the son/brother/uncle of the extended family I am now honored to be a part of.
We, the United States, went to Afghanistan to find Bin Laden and his terrorist cell and ended up staying to do some nation-building in hopes of having an ally in the region. This whole situation falls under the Secretary of State Colin Powell’s “Pottery Barn rule,” where “you broke it, you bought it.” As Powell said, “You are going to be the proud owner of 25 million people. You will own all their hopes, aspirations, and problems. You’ll own it all.”
Now we have thousands of Afghan refugees making a new home in America, and we owe it to them to let them make America their permanent home. There is no return policy, here. Congress must make this right by passing the Afghan Adjustment Act, assisting these refugees just like we did for Vietnamese refugees after the Vietnam War.
One of “my” Afghan kids, a high school senior, is applying to Ohio colleges and was told that he would be considered an international student because of the Sept. 2023 date on his I-94. That’s when it hit me. In nine short months, everything that this family has worked so hard for could disappear if Congress doesn’t pass this bill. Thousands of Afghans are adjusting well to their new lives here, working, studying, learning, and paying taxes.
We cannot make these Afghan refugees return to their homeland in September of 2023, where they would lose much of the freedom they (especially the women and girls) enjoy here and be subjected to persecution — or worse.
Susan Marticello is the proud mother of two adult daughters, former military spouse of 24 years, has served the Miami Valley community in a variety of employed and volunteer roles for over 20 years, and is now “Mama Susan,” proud American sponsor to a large family of Afghan refugees.
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