So far, more than 76,000 Afghans have been resettled across the country since the fall of Kabul to the Taliban in August.
That historic effort has been complicated in the Washington region. Initially, local hospitals were inundated by Afghan evacuees with serious health problems. Now, overwhelmed resettlement groups have struggled to find affordable permanent homes for many Afghan families in one of the most expensive housing markets in the region.
Department of Homeland Security officials said the new “safe haven” at the National Conference Center will help expedite the resettlement process by replacing the previous system where thousands of families were temporarily housed inside U.S. military installations around the country, many of them with no documentation.
The Afghans who will arrive at the Loudoun County site — either former interpreters who helped in the U.S. war effort or women leaders, human rights activists or journalists who were evacuated because of likely retribution from the Taliban — have already had most of their documents processed abroad, making it easier for them and their families to begin new lives in the United States, DHS officials said.
All of those individuals have been vetted to enter the United States — including biometric and biographic screenings and vaccinations for the coronavirus and other diseases — with many of them eligible to receive special immigrant visas that would put them on a path to legal permanent residency, DHS officials said. Processing for each family is expected to last between two and four weeks, DHS officials said.
Some county residents are nonetheless concerned about living near a large processing site for Afghan evacuees.
Last week, Loudoun County Sheriff Michael Chapman (R) revealed that the site was under consideration and, after meeting with DHS officials about it, suggested that the presence of the Afghans could pose security concerns while they are housed at the facility, which is a short walk from two schools.
“As I have a responsibility for the safety and security of Loudoun’s citizens, I want to ensure that our community is aware of the concerns we have raised and the expectations we have from our partners with the federal government,” Chapman said in a statement last week. “Currently, those expectations have not been met, and we continue to have concerns as to whether the NCC is an appropriate location to support this mission.”
Robert J. Fenton Jr., who is coordinating the resettlement effort for DHS, said the people who will be processed at the site include Afghans who are still trying to get out of their country after their relatives were evacuated.
They will arrive from Dulles International Airport in buses, about five or six per week, during times of the day when there is no rush-hour traffic, he said.
“Our intent is to not impact your community at all,” Fenton told the roughly 100 county residents who attended the town hall meeting about the site. The Afghans would not be allowed to leave the facility while there and no visitors will be allowed, he said.
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