From Military.com:
“A Year
Later, Afghan Refugees Remain in Legal Limbo as Vets Continue Evacuating Allies
Left Behind”
(U.S. Marines
with the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) process evacuees as they go
through the Evacuation Control Center (ECC) during an evacuation at Hamid
Karzai International Airport, Kabul, Afghanistan, Aug. 28, 2021.)
Thousands of
Afghans brought to the United States during the chaotic American military
evacuation after the Taliban overran Kabul remain in a legal limbo nearly a
year later, unsure whether they will be able to remain in their new country
when their temporary immigration status expires soon.
Meanwhile, as
the one-year anniversary of the withdrawal approaches, veterans groups have not
let up efforts to get out the estimated 78,000 Afghans who aided the 20-year
effort but were left behind when the last U.S. troops departed.
A bipartisan,
bicameral group of lawmakers is taking initial steps to fix the immigration
status of those who did make it out ahead of the U.S. withdrawal, introducing
bills in the House and Senate this week to allow the Afghan refugees to
permanently stay in the United States. Supporters are hopeful the bill will
become law, but the clock is ticking on both the legislative calendar and the
Afghans' immigration status, with the August recess meaning a fix likely can't
come in time for Afghans already in the U.S. before some see their legal status
expire. The bill also contains several provisions meant to ease ongoing
relocations. "We're hopeful that passing this bill won't be as hard as
passing the PACT Act," said Shawn VanDiver, a Navy veteran and president
of the #AfghanEvac Coalition, referring to a veterans benefits bill that passed
Congress last week after veterans camped outside the U.S. Capitol, protesting
for several days straight. "It shouldn't take veterans standing watch in
the hot sun to great physical detriment to get people to take action."
Monday will
mark the one-year anniversary of Kabul falling to the Taliban, swiftly
reversing many of the efforts of the longest war in U.S. history. The Taliban's
victory set off a scramble among U.S. officials to evacuate as many vulnerable
Afghans as possible before the Biden administration's self-imposed withdrawal
deadline of Aug. 31, 2021.
Throngs of
Afghans desperate to get onto a U.S. military flight swarmed the Kabul airport,
leading to chaotic and heartbreaking scenes, including Afghans who had clung to
the side of an American C-17 Globemaster III plummeting to their deaths as the
aircraft ascended into the sky. Amid the chaos of the evacuation, the Afghan
branch of ISIS carried out a suicide bombing that killed 13 U.S. troops. By the
time the last American forces departed just before midnight of the withdrawal
deadline, more than 76,000 Afghans had been evacuated. Still, the majority of
Afghans who worked as interpreters or otherwise helped the U.S. military and
are eligible for what's called Special Immigrant Visas, or SIVs, were left
behind, with advocates estimating that number was around 78,000 people plus
family members. Work on extracting the Afghans left behind continues. While
declining to discuss specific numbers on the record, VanDiver, who meets with
State Department officials weekly, said relocations of Afghans are ongoing. He
said he's satisfied with the relocation process that's been put in place, but
still said more could be done. "More and faster, that's the best way I can
describe it," he said. "I want to see a lot more relocations and a
lot faster." Matt Zeller, co-founder of No One Left Behind, an SIV support
organization, said he fears many of those left behind have already been killed,
based on anecdotal reports and preliminary results from a survey conducted by
two organizations he works with, the Association of Wartime Allies and Iraq and
Afghanistan Veterans of America. "Just
yesterday, an interpreter that I've been trying to get out since the evac --
poor guy who was on the freakin' airfield the night Kabul fell … he texted me
just yesterday morning at 11 o'clock in the morning our time to tell me that a
friend of his, a former interpreter, had been killed by the Taliban,"
Zeller said Monday.
Of the Afghans
who made it to the United States last August, most were brought under a
temporary immigration status known as humanitarian parole, which allows people
otherwise ineligible to enter the United States to come into the country
temporarily for emergency humanitarian reasons. Parole does not provide a
pathway to apply for legal permanent resident status, more casually known as
green cards. Some Afghan refugees were given two years of protection to stay in
the United States, but some were given only one -- meaning they have weeks
until they technically won't be in the United States legally anymore.
The Afghan
Adjustment Act, which was introduced in the House on Tuesday and the Senate on
Sunday, would create a streamlined process for the evacuated Afghans to get
green cards. The Department of Homeland Security would also have to establish
new vetting procedures for the Afghans seeking green cards. Supporters of the
bill have likened it to similar measures passed after other U.S. conflicts,
such as for Vietnamese and other South Asian refugees after the fall of Saigon.
"We must keep our commitment to provide safe, legal refuge to those who
willingly put their lives on the line to support the U.S. mission in
Afghanistan," Rep. Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., the lead sponsor of the House
bill, said in a statement. "Congress has provided a legal adjustment
process for previous wartime evacuations and humanitarian crises and should do
so once again, without delay."
The bill also
seeks to fix issues with the SIV program, such as the requirement that
interviews be conducted at the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, which no longer exists.
Instead, the bill would establish a new State Department office to conduct
interviews for visa applicants and carry out other duties that would have
otherwise been the responsibility of the embassy. It also creates an
"Interagency Task Force on Afghan Ally Strategy" to develop a plan to
support SIV and refugee applicants. The bill would also extend special
immigrant status to certain former Afghan troops, including former members of
the Afghanistan National Army Special Operations Command, the Afghan Air Force,
the Special Mission Wing of Afghanistan and the Female Tactical Teams of
Afghanistan. "Giving them that statutory requirement will make sure that,
no matter what happens in politics, that these folks get to realize the
American Dream that they've earned," VanDiver said. The introduction of the stand-alone bills is
the most public progress made on the issue since May, when the Biden
administration requested Congress include an Afghan Adjustment Act in a Ukraine
aid bill. The proposal was left out of that bill amid objections from
Republicans. Supporters of the Afghan Adjustment Act have specifically blamed
Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee,
for not signing off on including it in the Ukraine bill. A spokesperson for
Grassley did not respond to Military.com's request for comment Tuesday. Grassley
has previously expressed concern about vetting of the Afghan refugees, saying
in a statement Friday that Congress "should not even begin to consider
proposals related to sweeping immigration status changes for evacuees, such as
an Afghan Adjustment Act, until the Biden administration, at the very least,
guarantees the integrity of and fully responds to long-standing congressional
oversight requests regarding the vetting and evacuee resettlement
process." Supporters of the bill are hopeful for its chances now that it
has bipartisan co-sponsors.
The House bill
is co-sponsored by Reps. Peter Meijer, R-Mich.; House Judiciary Committee
Chairman Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y.; Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill.; Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif.;
Mariannette Miller-Meeks, R-Iowa; Jason Crow, D-Colo.; Fred Upton, R-Mich.; and
Scott Peters, D-Calif. The Senate bill was introduced by Sens. Amy Klobuchar,
D-Minn.; Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.; Chris Coons, D-Del.; Roy Blunt, R-Mo.; Richard
Blumenthal, D-Conn.; and Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska. But even with bipartisan
support, the bill still faces hurdles, including a legislative calendar
truncated by election season and with several priorities competing for floor
time. Passing the measure before the end of this Congress in January could be
done by attaching the measure to a must-pass bill such as one to fund the
government when the fiscal year ends Sept. 30, but that is still after some
Afghans' immigration status is set to expire at the end of August. "This
is not a matter of immigration. This is a national security issue," Zeller
said. "This is down to, are we going to be able to have allies in the
future going forward and future wars? Because allies, quite frankly, equals
fewer American deaths."
^ The 1 Year
Fall of Kabul is this Monday and with it the Chaotic and Deadly Withdrawal of
the United States from Afghanistan as well as the continued year of broken
promises.
The Taliban continue
to show (through their actions and their words) that they have not changed from
the Terrorist Group they were in 2001. They continue to discriminate against
Girls and Women, they continue to shelter Al Qaida, they continue to hunt down
and torture and kill any Afghan that worked for the US or any Western Country
over the past 20 years.
Biden, his Advisors
and the State Department continue to show (through their actions) that they
lied when they said back in 2021 that “We will get you out” referring to the
thousands upon thousands of Afghans who helped and worked with the US for 20
years.
1 Year later
and those that were able to get out of Afghanistan are still stuck in Refugee
Camps outside the US and those that made it into the US are left to fend for
themselves.
1 Year later there
are still at least 78,000 Afghans who directly worked with the Americans –
helping us – that are now being hunted down by the Taliban throughout
Afghanistan. Biden’s “We will get you out” continues to abandon 78,000 people.
^
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