Thousands of Afghan refugees in US risk deportation

Washington — Tens of thousands of Afghan refugees who were evacuated to the U.S. after the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan in 2021 are at risk of losing their work permits and deportation protections this summer unless Congress acts, unpublished government data show.

Fewer than 5,000 of the 77,000 Afghans resettled in the U.S. under a special legal process have secured permanent legal status for themselves and their families, with efforts to make them permanent residents floundering in Congress, according to the Department of Homeland Security figures.

As of Feb. 12, the U.S. had approved just 4,775 applications from Afghan evacuees who requested asylum or a special visa status for those who aided American forces. Those who lack permanent legal status could lose their authorization to work and live in the U.S. legally starting in July without congressional intervention.

Despite significant bipartisan support, a proposal to make evacuated Afghans eligible for permanent U.S. residency, known as the Afghan Adjustment Act, has failed to make its way through Congress, mainly due to concerns from some Republican lawmakers over how the evacuees were vetted.

The evacuees who lack permanent status were initially granted “parole,” a special immigration classification that allows foreign citizens to enter the U.S. without a visa and to stay in the country temporarily on humanitarian or public interest grounds — two years, in the case of the Afghans.

By using the parole authority, the Biden administration was able to resettle tens of thousands of Afghans in a matter of weeks following the chaotic military withdrawal from Afghanistan without having to go through the traditional refugee or visa processes, which typically take years to complete.

But the reliance on parole to resettle evacuees — who, for practical purposes, were refugees intent on restarting their lives in the U.S. — also meant their future would be dictated by lawmakers’ willingness, or unwillingness, to give them permanent status. Unlike refugee status, parole does not offer a path to U.S. citizenship.

In all, the U.S. used parole to admit more than 77,000 Afghans as part of the massive resettlement effort, dubbed Operation Allies Welcome. The U.S. stopped the practice in late September 2022, when it launched a new phase of the effort under which future Afghan arrivals would come to the U.S. with permanent status.