‘Our job is not done’: How women veterans in Congress continue to help Afghan refugees

By Mariel Padilla

When Rep. Chrissy Houlahan met a small Afghan child while visiting a military base housing thousands of refugees, she was struck by how this girl’s journey mirrored that of her own father. Houlahan’s father, a Holocaust survivor, was about 5 years old when he fled Poland with his mother and found refuge in the United States.

“The concern about women and girl refugees has been pressing on me since I joined Congress, and certainly well before then,” said Houlahan, a Pennsylvania Democrat who took office in 2019 and said her prior military service impacts her work. “We have been involved in a war for the better part of 20 years … Many of us continue to be concerned about the refugees: those still left behind, those who are here and those who are still able to be relocated here.”