Hopes renewed as bill giving Afghans in US path to citizenship resubmitted

The Afghan Adjustment Act, a bill that would open a path to citizenship for Afghans who were paroled into the United States, has been reintroduced in Congress, giving renewed hope to tens of thousands of Afghan refugees and their advocates.

The bill has solid bicameral and bipartisan support and strong support from US veterans and church leaders. They are adamant that the 70,000 to 80,000 Afghan ex-US military employees and their families who were paroled into the US nearly two years ago after the military evacuation should be permanently welcomed in the US, as they were promised.

The Afghan Adjustment Act didn't make it into last year's budget, but there is a good chance it could make it into the National Defense Authorization Act by the end of this fiscal year at the end of September.

"There's substantial bipartisan support. Sometimes it's about the right support on the right committee at the right moment," said Adam Bates, supervisory policy counsel with the International Refugee Assistance Project. "There's so much support from veterans, Afghan community organisations, and churches. Even the broad congressional support doesn't reflect the broad support across the country."

Significant obstacles, however, remain. Despite the bill's widespread support, those who oppose it could hold it up in committee. Some, such as Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa, have been outspoken about his belief that the bill lacks sufficient vetting measures despite including a provision for detailed vetting of parolees. 

Another challenge to this bipartisan bill's reintroduction is that Republicans have introduced a similar rival bill, led by Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas, which some fear could derail the two-year bipartisan effort. 

Cotton's bill would curb President Joe Biden's authority to parole migrants into the US, giving them an expedited but temporary status, which has in the past been used to help specific vulnerable populations, such as Haitians and Nicaraguans, migrate to the US. 

This temporary parole status for the Afghans who entered the US after the US-led evacuation will need to be adjusted to stay in the country and attain a green card and citizenship.

Of the 70,000 to 80,000 Afghans who were paroled, some have likely received asylum status; however, tens of thousands still have not, said Bates. He noted that there is also a major backlog of many more applications, approximately 143,000 as of the latest quarterly report in April, of Afghan evacuees in host countries, such as Pakistan.

"Protection has always been a promise. US interventions rely on people from those countries to support their mission," said Bates. "Many Afghans are still left behind. They're not responsible for their situation. They've been repeatedly promised by the US government that there's a home for them here. Until they have a pathway to a green card, that's an empty promise."