Refugee Immigration with Spojmie Nasiri

Episode 70 of the Lawyer Business Advantage podcast, hosted by Alay Yajnik and Chelsea Pagan, titled "Refugee Immigration with Spojmie Nasiri" was published on March 17, 2022 and runs 23 minutes.

March 17, 2022 ·23m · Lawyer Business Advantage

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Episode Description

In this episode, Alay and Spojmie discuss:

Spojmie’s experience with the Afghanistan refugee crisis.
The continued challenges to the Afghan refugees and those left behind during the evacuation.
The future of what is still to come for the Afghan refugees.

Key Takeaways:

The resettlement process takes years and is difficult especially in the already overloaded system.
Many refugees are being resettled in smaller, rural areas which is often difficult culturally and linguistically.
The Afghan refugees that are searching for refuge in the US were allies of US soldiers for 20 years.
Those left behind in Afghanistan are struggling under a regime that is ill equipped to handle leadership and is detrimental to those families split up and left behind.

Tweetable Moments:

“I’m an Afghan refugee myself. I came here in the 1980s with my family as a result of the Soviet war. As an Afghan-American, as an immigration attorney, I didn’t feel like there was any other option, but to just step up, and play a role in helping.” — Spojmie Nasiri
“This is the side of things that we don’t hear about. ” — Alay Yajnik
“We have to look at it from the perspective that these were 20 years of US allies. They gave up their life, they gave their families, they risked everything to serve alongside the US military or the Canadian military. I feel like we have a moral obligation.” — Spojmie Nasiri
“It’s important for us here in the US to not lose sight of and to be grateful for what we have, and to enable other people to come here and take advantage of the same things, especially when they’re our allies.” — Alay Yajnik

About Spojmie Nasiri:

Spojmie Ahmady Nasiri is a first-generation immigrant and the founder and principal attorney at the Law of Spojmie Nasiri, PC in Pleasanton, CA. Spojmie is a member of the California Bar and is admitted to the Northern District of California. She has been practicing immigration law for more than ten years and focuses on family-based immigration, including U visas, T visas, VAWA, 601A waivers as well as consular processing and deportation defense cases. She has been recognized for her dedication and commitment to the immigrant community by her peers and community leaders. In 2019, Spojmie was selected to the Alameda County Women’s Hall of Fame for the Justice award. Spojmie currently serves on the board of Afghan American Community Organization dedicated to serving the Afghan community and board member of International Orphan Care (IOC) dedicated to helping orphans in Afghanistan. She has served as board President of Council on American Relations (CAIR) for the San Francisco Bay Area Chapter protecting the civil rights of Muslim Americans. She is currently part of AILA’s Afghan Taskforce addressing the legal needs of Afghan evacuees. Spojmie is fluent in Pashto and Dari. She has spoken at numerous AILA conferences and other conferences locally and nationally on immigration law.