They have been living in Phoenix since then, settling into American culture - a process made easier thanks to his time spent embedded with U.S.
I'm safe now, but I worry for friends I left behind. IndyStar is not using Ali's last name out of concerns for his safety. The nonprofit "No One Left Behind" has recorded more than 300 interpreters and family members have been killed because of their American connection. In 2016, he and his family began a new, safer chapter when they immigrated to the U.S., through the Special Immigrant Visa program, designed to help Afghan interpreters and others who took significant risks to work alongside the United States.
Ali's trip to Indiana wasn't the first time he escaped the Taliban.