by Natasha Ishak This story was originally published at Prism. In late October, the U.S. State Department announced a new sponsorship program for incoming refugees from Afghanistan. Modeled after a similar community sponsorship program in Canada, the Sponsor Circle for Afghans allows groups of U.S. citizens to sponsor a family of refugees. The program is meant to involve American community members in the resettlement process for refugees while, at the same time, providing relief to the U.S. resettlement infrastructure, which has been stretched thin in response to the crisis in Afghanistan. Tens of thousands of Afghans fled their home country and have relocated abroad after Kabul, the Afghanistan capital, was captured under the Taliban regime following the withdrawal of U.S. troops in August. According to the Biden administration, roughly 7,000 Afghans have since been flown out and resettled in communities across the U.S.. The government’s shrunken resettlement system—which was reduced under former President Donald Trump—has not been able to withstand the sudden influx of incoming Afghan refugees. But Hamidullah Noori, an Afghan chef who came to the U.S. as a refugee in 2015, says the resettlement system in the U.S. has been overburdened for years, even before the crisis in Afghanistan. Refugees are the ones who ultimately bear the brunt of the overwhelmed system. Read more