Afghan refugees who have been living in the United States since August 2021 will reach the end of their two-year stay.
Barring Congressional action, he could be deported back to Afghanistan — where he would face the wrath of the Taliban.
The Afghan Adjustment Act, introduced last August by Sens. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) and Lindsey Graham (RS.C.), would pave the way for permanent residency for Afghans in the U.S., but party leaders are not abandoning it. must-pass spending bills that seemed like the best chance to become law late last year.
“If this bill had been brought to the floor, it would have passed.” Safi Rauf, a US war veteran and president of the Human First Coalition, an organization that lobbied for the bill, told HuffPost.
To win over the Republican senator, Rauf traveled to the red country in October and November with other groups of veterans. Republicans complained that the evacuees had not been fully supervised and posed a security risk to the country. After additional vetting measures were added to the bill, Republicans were largely on board, Rauf said. Two additional Republicans — Sens. Jerry Moran (Kan.) and Roger Wicker (Miss.) — signed on as co-sponsors in December as a result of the change.
Graham told HuffPost this week that the bill will be reintroduced, but has yet to negotiate with other co-sponsors.
Supporters of the bill hope to be reintroduced in the Senate and House as soon as March. Rauf said the bill is now less about security issues and more questions about when and if party leaders feel like moving forward with the law.
“It’s just a matter of time,” Rauf said. But he hopes Congress will recognize the urgency of the situation this time around because most of the refugees’ temporary status will expire in early August.
After the fall of Kabul amid a chaotic US withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021, the US government used a policy known as humanitarian parole to bring Afghans who aided American forces and who fear Taliban retaliation to American territory. But humanitarian parole does not provide a route to permanent residence.
For most Afghan refugees, the expiration of their parole means they are at immediate risk of losing their work permit with no clear way to extend it because they cannot change their status as quickly as asylum. In the long run, the worst case scenario is deportation back to Afghanistan.
“The stakes are higher than ever,” Rauf said.
According to unpublished DHS data reported by CBS Newsonly 4,775 applications from Afghan refugees seeking asylum or special visa status were granted as of February 12 compared to about 80,000 Afghans who had resettled in the US as of August 2021.
The asylum route to legal permanent residency takes a long time due to delayed applications. Most applicants do not hear back for months after filing.
DHS data shows that, as of February 12, more than 14,000 Afghans have applied for asylum, but only 1,175 of those requests have been approved, according to CBS News.
The process is also complicated and expensive, as it requires legal services and there are not enough volunteer lawyers to help with the volume of cases. There is no guarantee that all asylum cases will ultimately be approved because, according to Rauf, about half of the 80,000 evacuees may lack the necessary documentation and therefore cannot adjust their status.
The situation is no better for Afghan refugees eligible for Special Immigrant Visas (SIVs), which typically include translators, interpreters and others who serve in the American military. DHS has received 14,600 SIV applications from those already in the US, but only about 3,600 have been accepted so far.
The Biden administration granted Afghan refugees temporary protected status, which is granted to individuals who cannot safely return to their home countries because of the conflict. While the policy temporarily protects against deportation, it does not automatically pave the way to permanent residency in the U.S. Just over 1,000 Afghans have been enrolled in the program since early February.
“The bottom line is that we can no longer send,” Rauf said, “because the situation in Afghanistan is getting worse every day.”
A Human Rights Watch report stated that despite the Taliban’s declaration of amnesty, the group had executed or forcibly removed more than 100 former members of the Afghan National Security Forces.
Arthur Delaney contributed reporting.