Afghan refugees, about one or two a day, are arriving in Oklahoma scarred, seeking shelter in communities with mixed feelings about their presence.
“The trauma that they’ve experienced has been significant,” said Jessi Riesenberg, programs director at Catholic Charities of the Oklahoma City Archdiocese, which is leading the state’s refugee resettlement efforts. “So we’re just really trying to mitigate any triggers in their trauma, either by them having to relive certain stories too much or their transition being too rocky.”
Some 64,000 Afghans — many of whom worked to establish a foothold for democracy in their country — are coming to the U.S. in the largest war-refugee resettlement effort since the 1970s. About 350 have arrived in Oklahoma since August. Eventually, 1,800 will settle in communities around Oklahoma City, Tulsa and Stillwater.
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Some state GOP leaders have been vocal in their criticism of resettling Afghans in Oklahoma and the process of vetting them. Local Muslim leaders fear that those public comments create a greater need for security for themselves and arriving refugees.
A network of nonprofits and religious groups working to provide for refugees' safe resettlement includes an FBI liaison at meetings. The liaison gives safety tips and monitors online hate toward Muslims and Afghans in Oklahoma, Riesenberg said.
The executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations Oklahoma, Adam Soltani, shared a post on Facebook about a Sikh woman who arrived at his office with bruises and a busted lip. She had just been beaten after being confused for being Muslim, Soltani said.
Undisclosed hotels around the larger metro areas are serving as temporary transitional housing for the Afghan refugees, but finding something more permanent is challenging.
“We already are facing an affordable housing shortage in Oklahoma City and Tulsa,” said Veronica Laizure, civil rights director for the Oklahoma Council on Islamic-American Relations. “So we’re trying to find locations that will take reduced rent or that will help us set up some subsidized programs for these folks."
One of those locations is in Stillwater, where 40 refugee families are expected to resettle in the coming months with the help of Oklahoma State University and private landlords, according to the Tulsa World.
Riesenberg said the investment in resettling Afghan refugees across Oklahoma is a projected $4.8 million — including about $900,000 for housing and $2 million for congregate dining.
Refugees receive cash assistance from the federal government disbursed over eight months through Catholic Charities. An individual gets $190 a month, a family of two gets $238, and a family of three gets $308; however, family sizes can range from one to 11 people.
Oklahomans can donate food, clothes, diapers, hygiene and kitchen essentials, school supplies and basic home furnishings. Rhonda Lyon of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints volunteered to help sort donations.
"Other people want them to go back where they came from, but the whole problem is that it wasn’t a good place to raise their families," she said. "They’re coming here for survival."
In a letter, former members of the Department of Homeland Security reassured governors of the rigorous vetting process refugees would go through: “Before any evacuee from Afghanistan is permitted to enter the U.S., they are required to undergo multiple layers of vetting and screening including biographical and biometric checks. Any flags result in further vetting and investigations until the flags are resolved or (there is) a denial of entrance into the country.”
The Oklahoma City Police Department is training officers and Afghans on how to interact with one another.
“We’re working on our end to try to find out more about the Afghan people, their customs, things like that,” said Master Sgt. Gary Knight, the department’s assistant public information officer.
Refugees may choose to worship at one of 11 mosques in the Oklahoma City, Tulsa and Stillwater areas, accompanied by a background-checked Catholic Charities volunteer trained in cultural and trauma sensitivity.
Dr. Imad Enchassi, a local imam and theology professor at Oklahoma Christian University, was able to meet some of the arriving families at the airport in Oklahoma City. A shared concern was the lack of an Afghan community in Oklahoma.
"They want to move to another bigger city on the East Coast — West Coast — where there’s a concentration of Afghan families,” he said.
Catholic Charities brought on at least seven volunteer translators since the Afghan refugees began arriving in the state, but only two have had the time to meet and help them. English classes are provided by both Catholic Charities and a long-term refugee resettlement organization called The Spero Project.
Enchassi said the language barrier has shed light on some previously overlooked complications. Among the first they encountered: alarms going off in the dead of night and phones all over the city buzzing, warning Oklahomans of tornadoes in the area.
When the Afghan refugees receive such alerts, Enchassi said, “normally they would go underground (because) there’s an airplane bombing.”
Featured video: AP poll shows most in U.S. favor Afghan ally refugee resettlement
With American troops gone and the Taliban now in charge, thousands of at-risk Afghans who worked with the United States are still stranded in their home country. Some have escaped, but many in the U.S. want to do more to help.
Reaction from Oklahoma political leaders on Afghanistan refugees' relocation
Stitt
Gov. Kevin Stitt, pictured in Tulsa on Sept. 11, 2021, was among the first Oklahoma leaders to welcome Afghans fleeing for their lives as the last U.S. troops began withdrawing and the Taliban took over Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan. “I welcome Afghans fleeing the terrorist Taliban regime to come to Oklahoma and live in the freedom we hold so dearly,” the Republican governor said in a tweet on Aug. 18. “My office is exploring every possible avenue to help to ensure no American citizen nor any of our allies are left behind.”
Lankford
Republican U.S. Sen James Lankford, pictured in Tulsa on July 23 for a news conference about illegal immigration, said: “I absolutely think that we need to continue to be able to welcome refugees from Afghanistan into Oklahoma and into the United States. When I talk to veterans of the Afghanistan war, they bring two things up to me in the past week. The first thing they'll say is how disappointed they are and how frustrated they are that it's ending this way. The second thing they say is, 'Those people that fought alongside of us, I want them to get out.'"
Cole
U.S. Rep. Tom Cole, R-Moore, said: “I am proud that the United States and our allies are helping those that have helped our service members during our time in Afghanistan escape the evil wrath of the Taliban while also ensuring they are vetted for security and medical risks. I urge all Oklahomans to welcome these refugees from the Taliban to our state and to our communities.”
Dahm
Sen. Nathan Dahm, a Republican from Broken Arrow, said the congressional delegation should propose changes to the federal law on refugee resettlement to give states more input. “Every member of our federal delegation in Congress has the opportunity to work to address this,” Dahm said. “It’s time they put the people of Oklahoma and America first and at very least allow us to have a say on who is relocated into our State.”
Lahmeyer
Lankford’s announced primary opponent, Jackson Lahmeyer of Owasso, has been critical of the relocations. In a tweet, he said: “1,800 Afghans could potentially arrive in Oklahoma. The Biden Administration has NO WAY to fully vet these refugees. Yet James Lankford still wants them to come into our communities.”
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