Hoping to Rescue El Cajon Family Still Trapped in Afghanistan

The war in Afghanistan may be over but the fight to get Americans left behind is far from over and that includes some who are from San Diego County.

An El Cajon family for one, still trapped in Afghanistan. A spokesman for the Cajon Valley Union School District says the three children in that family are students in the district.

Four other families — seven adults and 14 children — from El Cajon have returned home with two other families on their way home. All of these families were visiting relatives in Afghanistan during the school district’s summer break before they knew the Taliban was on the move and that they would be in control of the country so quickly.

The Cajon Valley School District’s director of family and community engagement told the San Diego Union Tribune there is concern about other American families who also are still there, possibly hundreds or even thousands, he says, who have not reached out to their children’s school districts.

The school district is getting help from Congressman Darrell Issa who represents the El Cajon area, which includes a large number of immigrants and refugees from the Middle East, in efforts to get families home.

Afghanistan is a place half the world away, but for these families unable to leave there, it must seem like even farther away right now.

(Photo Getty Images)