One year later, Afghans struggle with broken US promises

One year ago in Kabul, the U.S. military launched the largest wartime evacuation since the Fall of Saigon in 1975. The hurried withdrawal served as the impetus for Operation Allies Welcome — a historic mission to resettle approximately 80,000 Afghan evacuees in the United States. These newcomers served American interests throughout our nation’s longest war as combat interpreters, diplomats, NGO workers, women’s rights activists, journalists and in other vital supporting roles.

Across the country and across the political spectrum, compassionate Americans have embraced these allies as their newest neighbors in a truly inspiring fashion. But while the airlift brought them to safety on our shores, this first anniversary should serve as a sobering reminder of the enduring challenges they face — and the hundreds of thousands more the U.S. left behind in its hasty exit.

The grim reality is that U.S. policymakers cannot pat themselves on the back for a mission yet to be accomplished, and a promise yet to be fulfilled. This once-in-a-generation effort has largely faded from the daily headlines, but tens of thousands of our newest Afghan neighbors continue to face daily struggles with securing affordable housing, employment and permanent legal status in the U.S. — all while separated from family back in Afghanistan, whom our government swore to bring to safety.

The organization I lead, Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, has witnessed the fallout of these failures firsthand in welcoming more than 13,500 Afghan men, women and children in the past year alone.

We worked around the clock to secure temporary, then permanent housing for them, mobilizing a makeshift army of volunteers to set up homes with all their basic needs. We enrolled thousands of refugee children in public schools and helped families access community resources. We launched new resettlement offices and hosted hiring fairs to help Afghan job seekers take their first steps to self-sufficiency. Beyond meeting their most urgent needs, we have organized legal clinics, cultural orientations, financial literacy classes and mental health workshops to help our new neighbors better adjust to life in the U.S. amid unimaginable trauma.

And yet, after all these efforts, the challenges Afghans face are far from over. Among many, two questions loom largest in our clients’ minds: How can I bring my family here and how can I stay in the U.S.? Regrettably, the federal government’s response has been equivocal on both fronts.

In terms of reunification, all of our Afghan clients have family members among the 160,000 that the U.S. Department of State estimates were left behind, whether they are extended relatives, spouses, or even their children. That heartbreaking absence is a major source of stress and anxiety, and it has undoubtedly compounded all the usual challenges of starting over in a new country, culture and language.

Afghans have begun to lose hope in the face of such little progress in reuniting families. The technical pathways available to them — humanitarian parole, special immigrant visas and the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program — are extremely burdensome, and have proven to bear little fruit in relocating those in harm’s way.

For example, approximately 49,000 Afghans have applied for humanitarian parole as of July 28, but the Biden administration has only adjudicated 8,500 applications — and a jaw-dropping 96 percent have been denied. Only 5,631 Afghans have been admitted to the U.S. through the special immigrant visa program, and only 971 through the refugee program this fiscal year ending Sept. 30. These figures amount to a glacial pace that, if unchanged, would require more than two decades to relocate all those who are thought to be eligible for protection in the U.S.

Afghan evacuees have painstakingly watched a year go by and 100,000 Ukrainians admitted to the U.S., all the while desperate to reunite with their loved ones. The Biden administration must recommit itself to relocating Afghan allies at a meaningful scale; and it would do well to address inequities by applying lessons learned from its bold, innovative and swift response to Ukrainians seeking safety in the U.S.

Meanwhile, Congress has failed to address the legal limbo weighing heavily on Afghans already in the U.S. Their tenuous humanitarian parole status offers no pathway to permanent U.S. residency, nor does the Biden administration’s temporary protected status designation for Afghanistan. These are two short-term band-aids for a population that needs and deserves long-term protection.

The solution is the same legislative fix that refugee advocates, veterans and faith leaders have been calling for since last year. It is incumbent upon Congress to honor our nation’s promise of lasting protection by passing the bipartisan Afghan Adjustment Act, newly introduced in both chambers last week.

This legislation would offer much-needed stability to tens of thousands of Afghan evacuees by allowing them to apply for lawful permanent residency after their first year here. From a practical standpoint, it would divert an unnecessary burden on the asylum system, which is already buckling under the weight of a massive 430,000 case backlog. It would similarly ease the strain on special immigrant visa processing, which already takes years to complete, and whose backlog has grown from approximately 17,000 to more than 74,000 principal applicants in just a year.

The Afghan Adjustment Act is how we stand by those who stood with us. This is a moral imperative with overwhelming bipartisan support, rooted in well-established historical precedent. Congress must swiftly pass it.

Our nation is stronger for having welcomed these allies of America’s longest war, and we will be stronger still when we keep our promise — not just to our newest neighbors — but to those left behind as well. The choice between redemption and betrayal is clear.

Krish O’Mara Vignarajah is president and CEO of Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service.