San Francisco, California, United States – When Walid Aziz watched Kabul fall to the Taliban final August from his dwelling in California, his first thought was for his father again in Afghanistan.
As a distinguished member of the US-backed authorities, the 57-year-old might be focused for retaliation, Aziz nervous. Quickly after they swept into the town, members of the Taliban got here to his household’s dwelling and the native mosque, inquiring about his father’s whereabouts, he stated.
On September 24, Aziz positioned his hopes in a programme known as humanitarian parole, which permits Afghans to return to the US and not using a visa for “pressing humanitarian or important public profit” causes. They’ll then work via numerous immigration pathways, which may take years to finish, from the protection of the US.
However almost 5 months and greater than $6,000 in submission charges later, Aziz’s father and 10 members of the family, now in hiding in Afghanistan, are nonetheless ready for a solution. “On a regular basis I’m burdened,” Aziz advised Al Jazeera. “I can barely sleep. Even once I sleep, I’m pondering of my household.”
He holds out hope that the functions will finally be authorised. However for tens of 1000’s of Afghans who’re anxiously awaiting a response to their petitions, the chances don’t seem like of their favour.
As of final month, US Citizenship and Immigration Companies (USCIS) advised Al Jazeera that of greater than 40,000 Afghan humanitarian parole functions filed since July 2021, it had denied 930 and conditionally authorised simply 160. The overwhelming majority has but to be processed, and USCIS supplied no timeline for his or her completion.
Candidates in limbo
The Biden administration initially recognized humanitarian parole as a great tool for facilitating the evacuation of Afghans, as programmes reminiscent of refugee admissions had been hollowed out through the Trump period.
However Afghan advocates and immigration organisations say the Biden administration has left tens of 1000’s of candidates in limbo as situations in Afghanistan turn out to be more and more perilous, whereas overwhelmingly rejecting the small variety of functions which were processed.
“The consensus amongst authorized organisations concerned on this work is that we’re not seeing approvals,” stated Wogai Mohmand, an Afghan-American immigration lawyer who has labored with the group Venture ANAR to assist Afghans file for humanitarian parole. “It contradicts every little thing they’ve stated about wanting to assist Afghans discover security. There’s a sense of betrayal.”
Whereas the administration can interpret the “pressing humanitarian” causes on the coronary heart of humanitarian parole with substantial discretion, immigration advocates say that the Biden administration has so far opted for a restricted interpretation that makes acceptance prohibitively tough.
One USCIS rejection letter from November 2021, seen by Al Jazeera, states that candidates should show “severity and imminence of the hurt the beneficiary fears”, noting that they will submit proof reminiscent of a letter from a “credible third social gathering” outlining the imminence of the menace.
“The evidentiary commonplace is absurd,” Kyra Lilien, director of immigration authorized companies with Jewish Household and Group Companies East Bay, an unbiased nonprofit that offers with refugee resettlement, advised Al Jazeera.
“It’s like asking folks to supply a letter from the people who find themselves persecuting them.”
Substantial obstacles
Even the handful of Afghans who’ve acquired conditional approval face substantial obstacles.
With the US embassy in Kabul shuttered since August 31, USCIS requires Afghans to relocate out of Afghanistan to a rustic with an lively US embassy earlier than the parole course of will be accomplished. This may imply months spent ready for data in a foreign country, with no timeline for approval or denial. “The ready is insufferable,” Lilien stated.
Final week, Afghans in Abu Dhabi held a protest, demanding solutions on their resettlement after months in limbo since they fled Afghanistan.
In some instances, USCIS doesn’t embody an evidence when it points rejections, leaving candidates to marvel what they could have performed in a different way. “Often USCIS will cite one thing within the proof you despatched,” immigration lawyer Greg Siskind advised Al Jazeera. “However no one is even getting a motive for his or her denial.”
In an announcement, USCIS famous that the variety of Afghan parole candidates is 20 instances bigger than the entire variety of functions it receives in a typical 12 months, and that the variety of employees engaged on parole instances has “dramatically elevated”.
However immigration attorneys don’t imagine this can be a convincing rationalization for the gradual charge of processing. “They’ve acquired thousands and thousands of {dollars} in processing charges and elevated their employees. Claims of capability really feel like an excuse to not settle for folks,” Mohmand stated.
Siskind concurred, saying that capability points would possibly contribute to processing instances, however can’t clarify why the overwhelming majority of candidates are being denied. “The rejection charges converse for themselves,” he stated.
Many have known as for an strategy that will give attention to humanitarian situations within the nation, somewhat than requiring people to point out that they’re being particularly focused. “A give attention to particular person circumstances misses the mark fully,” Lilien stated. “The entire inhabitants has been left behind.”
Calls to reverse course
Afghan-American advocacy teams say the Biden administration’s strategy to parole ties into bigger issues with the American strategy to Afghanistan, noting that US sanctions and a choice to freeze billions of {dollars} in Afghan property have pushed thousands and thousands of Afghans in direction of hunger.
On February 11, the Biden administration introduced that it could break up $7bn in frozen Afghan central financial institution property between humanitarian help and compensation for households of 9/11 victims – a choice that can deal one other blow to the nation’s struggling monetary system. The advocacy group Afghans For A Higher Tomorrow known as the transfer “shortsighted” and “merciless”, including that it could “serve to worsen a disaster in progress”.
Earlier this month, 44 Democrats joined with everything of the Republican caucus to defeat a proposal to check the impression of US sanctions and the money freeze on the humanitarian state of affairs in Afghanistan.
“We imagine that this research would reveal what many people already know: America’s continued strangulation of the Afghan economic system is costing numerous lives every single day,” Halema Wali, co-founder of Afghans For A Higher Tomorrow, advised Al Jazeera. “The vote … underscores how little worth the US has positioned on Afghan life.”
Advocates have expressed hope that so long as most parole functions have but to be processed, the Biden administration may nonetheless reverse course and absorb a larger variety of Afghans.
“America owes them refuge, security and dignity with out additional delay,” Wali stated. “Daily is a delay they can not afford, as a result of it could price them their lives.”