From Military.com:
“White House Pushes for Afghan
Refugee Relief After Visas Drop by 91%”
The Biden administration is
pushing for a pathway to permanent U.S. residency for Afghan refugees as the
number of visas granted to former interpreters and others who worked with the
military dipped dramatically after the August withdrawal. The drop-off in
Afghan visa approvals has left tens of thousands of former allies in limbo
after the Taliban takeover, as Americans now focus on the plight of Ukrainians
caught in a new European war.
The number of special immigrant
visas, or SIVs, granted to those Afghans fell from 1,292 in July through
September to just 117 over the following three months -- a 91% drop, according
to the latest figures released last month. The large decrease came as the
number of remaining visa applications that the State Department has to process
stays steady at about 16,500, which is likely only a fraction of the Afghans
still awaiting a visa. The White House sent a request to Congress on Friday for
legislation giving Afghan refugees a path to legal permanent residence after
being in the U.S. for a year, according to a White House spokesperson.
Advocates say it could also ease the major backlog of visa applicants. "This
sends a message to our Afghan friends that they have not been forgotten,"
Shawn VanDiver, a Navy veteran and president of the #AfghanEvac coalition, said
in a statement, adding that he hopes to see a "quiet passage" of the
legislation, which he and other advocates call the Afghan Adjustment Act. VanDiver
told Military.com that he hopes to see Republicans and Democrats expand the
proposal and negotiate final legislation that could "vastly improve the
efficiency and effectiveness" of the current SIV system.
The new report on Afghan visa
approvals covers the first quarter of fiscal 2022 after the country came under
full control of the Taliban. Compared to the last quarter of 2021 -- the time
period when the military was helping evacuate 124,000 from Afghanistan -- the new
numbers show glacial progress. The report was jointly released by the State
Department and Department of Homeland Security. Additionally, the agencies
found that the SIV processing time between the two quarters went from 435 days
to 743 days -- nearly doubling -- while actual approvals dropped off. Afghan
special immigrant visas are issued to those who served the U.S. government for
at least one year during the war. Many Afghans eligible for the benefit were
interpreters assigned to military units and served alongside U.S. troops. The
Association of Wartime Allies, a non-governmental organization, estimated that
78,000 SIV applicants "remain left behind" in Afghanistan in its
February report. "We continue, as much as possible, to expedite processing
of SIV applications at all other stages of the process that can be performed
remotely," according to a State Department spokesperson. Many believe
surging staff and resources for processing could be the solution. The State
Department said it has hired an additional 58 National Visa Center officers for
approvals. "There are a lot of people who are in different stages of their
application, and they're kind of losing hope," said Khalil Arab, an Afghan
who successfully navigated the SIV process and is now living in Houston.
"It's been over seven months since the Taliban took over, and there's
hardly any window of opportunity for those guys." Arab is working
full-time as a program manager for Combined Arms SIVs and Allies, a nonprofit
helping Afghans come to the U.S. Others, such as VanDiver, say improvements
must come from Congress as the request from the White House makes its way through
Capitol Hill. "Lawmakers all across this country need to hear from their
constituents, and current and former members of the military," he said.
"Speak really loudly. There's nothing wrong with an active-duty member or
veteran or anybody that's reading this to pick up the phone, call their
representative in their personal capacity and say, 'Hey, I believe in this,
please do this.'"
Both the proposal to Congress and
the SIV slog come as the Biden administration also announces plans to welcome
another war-displaced population -- 100,000 Ukrainian refugees. The
administration's new efforts to accommodate Ukrainian refugees have left many
Afghans and their allies feeling frustrated and forgotten. "It seems like
they are just delaying our cases," said Zee, an interpreter who agreed to
speak with Military.com under a pseudonym. "All the people think over here
is that they are left behind and that they are only taking Ukrainian refugees
to the U.S." Advocates, veterans and service members now want to remind
Congress that Americans have a moral responsibility to Afghans in addition to
the rightful focus on Ukraine. Biden on Thursday asked Congress for $33 billion
in aid to Ukraine. A brief section of the nearly 70-page request proposed
allowing eligible Afghans a chance to apply for permanent residence. The White
House provision requests a "pathway to permanent residence to Afghan
evacuees who came here through Operation Allies Welcome," the name for the
military evacuation effort, according to a White House spokesperson, who said
the full package was sent to Congress on Friday. "What it does is it takes
a group that is a little bit in limbo," said Jack McCain, a reserve naval
aviator who flew alongside Afghan pilots in Afghanistan and son of the late
Sen. John McCain, "and institutionalizes them as Americans." The
provision specifically requests policy changes that affect Afghans who have
already been evacuated to the U.S., leaving some advocates to hope it can be
expanded to those left behind inside Afghanistan after the evacuation and total
military withdrawal.
The visa application process is
particularly dangerous and complicated for those still outside the U.S. The
American embassy in Kabul closed eight months ago as the Taliban took over, and
now Afghans must travel to an open embassy outside of Afghanistan to complete
part of their visa application. Zee said that he is living in fear from the
Taliban and uncertainty about his SIV case, for which he originally applied in
2018. He was originally denied a visa due to a human resources error by the
U.S. contractor who employed him. "Things are getting strict here,"
he said. "[The Taliban] threaten reporters; all the coffee shops are
closed, as well as other stuff like [preventing] barbers from shaving
beards." Still, he said he wanted to stay in Afghanistan until getting a
visa. Money to move a family out of the country and to safety from the Taliban,
especially without a guarantee of a green card from the U.S., was not a risk he
could afford. The State Department spokesperson acknowledged the
"extremely difficult" circumstances for Afghans hoping to be granted
an SIV, but had no ready solution for those who cannot make it to another
country with a U.S. embassy. "It's not feasible for most Afghans,"
said Matt Zeller, an Army veteran and co-founder of No One Left Behind, an SIV
support organization, citing outrageous costs the Taliban have allegedly
implemented for so-called exit visas allowing Afghans to travel to other
countries. "It's an insult to their circumstances to somehow tout this as
a viable option," he said.
^ The US needs to do A LOT more
to help the Afghans – especially those who worked and helped us over the decades.
So far we have failed them. The ones who made it out of Afghanistan linger in a
political “no-man’s land” and need to be able to be resettled in such a way
that they won’t have to fear being deported to Taliban-Controlled Afghanistan
or anywhere else. For those inside Afghanistan we need to do everything to make
it hard for the Taliban to find out who they are (not publish lists or anything
like that) and also try to get them out through the commercial airplanes – even
if under fake names. 8 months of Taliban run and their lives are still in grave
danger and we have a moral and political responsibility to help them. ^
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