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California Families Trapped Amid Afghanistan Chaos

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Flickr / Creative Commons

The students and 14 parents flew to Afghanistan to visit their extended families, according to the Cajon Valley Union School District in Southern California. But as Afghanistan’s government began to collapse, they realized that they wouldn’t make it back for the first day of school on August 17 — two days after Kabul fell to the Taliban.

Even though the families had plane tickets for a return to the United States, the Cajon Valley School Board president said it was impossible to book a flight out of Afghanistan.

School officials said the families, with children ranging in age from preschool to high school, have not even been able to travel to the airport in Kabul because of the deteriorating security situation there. The district superintendent told the New York Times that the families are hiding and sheltering until they are contacted by U.S. officials and arrangements can be made for their passage back.

A spokesman for Congressman Darrell Issa said his office is in contact with the Biden administration to obtain immigration paperwork for his constituents now trapped in Afghanistan.

Sunni M. Khalid is a veteran of more than 40 years in journalism, having worked in print, radio, television, and web journalism.