Afghan refugees are stuck in US limbo as Congress fails to move legislation

Tens of thousands of Afghan evacuees living in the U.S. have reached the second anniversary of the withdrawal with no permanent way to remain in the country as lawmakers repeatedly fail to advance legislation to solidify their status.

Almost as soon as Afghan evacuees began to arrive in the U.S. — a group that now totals roughly 80,000 — advocates began crafting an “adjustment act,” mirroring the practice of past military evacuations by the U.S. government of offering permanent residency to those lifted from war-torn countries.

But the bill has faced constant roadblocks to being passed by Congress or attached to other “must-pass” legislation — resistance primarily coming from a small group of GOP lawmakers that is leaving Afghans and immigration advocates exasperated.

“Afghans that specifically came here are struggling a lot especially when a lot of their humanitarian parole visas are expiring. And it has been two years that they are in temporary status and there’s no pathway for them to apply for permanent status,” said Helal Massomi, an evacuee who now works as the Afghan policy adviser for Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service.

“And I think that’s not keeping a promise to allies of 20 years of war.”

In the absence of action from Congress, the Biden administration has asked Afghans to apply for “re-parole,” which allows the executive to waive certain populations into the country that might not otherwise be eligible for a visa.

“You’re having instance after instance of them being asked to trust the process, or take one more step or just apply for this one more thing until we figure this out,” said Joseph Azam, board chair for the Afghan-American Foundation.

“And not surprisingly, a lot of them are wondering if their permanent state in the U.S. is actually impermanence.”

Children play with stones at an Afghan refugees camp on Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, N.J., Sept. 27, 2021. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File)

The stall in Congress isn’t due to widespread opposition, but it has twice been blocked by one Republican senator.

The most recent attempt to get the legislation rolled in with an annual defense policy bill in August died after the amendment to do so was put on hold by Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.).

“Frankly, Democrats haven’t been the problem. The sole problem is Republicans who are worried about the politics of this,” said Shawn VanDiver, founder of the #AghanEvac coalition.

Dealing with Congress

In the midst of the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan, Congress’s focus on aiding evacuees was clear.

But that support has waned as the evacuation has fallen out of the news cycle and Republican investigations have focused more on the disaster of the exit than efforts to provide a permanent home to those who landed here.

“This bill has come up at pretty much every major vehicle over the past 18 months. And it is a story of resilience on the part of civil society and the Afghan community here in the United States that this bill is not dead,” said Chris Purdy, head of Veterans for American Ideals.

Advocates say they are getting sick of what they see as double talk.

“You have people on the anniversary of the fall of Kabul, especially Republicans, lamenting our irresponsible withdrawal and all the suffering that’s caused and how we’ve abdicated our leadership,” Azam said.

“There will be that in one tweet. And they’ll completely ignore dozens and dozens of meetings, thousands of letters and tens of thousands of pleas for them to act.”

The Afghan Adjustment Act would allow evacuees to apply for permanent residency and later citizenship while establishing a task force to help those who were left behind in the withdrawal arrive as refugees.

In both cases, applicants would face the most rigorous vetting possible, undergoing the multi-step screening process required for refugees.

Refugees board buses that will take them to a processing center at Dulles International Airport in Virginia after being evacuated from Kabul following the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan Aug. 27, 2021. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

While all evacuees were screened before entering the country — with some spending more than a month in overseas locations before their arrival — an inspector general report found Department of Homeland Security personnel didn’t always have all data needed for the screening.

However, those who were deemed a potential risk weren’t forwarded onto flights to the U.S.

The second round of vetting included in the legislation is a mechanism added to address any concerns about the prior background checks.

Still, that issue has been the chief complaint for a small handful of lawmakers.

“I think the critics of this bill make it sound like you pass this bill and the [U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services] fairy is just going to go to everybody’s house with magic green cards …and that is not the case at all. It’s just very disingenuous,” Purdy said.

Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) raised objections the first time the bill was introduced in 2022.

Then in July of this year, Cotton introduced his own bill that would provide “conditional residency” to Afghans. His legislation also limited the parole process — blunting the very mechanism that allowed their arrival and that is also being used at the border to allow some Latin American and Haitian citizens to enter the country.

The Cotton bill was designed to serve as an alternative to the Afghan Adjustment Act, but it didn’t secure any Democratic co-sponsors and failed to gain much traction.

“The Cotton bill was in no uncertain terms a poison pill. There were no Democrats on it. It essentially created a thousand flaming hoops for Afghans to jump through and then it tried to gut parole authority,” Azam said.

The Afghan Adjustment Act, reintroduced just a few weeks before Cotton’s bill, has roughly equal numbers of Republican and Democratic co-sponsors in each chamber, more than 40 in total. Its most viable push toward the president’s desk came in late July during an effort led by Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) to attach it to the defense policy bill.

Cotton’s office put a hold on that amendment, and advocates then complained they were unable to get through to his office during last-minute negotiations, with VanDiver saying his team “ghosted” the discussions.

“Tom Cotton’s team did a good job during the [evacuation], and since then, I think immigration hard-liners in his office have taken over, and there’s just no movement,” VanDiver said.

“So while Tom Cotton wants to wrap himself in the flag of being a veteran and say he stands with Afghans, the tangible results don’t exist.”

“If Tom Cotton really really cared about Afghans, he’d come to the table and he would negotiate in good faith and stop trying to put on the backs of Afghans wholesale immigration reform he knows will never pass,” VanDiver added.

When reached for comment, Cotton’s office said the U.S. can’t “cut corners” in offering a pathway to remain in the country.

“The United States should help those Afghans who worked alongside U.S. troops, but our gratitude does not require compromising Americans’ safety as we pick up the pieces from Joe Biden’s disastrous and chaotic withdrawal,” Cotton’s office said.

“We should provide them with legal stability and a path to successfully integrate into the U.S., but we can’t cut corners or risk giving green cards to terrorists embedded in the evacuated masses.”

The statement also included a false claim that described many evacuees as “completely unvetted,” despite the screening required for any evacuee boarding a U.S. bound plane.

Those backing the bill dismiss Cotton’s fears and note the Afghan Adjustment Act would spur a second round of vetting for evacuees who would otherwise likely remain in the U.S. regardless of their immigration status. They argued the passage of the law, as a result, would actually directly address their security concerns.

Growing frustrations 

In other corners, advocates have grown frustrated by those who have been active voices in criticizing the administration for the fallout but who haven’t been part of the push to get the bill included in broader legislation.

Azam said when advocates were camped on the Capitol steps pushing for inclusion of the Afghan Adjustment Act in a continuing resolution last September, Rep. Mike Waltz (R-Fla.) stopped by but stressed the importance of the GOP taking back the House so they could investigate the matter.

“They would rather this be like an open wound to exploit for 2024,” he said.

In a statement from his office, Waltz said he’s primarily focused on those left behind who are eligible for Special Immigrant Visas (SIV) given to people who aided the U.S. military.

“While the status of these refugees absolutely needs to be addressed, the priority for our office has been on the 150,000-plus SIV applicants and family members who are currently being hunted by the Taliban due to Biden’s disastrous withdrawal. To this day not one senior administration official has resigned or been fired due to this debacle,” his spokesperson said in an email.

The GOP has launched an investigation since coming into power, an effort led by the House Foreign Affairs Committee chaired by Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas).

“We appreciate the need for congressional oversight. And also, we want to see action to help Afghans alongside that oversight. It doesn’t help Afghans to drag a bunch of volunteers before Congress. That doesn’t help Afghans today to do these hearings,” VanDiver said.

“This isn’t history yet. This is still ongoing.”

A ‘Lazarus’ bill 

A fraction of those brought to the U.S. — less than 10,000 — have been able to adjust their status since being evacuated, according to data from May and June obtained by The Hill.

Some were already in the pipeline for SIVs, and the initial applications that have been processed are largely being approved.

Still the review is slow-going, with only about 5,600 out of roughly 17,000 applications approved.

And even those who spent significant time working alongside the military may not meet the strict criteria, including the female tactical teams that aided in the war.

“The entire purpose of the Special Immigrant Visa program is to provide permanent residency to those who have supported the United States abroad. And it’s clear to me that these brave women should also qualify,” Klobuchar said during a floor speech in July pushing for the bill.

Many have also applied for asylum, but the process is marred by a years-long backlog, even as the government has tried to prioritize applications from evacuees.

“Are they going marginally faster than the average person? Probably? But the average person is still backlogged for years,” Purdy said.

A woman embraces her sister-in-law as she arrives with other Afghan refugees on a flight at Dulles International Airport in Chantilly, Va., Aug. 23, 2021. (OLIVIER DOULIERY/AFP via Getty Images)

So far only about 2,500 out of more than 17,000 have been approved, with figures suggesting more than 100 have already been denied the status.

Massomi, the evacuee and Afghan policy adviser, is one of the few to already have her asylum application granted, something largely due to her background working in women’s and minority rights in Afghanistan.

“Representatives or congressmen or senators go to [the] media and talk about how they haven’t forgotten about Afghans, how they would want to do something for Afghans. … But when it comes to action, we see nothing from their side,” Massomi said.

“If you actually want to do something, do something in policy where you actually have authority.”

Some evacuees have applied for multiple types of relief, an expensive and time-consuming prospect that often requires legal assistance.

Evacuees have submitted more than 35,000 applications for different types of relief, but it’s unclear how many of those may include Afghans who have applied for the various options, including Temporary Protected Status.

There are also still nearly 24,000 Afghans who haven’t applied for any adjustment of status at all.

“What is not bad is the administration is trying to find solutions to this problem. But what is bad about this is the real solution lies with Congress. And they’re the ones that could fix a lot of problems that we’re seeing but instead want to punt this to the Biden administration to kind of tweak around the edges and hope that they can do whatever they can as the executive to make it not their problem,” Purdy said.

“But Congress is the one that has the authority to solve all of this right now.”

He called the Afghan Adjustment Act a “Lazarus” bill, a nod to the man brought back from the dead by Jesus.

“It’s not falling apart, it’s just being held up really by two senators because they don’t want immigration. We’ll get it done but it’s just like how difficult is Sen. Cotton and Sen. Grassley going to make this?” he asked.

But Azam has some of his own doubts, stressing the need to take action when Congress returns in September.

“Everybody’s like, ‘One more push!’ And it’s just one more push uphill until it rolls back down on top of us. And I feel like that cycle is also going to exhaust people,” he said.

“We’re getting to primary season. And, you know, good luck trying to get something that’s immigration adjacent through Congress, right? … I really do feel like what’s coming up next in the next month or two is the last window.”

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.