Following the chaotic U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, hundreds of thousands of vulnerable Afghans were left behind, at risk of violence and persecution. In August 2021, the Biden administration began receiving a surge of individual applications for humanitarian protection, called humanitarian parole, filed on behalf of at-risk Afghans abroad. In response to this historically high number of applications, the administration indicated that it would wrongfully and arbitrarily apply a particularly high standard requiring third party evidence of a risk of serious harm to applicants either in Afghanistan, or if they managed to flee the country, in the country where they are residing. This standard is higher even than that required under U.S. asylum or refugee laws, and some applicants have begun to receive overwhelmingly unfavorable responses to their humanitarian parole applications from USCIS, indicating a potentially disturbing trend of application denials. The administration has a moral obligation to establish a special parole program for Afghan nationals, remedy harm against individual humanitarian parole applicants, and establish complementary humanitarian pathways for Afghans who remain overseas.
Tell Congress to Hold the Administration Accountable to Welcome & Protect Vulnerable Afghans Who Were Left Behind
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Sample Email: “I’m your constituent from [CITY/TOWN] and [as a person of faith/immigrant/refugee], I am outraged that the administration is starting to send overwhelmingly unfavorable responses to individual humanitarian parole applications for Afghans who remain overseas in danger. Following the chaotic U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, hundreds of thousands of vulnerable Afghans were left behind, at risk of violence and persecution. After receiving a surge of individual applications for humanitarian parole for at-risk Afghans abroad, the administration indicated that it would wrongfully and arbitrarily apply a particularly high standard requiring third party evidence of a risk of serious harm to applicants either in Afghanistan, or if they managed to flee the country, in the country where they are residing. This standard is higher even than that required under U.S. asylum or refugee laws, and given that some applicants have begun to receive overwhelmingly unfavorable responses, we are concerned that this indicates a potentially disturbing trend of application denials. The administration has a moral obligation to establish a special parole program for Afghan nationals, remedy harm against individual humanitarian parole applicants, and establish complementary humanitarian pathways for Afghans who remain overseas. I urge you to hold the administration accountable to:
- Immediately establish a special parole program for Afghan nationals – with an accompanying plan to equitably and efficiently process Afghans to the United States.
- Immediately apply the “fear of harm due to generalized violence” standard when adjudicating Afghan parole applications; provide redress for the Afghan nationals whose individual humanitarian parole applications were denied; waive the filings fees associated with humanitarian parole applications for Afghan nationals; and issue updated guidance for processing humanitarian parole applications for current & future applicants that creates a more equitable process that is consistent with USCIS’ longstanding standards of adjudication.
- Operationalize additional viable, complementary humanitarian pathways, at minimum for USRAP, SIV, and other immigrant visa processing, for Afghans still in Afghanistan to exit the country and in host countries for processing to the United States.
I also urge Congress to facilitate Afghan evacuees’ integration in our communities and finish the job by passing an Afghan Adjustment Act. An adjustment act would ensure that Afghan evacuees who enter the U.S. via humanitarian parole have a chance to apply to become lawful permanent residents one year after arrival – the same legal status they would have received had they been admitted as refugees. My community welcomes our Afghan neighbors, and I urge you to do the same. Thank you.”
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- Many Afghans are still waiting to reach safety and @POTUS has wrongfully made it even harder for them to receive humanitarian protection. We must establish additional pathways to protect our Afghan neighbors and help them reach safety.
- .@POTUS, we must #ProtectThemAll! We have a moral obligation to welcome and protect vulnerable Afghans who were left behind. That means establishing a special parole program for Afghans & additional pathways to help them reach safety.
- Hundreds of thousands of Afghans were left behind following the U.S.’s withdrawal. [@Member of Congress], we must #KeepOurPromise and protect vulnerable Afghans who were left behind!
Tell Your Governors and State & Local Officials How They Can Help: Here is a community resource from Welcoming America and a cadre of partners for community leaders managing arrivals of Afghan refugees. It offers four key tips to creating an equitable and welcoming environment, including mobilizing a multi-sector response group; creating a We Welcome Fund; sharing messages of welcome; and changing policy at the federal, state, and local levels.
Additional Resources:
- LIRS: Afghan Evacuation: From Parole to Permanent Protection
- Lifesaving Humanitarian Response for Women and Girls in Afghanistan
- Amnesty International: Afghanistan: No escape: War crimes and civilian harm during the fall of Afghanistan to the Taliban
- USIP: Key to Afghan Relief Efforts: Financial Engineering for Private Sector, Economy
- Establishing a Humanitarian Financial Corridor for Afghanistan
Thank you for taking action, and please share this alert with your networks!