EL CAJON, Calif. (KGTV) — It’s been three years since the U.S. armed forces withdrew from Afghanistan. Thousands of civilians desperately chased after American planes, trying to cling onto the wings or jets in a last attempt to flee the Taliban takeover of their country.
“If you go back, they’ll kill you. Cut you in pieces,” an Afgan national said.
ABC 10News spoke with one Afghan national who was able to escape and is now an undocumented immigrant in El Cajon. He asked to remain anonymous for safety reasons. He says he’s living in fear as President-Elect Donald Trump’s mass deportation plan becomes reality.
“Obviously, I want to go back 100%," he said. But not in this situation, not in this situation they left us in.”
He says he served in the U.S. Army in Afghanistan from 2008 to 2012 as a translator for the Department of Defense. He applied for a special immigration visa in 2021 and is still awaiting approval. He decided to cross the border as an asylum seeker. But he’s unsure what could happen under Trump’s presidency.
“The big part is I don’t have access to an attorney," he said. "Who can fight my case? Fight my what case? The case that I worked for the U.S. government and the U.S. Army? And I was loyal! If this is a sin, yes, obviously I'm a sinner.”
ABC 10News brought that man’s story to Bill Wells, the mayor of El Cajon. Wells tweeted on Monday saying his city would do everything in its power to deport undocumented immigrants. On Tuesday, Wells told ABC 10News the tweet did not apply to the man 10News interviewed.
“I don’t get the sense that people will come in like stormtroopers and say ‘I don’t care what your situation is, I don’t care what your story is, I don’t care, what you're facing, we’re going to throw you out,'" Wells said.
Wells told ABC 10News, "It would be up to the federal government" if they came after Afgan nationals in El Cajon.
Wells says he will follow state law for now, which prevents his police department from assisting immigration authorities. Wells is hoping Trump will supersede that policy after his inauguration. The Afghan national ABC 10News spoke hopes he’d get his visa before then.
