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in 2021 are at risk of losing their work permits and deportation protections this summer unless Congress acts, unpublished government data show.
But the Afghan Adjustment Act has been caught up in a broader, decades-long gridlock over immigration policy in Congress that has intensified amid record levels of migrant arrivals along the U.S.-Mexico border.
Afghans and their advocates, which include military veterans, said the need to pass the adjustment act is becoming increasingly urgent, with the first Afghan parole expirations set to occur in July. For the majority of evacuees, their parole will expire later in the summer, after the two-year anniversary of the fall of Kabul.
"There are so many killings of civilians," said Lutfi, who noted he worked for the former U.S.-aligned government in Afghanistan."The situation there is a lot worse than what we see on the media. People are starving. There's no work. The Taliban is policing every single aspect of everyone's life." The U.S. has also received another 14,600 applications from Afghans seeking permanent residency through the Special Immigrant Visa program, which allows translators, interpreters and others who served the American military to stay in the U.S. with their spouses and children. Just over 3,600 cases have been approved so far.Afghan evacuees eligible for Temporary Protected Status, a program that allows immigrants from crisis-stricken countries to live and work in the U.S. legally for 18 months.
Lutfi, the Afghan evacuee, was interviewed by an asylum officer last month and is awaiting a decision on his case. He's currently living in northern Virginia and working as a journalist. Even if he wins asylum, Lutfi said he's concerned about other evacuees who don't speak English and lack the means to secure legal help.
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