No Safe Place

No Safe Place: Life in U.S. is a New Battle for Refugees

They served alongside U.S. troops in Afghanistan, risking their lives to help the American war effort. Some were interpreters. Others were doctors, diplomats or engineers. Because of their ties to the United States, they were targeted for death by the resurgent Taliban and its sympathizers. The U.S. Congress, recognizing this danger, chose to reward these war veterans with special visas allowing them to come to the United States.

More than 2,000 Afghans with such visas have been resettled in Sacramento County, the highest number of any county in California. Many say they're deeply disappointed. Professionals in their own country, they have been relegated to the American underclass, enduring poverty, crime and post-traumatic stress syndrome.

The resettlement agencies have placed them in aging, bug-infested apartment complexes in neighborhoods with high rates of poverty and crime.