Sean Jamshidi was a U.S. Marine Corps gunnery sergeant who served in some of the service’s most prized roles, including as an embassy security guard detachment commander and in psychological operations.
But he feels helpless now to aid his brother, who worked for the U.S. government during the war in Afghanistan and has been stuck for nearly two years at a holding camp in Qatar, waiting for a visa to the United States.
Jamshidi’s brother is one of roughly 150 family members of U.S. troops and veterans stranded at Camp As Sayliyah, according to the aid organization AfghanEvac. The camp is currently slated to close Sept. 30. And while organization leaders aren’t confident the U.S. government will follow through on that closure timeline, nothing has been formally communicated, they say, to camp residents who are waiting in limbo.
Jamshidi was born in Afghanistan, but he came to the U.S. with his family around age five. He opted to enlist in the Marine Corps, he said, because he had a deep appreciation for the freedoms America offered, having experienced life without those guarantees in Afghanistan.
“My mother, her dying wish is to see her son before she goes … so we’re trying to keep her healthy until my brother gets there,” Jamshidi said. “I want to continue shining a light on this crisis so the American people can hear these stories and demand change … This is not a partisan issue; it’s an American obligation.”
AfghanEvac leaders say some 3,000 U.S. military family members in all are affected by a hard stop in visa distribution to Afghans that took effect late last year.
They say many, like Jamshidi’s brother, have received consulate Chief of Mission approval and completed the required interviews to come to the U.S.; all they lack is the final paperwork.
As the U.S. marks the fifth anniversary of the chaotic military withdrawal from Afghanistan that ended the war but left thousands of allies stranded, a coalition of refugee assistance and resettlement groups is calling on Congress to pass the Afghanistan TPS Act, which would create temporary protected status for Afghan refugees and allow visa processing to begin again.
Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., a retired Air Force brigadier general and a cosponsor of the bipartisan bill, said in a call with reporters this week that he supports a discharge petition, a measure that would force the bill out of committee and onto the House floor for a vote.
“Most Americans want a decent, I would call it a Christian policy here, and that’s not what we’re getting,” said Bacon, who describes himself as an “old Ronald Reagan-type Republican.”
“We have a moral obligation to those we serve with in Afghanistan, who served by our side, helping us out.”
Camp As Sayliyah, which began to be used as an indefinite waypoint for Afghans who’d been evacuated by the U.S. government in 2021, has received over 1,000 refugees. In addition to the limited freedoms and constrained conditions of life at the camp, residents are now contending with post-traumatic stress and other mental health crises from missiles flying overhead due to the Iranian conflict, Jamshidi said.
“There’s missile fragments falling on people’s homes; there’s loud noises and uncertainty,” he said.
One White House proposal has been to send the refugees in Qatar to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to figure out life for themselves from there. Jamshidi said he served at the U.S. Embassy in DRC’s capital, Kinshasa, in 2018, and the thought troubles him.
“I know the conditions there, and it’s even worse than some areas in Afghanistan,” he said.
Bacon and another member of Congress, Texas Democratic Rep. Julie Johnson, said there wasn’t a clear timeline for filing a discharge petition on the Afghanistan TPS Act, but emphasized it would happen “soon.” They both stressed that the ultimate goal was to create a pathway for permanent resettlement in the U.S. for eligible Afghan allies.
Jamshidi said he was part of a chat group with other troops and veterans with family at Camp As Sayliyah. The chat, he said, has largely gone silent as members have gradually lost hope in a policy solution. Jamshidi said he’s working to hang onto that hope.
“As a Marine, I understand what it means to keep your promise and to stand by our coalition, our partners who served us and who supported us, who sacrificed their life for us, and how important that is,” he said. “So I’m going to continue fighting for that.”
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