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After almost 10 years of serving the American military as an interpreter and advisor, Saeedullah Taraky moved his family from Afghanistan to the U.S.
Landing in Erie in 2022, Taraky began working to help other immigrants and refugees. First, he served as a case manager with Catholic Charities Counseling and Adoption Services, where he assisted Afghans with scheduling citizenship and immigration appointments and preparing cases with attorneys, and served as an interpreter.
In that same time period, he helped found the Afghan Community of Erie, Pennsylvania, which connects Afghans in the city and region.
He later took a role with the City of Erie, liaising between the local government and immigrants and refugees — work he’s continued as a member of Gov. Josh Shapiro’s Advisory Commission on Asian American and Pacific Islander Affairs, and as chair of Diverse Erie, an org that aims to increase private investment in minority businesses.
These efforts earned him a nomination for our PA Local Heroes series, sponsored by Ballard Spahr.
The Afghan Community of Erie, Pennsylvania was founded in December 2022 and helps prepare immigrants for citizenship tests, find jobs, and improve their English fluency.
Many of its programs focus on helping immigrants navigate cultural differences. A big one, Taraky said, is that in Afghanistan most people did not often use computers. That’s not the case in the United States, where everyday activities like grocery shopping and making appointments involve technology. So the Afghan Community of Erie, Pennsylvania offers digital literacy courses to help newcomers adjust.
“Before digital literacy, nobody was able to use a laptop computer,” Taraky said of immigrants the organization has helped. “Now they're able to use at least basic use of the computers, and it helped them with employment.”
This means they now can search for and apply to jobs online, Taraky said.
English courses offered by the organization have a similar goal. Taraky noted many members of the Afghan community drive rideshares and need to be able to interact with customers.
Taraky’s leadership has made him a rock for other immigrants in Erie.
“The first thing you notice isn't a resume or a title that he carries, it's his presence, the calm and the grounded way that he speaks, like someone who has seen a lot and survived even more, and still somehow, he's someone that never loses hope every single day,” said Mohammad Khan, who met Taraky shortly after arriving in the United States in 2022. Like Taraky, Khan previously worked with the American military and left Afghanistan after the U.S. withdrawal.
Afghans in the United States face many of the same problems as other immigrants under the Trump administration, Taraky said.
But a specific issue facing his community, Taraky said, is the pause in visa and immigration processing for Afghan nationals. That policy has kept many Afghan families in limbo, even those who have completed all the legal requirements.
“Many Afghans worked alongside the U.S. government in Afghanistan and were promised safety,” Taraky said. “Pausing these immigration processes breaks that promise, and the human impact of these decisions cannot be ignored.”
The pause takes a heavy toll on Afghans in Erie, especially those with families waiting to immigrate.
“I work with Afghan families in Erie who have been separated from their spouses and children for four years or more,” Taraky said. “Some parents are still waiting to reunite with children who were evacuated to the United States while they themselves were left behind.”
Taraky said he supports a thorough vetting process but thinks stopping the process entirely is not fair.
“Our hope is that they will reunite with their families, but with the current administration, I think it's getting harder, and that's the biggest challenge that the community is facing,” Taraky said.
Taraky said he wants to support not only the Afghan community but Erie as a whole.
Khan recalled a time when a storm affected a local farmer and Taraky rallied the Afghan community to offer water and food.
“It's truly who he is,” Khan explained. “A warm sunny Sunday morning, you are either sleeping or trying to enjoy your coffee, or trying to plan a trip to the beach with your kids, and Saeed will be out there in the community helping someone.”
Taraky said that he’s simply returning the kindness he’s been shown.
“I want to show to the American people, especially the Erie County residents, that we are not only here to get, we are here to give,” he said.
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