‘We will kill you’

Hemat said that as part of his work with the U.S. Army, he and 100 journalists broadcast on 20 radio stations, urging Afghan girls to get an education and saying that suicide bombings violate Islamic teachings, among other things. “As media guys, we were responsible for putting all those good words to the people … to restore and build democracy, fight against terrorists and abolish them and support this country and bring freedom here,” he said.

“When we started putting these messages out, all those uneducated people learned what is right, what is wrong. They stopped joining the bad guys,” Hemat said.

But he started getting messages from the Taliban and the Haqqani Network. “We know you’re working for U.S. troops,” he was told. “Stop this; otherwise, we will kill you.” So he moved his family from Khost to Kabul. Hemat applied for a special immigrant visa in 2012, but didn’t receive it until 2014. In the meantime, terrorists killed his uncle, thinking he was Hemat.

“It’s not an easy process where you just apply today and get your visa tomorrow,” he said. “As an interpreter, when I joined the U.S. troops I had been through an extreme vetting process,” he said, echoing Trump’s words.

In fact, George said, the vetting is “exhaustive. It takes two years. There are a series of interviews; they have questions about every aspect of your life. Information is run through databases and terrorist watch lists … There are fingerprints, there are iris scans … DNA testing to determine family relationships. … It is hands down the most vigorous vetting process for refugees in the world and it is the hardest way for anyone to enter the United States.”

Once Hemat and his family arrived — he and his wife have four children ages 2½ to 9 — he found that his training in radiology didn’t qualify him for a job here. His driver’s license wasn’t valid either. But IRIS helped with the basics, such as renting a home and getting financial help from the state Department of Social Services.

Now he’s working as a security officer for the University of New Haven and plans to apply to Gateway Community College. He said his family is adjusting “and my kids are happy because they go to school every day.” But all is not peaceful. “When we hear news like ‘ban refugees,’ it increases our fear,” Hemat said. “We are already victims of war.

“Refugees are not bad people,” he said. “They came because of war; they suffered. If someone has a life without fear, why do they come here?”

Still, if he were to get another chance to serve with the U.S. military, he would go back. “I will be at the U.S. Army base. I will be working side by side with the U.S. troops. If they kill troops, they kill me. I would be honored.” each week.

“One day they took me by the car and tied my hands and told me that ‘we need to kill you. … You don’t deserve to be alive’ … and they took me to a cemetery,” Shihabeldin said. He was told to kneel, had a gun aimed at his head and told to count to 100. After a few minutes he realized that the gunmen had left and that he was near his house.

“I can’t stand,” he said. “They torture me; my body’s no good. I struggled to reach my house.”

Denied a visa to the United States, he fled to Cairo, where he lived from 2002 to 2016. “Life there is very hard. That’s kind of the beginning of persecution.” Because he was black, he could only get work as a porter.

One day, by coincidence or “God’s mercy,” he saw his girlfriend, who had also fled to Egypt. They were married and now have four children, ages 3 to 14.

Shihabeldin again applied for refugee status but was told the U.N. refugee agency had lost his case. He and his family finally arrived in the United States in August 2016.

He lost the connection with the rest of his family, but found out his sister was killed in a bombing. He would like to bring his brother to America but fears the refugee ban will make that impossible. “I am disappointed about this decision,” he said.

“It’s not easy,” Shihabeldin said. “The life here is not as easy as we thought. … The best thing here is you find safety. No one says ‘you are black.’” But his family is happy and his children were thrilled to play in the snow for the first time. He has enrolled at Gateway, and he’s performing in a production of the Collective Consciousness Theatre called “Voices of a New America.”

The contrast between his former and present lives is stark.

“The government tried to attack us and persecute us. … They describe me as a black insect. Every day I teach my kids, now we’re in America, a country of dreams. I need you to grow up to be lawyers and engineers. … You must take care of yourself and be careful.”