Amid ICE deportations, visa processing freezes, and the forthcoming trial of an Afghan refugee suspected of shooting two National Guard soldiers, an Afghan man living in Central Virginia reflects on his time helping U.S. Special Forces and where his allegiances lie.
These days, Salih Wafa keeps his U.S. passport in his pocket. He doesn’t mind.
“You know, I used to stop people when I was in the military,” said Wafa, who lives in Charlottesville. “I used to stop people, check them, and ask people if they were militants, if they had any ties with the militants. We used to detain people. I don’t mind if somebody is stopping me, just to make sure everyone around us is safe. Especially with the things that happened in DC.”
Nearly two months after the shooting that left one National Guard service member dead and another severely wounded, the suspect, Rahmanullah Lakanwal, goes on trial this spring. With the government’s recent freeze on visa processing from 75 nations, including Afghanistan, some immigrants are bracing for backlash not seen since Sept. 11, 2001.
Not Wafa, though. As a cultural advisor and translator for the American military from 2010 and 2013, he knows where his allegiance lies.
“After graduating high school, I joined the U.S. military,” Wafa said. “I don’t know another world. We were the bridge between Afghans and the U.S. over there. It’s a very big job, plus putting yourself in danger. Not like a couple percent danger; It’s like 100% danger. That’s why I have a lot of respect toward the military families, to the people who let their kids, their loved ones, join the Army, especially, you know, nowadays.”
Born in rural east Afghanistan, Wafa, now 33, was fluent in English and a 19-year-old newlywed when he started working with the U.S. Special Forces in Afghanistan. He appreciated its sense of equality and belonging, sometimes in stark contrast with the Afghan army.
“I would see with my eyes, like, a U.S. general would go and sit among his soldiers,” Wafa recalled, “eat the same food that his soldiers were eating, wear the same type uniform as his men, shoes, from toe to head, same thing. No difference.”
But the work was hard. During his service, he survived three roadside bombings and two suicide bombers. The dismembered remains of his father-in-law, murdered by the Taliban, were mailed to his house. Close friends in the American and Afghan militaries died in his lap. He was also repeatedly loyalty-tested.
“Even though I was with the military, wearing same uniform, same gun, fighting with the same enemy, going out, sitting in the same truck, enemy is shooting at us, we are shooting back … every six months they will do a polygraph test. They will make sure that we are not bad people, and that we can be still trusted,” Wafa said.
Today, Wafa works in IT at UVA. He and his wife, Zainab, who he calls, “Z,” and their four children chat regularly via What’sApp with family members back in Afghanistan but they don’t expect to see them again in person. The Wafas rely on new friends for support, including, among others, retired Air Force Colonel Dan Moy.
“Immigrants like Salih and his family who’ve come to the United States: he earned it,” said Moy, a former Republican candidate for the Fifth District who teaches a UVA course on terrorism, counterterrorism, and counterinsurgency, who’s invited Wafa to speak to students each semester since 2021. “He earned it because those Afghans who were courageous enough to support what we were doing, U.S. service members, what we were doing, they served alongside of us, shoulder to shoulder, they stuck their necks out. And I will tell you, I would not be here today if it wasn’t for those Afghans who did that.”
Wafa, now a U.S. citizen, doesn’t linger on threats he’s received, including one neighbor’s promise to “call ICE.” He says he wants what every American wants—and to be on the right side of history.
“I do not have regrets,” Wafa said, “because serving humanity is no regret. As a Muslim, I believe in that, you know. I was in the right area, I was doing the right thing. I was not only fighting for U.S., I was also helping kids, I was helping women. When I was wearing that uniform, and I was going up and down in those mountains, and my chest was as armor in front of those bullets that were coming from the enemy side. So, I do not have any regrets.”
“Yeah, I miss my parents. My dad and mom, they always talk to me, and they say, ‘We are like sun in the evening, how fast it goes down,’” said Wafa. “I may not see them anymore, but they are proud of me, and I’m proud of what I did. I’m also proud that I have four kids.
“So, you know, this is what we live for. And life is not guaranteed,” he added. “You don’t know when you’re going to lose it. If you are in a high- or low-ranking, be always on the right side.”