By Suzi Morales and Michael Fisch
law community
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Photograph by Michael J. Clarke
winter 2023
When Army Captain James Lockett, JD ’22, ended his first deployment in Afghanistan in 2014, a key partner remained behind: Afghan native Ahmad, who served as a translator and intermediary [his name has been changed to protect his identity].
Lockett deployed three times to Afghanistan during his seven-and-a-half years as an infantry officer. During his first deployment, two of the 21 soldiers in his heavy-weapons platoon were killed in action and three suffered serious injuries.
Ahmad lived on the U.S. military base with the troops, “serving as our translator and as an intermediary with the local Afghans we were trying to speak to—a critical set of eyes and ears. He spent every day doing the same patrols that we were doing, unarmed, so arguably in more danger than we were,” Lockett says.
After the U.S. withdrew from Afghanistan last year, the Taliban retaliated against those who had assisted American forces during the war, including Ahmad’s family, who were beaten and tortured. The Taliban shot one of Ahmad’s brothers in the back, kidnapped another, and forced the terrified family of 15—including Ahmad’s wife, four young children, parents, and siblings—into hiding, he says.
Lockett, 33, feared that Ahmad’s family would be killed if no action was taken, and thus began an unrelenting effort to help them. “Everything from gathering and filing documents for immigration applications to contacting State Department officials trying to get the family onto manifests for flights, fundraising, and coordinating their safe houses and evacuation” he says.
In 2015, Ahmad was permitted to immigrate alone to Atlanta, Georgia, and he became a U.S. citizen this year. Until last winter, the translator’s family had no choice but to remain in Afghanistan while they awaited special immigrant visas (SIVs). They hid in safe houses in Kabul that Lockett and his contacts helped arrange.
In March 2022, veterans’ groups hired smugglers to bring Ahmad’s immediate family to Islamabad, Pakistan. In October, they were flown by the State Department to Albania, where they have been awaiting the final stages of their SIVs, Lockett says.
“We owed it to him and his family. The only reason their lives were at risk is because Ahmad was assisting the U.S. military. We couldn’t leave them behind.”
Ahmad’s extended family remains in Pakistan in a volatile situation, Lockett says. The Pakistani government is considering deportation of Afghans, in part due to border clashes between Afghan and Pakistani security forces personnel, Lockett says. His legal contacts helped Ahmad’s extended family in Islamabad apply for humanitarian parole in the U.S., a process that may take years. Of the approximately 46,000 Afghan applications, only 5,000 have been adjudicated, and approximately 500 were approved, he says.
One other potential haven is Brazil, which has agreed to accept some Afghan refugees. Immigration there will be complex without a concerted effort because of Brazil’s slow bureaucratic system, he explains.
Lockett is thankful to Mahsa Khanbabai, an immigration attorney who has taken Ahmad’s case pro bono, and the E3 Ranch Foundation for its financial support of Ahmad’s family. The foundation, founded by former Major League Baseball player Adam LaRoche, funds humanitarian relief efforts. “It’s been kind of miraculous that we’ve done this,” Lockett says. “I didn’t know anything about immigration law or visas until I started this. But I have been relentless in trying to get this stuff done. I just haven’t stopped pushing.”
After starting law school at age 30, he became active in the Suffolk Law Veterans Association, which provides networking, support, and resources for military veterans. At graduation this year, Lockett received the Law School’s Public Citizenship Award in recognition of his exemplary service. He joined the Army in 2012 after graduating from the Virginia Military Institute in 2011.
As an associate at Holland & Knight, he has continued to work on pro bono immigration matters involving Afghans seeking special immigrant visas. The U.S. immigration system is broken, he says. “It’s very difficult for anyone, but even more so for non-native speakers. This is someone who should have had no issue immigrating, with his service to the US military, but he has faced an uphill battle at every turn.”
