Nearly 78,000 Afghan refugees who fought alongside the US military have come to America since the Biden administration’s chaotic withdrawal.
Two years after escaping the evil Taliban leadership to start a new life, most are still in limbo and have no idea how long they will be allowed to stay.
Congress has yet to work out a long-term plan for their residency, and proponents are growing frustrated.
Their plight adds to a list of blunders during the catastrophic evacuation, including a vetting process that allowed 65 suspected terrorists to reach the US.
Farzana Jamalzada has close ties to the US presence in Afghanistan and has worked for USAID and former President Ashraf Ghani since she was 25.
She was in the presidential palace when word came that Ghani had fled in 2021.
Her husband worked at the Ministry of the Interior; both knew immediately that under the Taliban regime they would have targets on their backs.
Farzana Jamalzada has close ties to the US presence in Afghanistan and worked for USAID and former President Ashraf Ghani at the age of 25.
They decided to flee separately and it was days before they reunited at Qatar airport.
And tossed between refugee camps in the US for nearly a year, they were processed and moved to New York City, where she and her husband have now both found work — but not anytime soon.
“(Humanitarian parole) made the situation very difficult,” said Jamalzada, now 27. “We had the language, we had the education, we had the background, we had the career experience. My husband gave interviews every day for months.’
In the wake of the chaotic withdrawal, the US has taken in thousands of Afghans fleeing brutal Taliban rule – many of them who fought alongside the Americans in the war or campaigned for the promotion of human rights in the country.
But to this day, the nation has granted them only temporary “parole,” putting their trials on hold.
This year, President Biden gave the Afghans a reprieve. He extended their parole and allowed refugees to apply for another two years of legal residence in the country.
But refugees and advocacy groups tell DailyMail.com that parole makes job hunting more difficult because employers don’t understand their legal status — which is only guaranteed for two years.
Those who fell under Operation Allies Welcome can apply for asylum, and those who directly aided the US mission on a contract basis can apply for a Special Immigrant Visa (SIV).
But asylum applications and SIVs have significant backlogs; some wait as long as five years for their SIVs to be approved.
Afghan children are seen in a recreation area in an Afghan refugee camp at Holloman Air Force Base, New Mexico
A man watches as a class is taught at the education center of an Afghan refugee camp at Holloman Air Force Base, New Mexico
In addition to the 80,000 who remain in limbo in the US, interest groups estimate that more than 150,000 Afghans who assisted the US mission have been left behind – doomed to wait years because of the huge backlog.
The bipartisan Afghan adjustment bill would allow Afghan parolees to apply for green cards and expand and improve the SIV process. It has been introduced three times since the withdrawal, but so far Congress has not found the political will to push it through.
In the Senate, co-sponsors of the bill are almost evenly split between Democrats and Republicans.
Proponents of the bill tried to push it through with last year’s omnibus package, which set broad levels of funding for all agencies, but there was still division over the language of the bill.
Senate Republicans, such as Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and Tom Cotton, R-Ark., decided that the vetting process in that bill was flawed. They have introduced their own party version: the Ensuring American Security and Protecting Afghan Allies Act. But that bill also contains a provision sure to deter Democrats: It would limit the president’s authority to grant humanitarian parole in the future.
Senator Jerry Moran, R-Kansas, told DailyMail.com he is working with colleagues to address concerns that Afghanistan’s legislation could set a precedent for easing immigration restrictions.
“Many Afghans could soon see their refugee status expire, and this narrowly targeted legislation would provide security for Afghan refugees while maintaining a strong process of scrutiny to protect the homeland,” he said.
U.S. Marine grabs a baby over a barbed wire fence during an evacuation at Kabul’s Hamid Karzai International Airport on August 19, 2021
Afghan people climb on top of a plane while waiting at Kabul airport in Kabul on August 16, 2021
Thousands of Afghans rush to Hamid Karzai International Airport as they try to flee the Afghan capital of Kabul, Afghanistan on August 16, 2021
The House version of the bill was led by Rep. Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., and Mariannette Miller-Meeks, R-Iowa, and has 32 co-sponsors split evenly between Democrats and Republicans.
Now the bill’s proponents want it to tie in with the spending bill that Congress will have to work out for a year for the 2024 fiscal year, when it returns after the August recess.
A source familiar with the bill’s negotiations said there is still “rumbling” about Cotton being involved in the Afghan Adjustment Act.
“The people who are already here will not be subject to more scrutiny by extending humanitarian parole – only by the Afghan Adjustment Act,” another source familiar with the negotiations stressed.
“So the idea that vetting is the real concern here, we know, we’re really breaking it down. It’s really not such a great argument,” the person added.
The approximately 80,000 people who were brought to this country faced a vetting process to get here and would again face a 13-step refugee vetting process if they were granted permanent citizenship.
“We have a long history in the United States of using humanitarian parole in the context of past US troop withdrawals and emergency evacuations,” Jina Krause-Vilmar, CEO of refugee group Upwardly Global, told DailyMail.com.
Her group estimates that introducing the Afghan Adaptation Law would cut about half the cost of handling the approximately 36,000 asylum cases from Afghan refugees who hope to remain in the country.
“We estimate it would cost the US government $64 million to try the 36,000 Afghan cases,” she said. “Passing through AAA would only cost the administration $34 million to process.”