After Trump halted funding for Afghans who helped the US, this group stepped in to help

WASHINGTON (AP) — When Andrew Sullivan thinks of the people his organization has helped resettle in America, one particular story comes to mind: an Afghan man in a wheelchair who was shot through the neck by a member of the Taliban for helping the U.S. during its war in Afghanistan.

“I just think ... Could I live with myself if we send that guy back to Afghanistan?” said Sullivan, executive director of No One Left Behind. “And I thankfully don’t have to because he made it to northern Virginia.”

The charitable organization of U.S. military veterans, Afghans who once fled their country and volunteers in the U.S. is stepping in to help Afghans like that man in the wheelchair who are at risk of being stranded overseas. Their efforts come after the Trump administration took steps to hinder Afghans who helped America’s war effort in trying to resettle in the U.S.

No One Left Behind helps Afghans and Iraqis who qualify for the special immigrant visa program, which was set up by Congress in 2009 to help people who are in danger because of their efforts to aid the U.S. during the Afghanistan and Iraq Wars.

President Donald Trump in January suspended programs that buy flights for those refugees and cut off aid to the groups that help them resettle in the U.S. Hundreds who were approved for travel to the U.S. had visas but few ways to get here. If they managed to buy a flight, they had little help when they arrived.

The White House and State Department did not respond to requests for comment.

Meanwhile, the situation for Afghans has become more tenuous in some of the places where many have temporarily settled. Pakistan, having hosted millions of refugees, has in recent years removed Afghans from its country. increased deportations. An agreement that made Albania a waystation for Afghans expires in March, Sullivan said.

Hovering over all of this is the fear that the Trump administration may announce a travel ban that could cut off all access from Afghanistan. In an executive order signed on Inauguration Day, Trump told key Cabinet members to submit a report within 60 days that identifies countries with vetting so poor that it would “warrant a partial or full suspension” of travelers from those countries to the U.S.

U.S. State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce said Monday that the review was ongoing and no list had been finalized.

But groups that work with Afghans are worried.

When funding was suspended, No One Left Behind stepped in. Their goal is to make sure Afghans with State Department visas don't get stuck overseas. Other organizations — many who got their start helping Afghans during the U.S. military's chaotic withdrawal from Kabul in 2021 — are doing the same.

To qualify for this visa, Afghans must prove they worked for the U.S. for at least one year. That means tracking down documentation from former supervisors, who were often affiliated with companies no longer in business. They also undergo extensive vetting and medical checks.

“Our view was, OK, we’ve got to act immediately to try and help these people,” said Sullivan. “We’ve been in kind of an all-out sprint.”

The organization has raised money to buy flights and help Afghans when they land. Between February 1 and March 17, the group said it successfully booked flights for 659 Afghans.

It also launched a website where visa holders can share information, giving Sullivan's group a starting point to figure out where they might live in the U.S.

Sullivan and the organization’s “ambassadors” — Afghans and Iraqis who already have emigrated to the U.S., many through the special immigrant visa program — have gone to Albania and Qatar to help stranded Afghans.

Aqila is one of those ambassadors who went to Albania. The Associated Press is identifying Aqila by her first name because her family in Afghanistan is still at risk.

Aqila said many of the families didn’t know what would happen when they arrived in America. Would they be homeless? Abandoned? One man feared he’d end up alone in the airport parking lot because his contact in America — a long-haul trucker — couldn’t come pick him up. She assured him that someone would be there.

They gave them cards with contact information for attorneys. They printed papers with information about their rights in English, Dari, and Pashto.

No One Left Behind reached out to family members and friends in the U.S. to help with the transition when they landed in America.

Mohammad Saboor, a father of seven children, worked as an electrician and A/C technician with international and U.S. forces for 17 years. Two months ago, he and his family boarded a plane to Albania in anticipation of soon being able to go to America. They landed in California on March 12, exhausted but safe

The next day he and his family explored their new apartment in the Sacramento suburb of Rancho Cordova.

Saboor said he hasn’t felt safe in Afghanistan since the Taliban took over the country in August 2021. He worried that he’d be killed as retribution for the nearly two decades he’d worked with the U.S. and its allies. He wondered what kind of future his children would have in a Taliban-controlled Afghanistan.

The family picked the suburb in the hope that the large Afghan population in the Sacramento area would help them get settled and find work. He envisions a bright future in America, where his kids can go to school and eventually give back to the country that took his family in. Arriving in the U.S., he said, gave them a “great feeling.”

“I believe that now we can live in a 100% peaceful environment,” he said.

Sullivan said he hopes there will be exceptions for Afghans in the special immigrant visa program if a travel ban is imposed. They've been thoroughly vetted, he said, and earned the right to be here.

“These are folks that actually served shoulder-to-shoulder with American troops and diplomats for 20 years,” he said.

Aqila, the Afghan ambassador, said it's stressful to hear stories of what people went through in Afghanistan. But the reward comes when she sees photos of those who have arrived in America.

“You can see the hope in their eyes,” she said. “It’s nice to be human. It’s nice be kind to each other.”

Nargis Osmani rides a scooter near the new home provided to the Afghan family by the No One Left Behind Organization, in Rancho Cordova, Calif., Wednesday, March 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli)

Noria Sdeqi, center and her two daughters, Mursal Omani, left and Sadaf Osmani, right, sit in a van that will take them from the Sacramento International Airport to their new California home, provided by the No One Left Behind Organization, Tuesday, March 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli)

Pawlasha Rahimi, left, and Noria Sdeqi, who met weeks ago in a resettlement camp in Albania after leaving Afghanistan, hug after reuniting in Rancho Cordova, Calif., Wednesday, March 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli)

Afghan sisters Nilaap Osmani, left, and Mursal Omani, wait to the leave the Sacramento International Airport for their new home in Northern California Tuesday, March 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli)

Afghans Nilaap Osmani, left, Mohammad Shabir Osmani, center and Nargis Osmani, right, spend some quiet time in their new home in Rancho Cordova, Calif., Wednesday, March 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli)

Mohammad Samir Osmani, looks out a window of his families new home provided by the No One Left Behind Organization, in Rancho Cordova, Calif., Wednesday, March 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli)

Horia Obaidy, of the No One Left Behind Organization, left, that helps Afghans resettle in the United States, meets with Mohammad Sabor Osmani, in blue, and his family in Rancho Cordova, Calif., Wednesday, March 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli)

After arriving to the United States from Albania, hours earlier, Noria Sdeqi comforts her tired daughter Sadaf Osmani, 13 months, in their new home in Rancho Cordova, Calif., Wednesday, March 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli)

Noria Sdeqi prepares lunch for her family in their new home provided by the No One Left Behind Organization, in Rancho Cordova, Calif., Wednesday, March 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli)

After leaving Afghanistan two-months earlier, Mohammad Saboor Osmani, third from left, and his family are greeted by a representative of No One left Behind Organization after their arrival at the Sacramento International Airport in Sacramento, Calif., Tuesday, March 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli).

After leaving Afghanistan two-months earlier, Noria Sdeqi, center, and her daughter, Sadaf, 13 months, are welcomed by a representative of No One left Behind Organization after their arrival at the Sacramento International Airport in Sacramento, Calif., Tuesday, March 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli)

Mohammad Saboor Osmani, center, and his son's Mohammad Shabir Osmani, left, Mohammad Samir Osmani, second from left and Mohammad Seyar Osmanni, right, load their luggage on a cart after their arrival at the Sacramento International Airport in Sacramento, Calif., Tuesday, March 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli).

After leaving Afghanistan two-months earlier, Mohammed Saboor Osmani, center, followed by his family, takes the escalator down to the baggage area of the Sacramento International Airport in Sacramento, Calif., Tuesday, March 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli)

Mohammad Shabir Osmani, pushes one of his families suitcases out of the Sacramento International Airport, Tuesday, March 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli)

NEW YORK (AP) — Two purported mobsters were convicted Thursday of plotting to assassinate Iranian American journalist Masih Alinejad at her home in New York City in a murder-for-hire scheme that prosecutors said was financed by Iran's government.

The verdict was returned at a federal court in New York, ending a two-week trial that featured dramatic testimony from a hired gunman and Alinejad, an author, activist and contributor to Voice of America.

Alinejad, who was not in court, told The Associated Press she cried when she learned of the verdict.

“I am relieved that after nearly three years, the men who plotted to kill me have been found guilty. But make no mistake, the real masterminds of this crime are still in power in Iran,” she said. “Right now I am bombarded with emotions. I have cried. I have laughed. I have even danced.”

Alinejad called the verdict “a powerful gift from the American government” to the people of Iran because it shows that justice is beginning to be served.

Acting U.S. Attorney Matthew Podolsky said in a statement that the verdict sent a message that “if you target U.S. citizens, we will find you, no matter where you are, and bring you to justice.”

Leslie R. Backschies, who heads the FBI's New York office, said the verdicts show that the “Iranian government's shameless conduct and attempt to violate our laws and assassinate a critic of their human rights atrocities will not be tolerated.”

Prosecutors said the convicted men, Rafat Amirov and Polad Omarov, were crime bosses in the Russian mob. Their lawyers argued that they were innocent and trial evidence was flawed.

Alinejad, 48, was targeted by Iran for her online campaigns encouraging women there to record videos of themselves exposing their hair in violation of edicts requiring they cover it in public.

Iran offered $500,000 for a July 2022 killing of Alinejad after efforts to harass, smear and intimidate her failed, prosecutors said.

American officials have accused Iran of backing several assassination plots in the United States, including against President Donald Trump when he was campaigning last year. Tehran has denied being behind any such plots.

Alinejad testified last week that she came to the United States in 2009 after she was banned from covering Iran's disputed presidential election and the newspaper where she worked was shut down.

Establishing herself in New York City, she built an online audience of millions and launched her “My Stealthy Freedom” campaign, telling Iranian women to send photos and videos exposing of them showing their hair when the morality police were not around.

Soon, she said, she had inspired women to take to the streets in Iran on Wednesdays to peacefully protest, leading the government to arrest hundreds of them. The crackdown only caused her following to grow, however.

Prosecutors said at trial that by 2022, the Iranian government had enlisted organized crime figures including Amirov and Omarov to kill Alinejad.

Khalid Mehdiyev, a former member of the Russian mob who lived Yonkers and worked at a pizzeria, testified that he was hired as the hitman. Like Amirov and Omarov, he is from Azerbaijan, which shares a border and cultural ties with Iran.

Mehdiyev, who cooperated with prosecutors after pleading guilty to multiple crimes, said he bought an AK-47 to kill Alinejad but the plan was foiled when his car was stopped by police and the gun was found in the back seat in July 2022. A doorbell camera at Alinejad's home recorded Mehdiyev standing on her front porch.

Prosecutors have kept the investigation open. In October they announced charges against a senior Iranian military official and three others, none of whom are in custody.

In a separate case, U.S. prosecutors in 2022 charged a man in Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard with plotting to kill former U.S. national security adviser John Bolton.

Iranian officials vowed to exact revenge against Trump and others in his former administration over the 2020 drone strike that killed the prominent Revolutionary Guard Gen. Qassem Soleimani in Baghdad.

Alinejad said she has had to move nearly two dozen times since the assassination plot was discovered, at times feeling guilty that so many of her followers in Iran lack a safety net.

That, she said, only “makes me more determined to give voice to voiceless people.”

Masih Alinejad greets friends and supporters outside the federal courthouse after testifying at the trial of two men accused of allegedly plotting to kill her in New York, Tuesday, March 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

Masih Alinejad greets friends and supporters outside the federal courthouse after testifying at the trial of her alleged would-be assassins in New York, Tuesday, March 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

Masih Alinejad greets friends and supporters outside the federal courthouse after testifying at the trial of her would-be assassins in New York, Tuesday, March 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

Masih Alinejad blows a kiss to supporters outside the federal courthouse after testifying at the trial of her would-be assassins in New York, Tuesday, March 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

FILE - Masih Alinejad, 48, a prominent Iranian American human rights activist gives an interview Press in Berlin, Nov. 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi, File)

Masih Alinejad greets friends and supporters outside the federal courthouse after testifying at the trial of her would-be assassins in New York, Tuesday, March 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

Masih Alinejad greets friends and supporters outside the federal courthouse after testifying at the trial of two men accused of allegedly plotting to kill her in New York, Tuesday, March 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

Masih Alinejad greets friends and supporters outside the federal courthouse after testifying at the trial of her would-be assassins in New York, Tuesday, March 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)