Fearful of the Taliban’s institutionalized oppression of the Afghan populace and concerned by the slow U.S. evacuation of left-behind Afghans, three former combat interpreters have told me they flew from the United States to Afghanistan in 2022 to secure their families’ evacuations.
Two were U.S. citizens who had some success in bringing their parents to safety. However, legal permanent resident Parwiz, whose name has been changed for his protection, has been stuck in Afghanistan since March. He told me the State Department has not responded to petitions he and his former military supervisors have sent requesting the evacuation of his wife and child. With his final semester as a pre-med student in California set to begin in about a week, nurse Parwiz is considering smuggling his family to the U.S.
Many Afghan families are now turning to smuggling, aiming to cross the Mexican border and turn themselves in to officials of the Department of Homeland Security. An evacuation volunteer speaking on the condition of anonymity told me he and his team have been called in to help three Afghan families with relatives who went missing while trying to navigate the dangerous path from Brazil to Mexico legally. Parts of the journey are perilous, such as Panama’s Darien Gap, which the volunteer said has an attrition rate of up to 50%. He does not believe Afghans are aware of these dangers.
Willingness to use extraordinary methods to find safety outside of Taliban-run Afghanistan may be a reaction to the perceived futility of using legal pathways to reach the U.S. The extent of the humanitarian parole visa program’s failures was recently unearthed via a Freedom of Information Act request. Of 66,000 Afghan applications submitted between July 2021 and May 2022, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services accepted just 123 applicants while taking in about $20 million in filing fees. In the same period, 68,000 Ukrainian applicants were approved through Uniting for Ukraine, for which there are no filing fees.
According to the State Department, 74,274 primary applicants are in the processing pipeline for the beleaguered Special Immigrant Visa program. Only 10,096 have received chief of mission approval, a phase reached by about 40% to 50% of applicants. For SIV applicants living in Afghanistan, employment, money, and safety pose substantial difficulties. A former interpreter in the latter phases of the SIV process told me last week that he and his wife had not eaten for four days.
The Priority-1 and Priority-2 programs within the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program are stagnant. A State Department spokesperson told me that 21,000 individuals were referred to the Priority-2 program and 23,000 to the Priority-1 program. Only 22,600 of these referrals were “accepted into the system.”
Most of the dozens of Afghans who have contacted me with concerns about their referrals to the USRAP are currently residing in Pakistan, awaiting appointments with the U.S. Embassy to commence 12-18 months of processing. In Pakistan, refugees are not legally allowed to work. Referral holders and hopefuls who were initially referred but never received confirmation of their status struggle to afford the elevated cost of living. Multiple candidates with confirmation of USRAP referral indicated they have waited several months or more to schedule appointments and that processing for referrals has not yet begun.
There is likely little overlap between the 96,874 Afghans with USRAP referrals and SIV applications. Though guidance states Afghans can simultaneously pursue both options, one applicant shared an email stating that “the Department of State requires Afghans who meet the criteria for a Special Immigrant Visa to apply for the SIV program.” The individual was told that the State Department “returned [the] P2 Referral without review” for anyone who met the SIV criteria.
The State Department estimated that each SIV applicant applies with an average of four and a half family members. If the same numbers apply for Afghans referred to the USRAP, then up to 435,933 Afghans may be waiting with increasing desperation on processing backlogs. The U.S. must dedicate additional resources to resolving these backlogs and fulfilling overdue promises to our struggling allies.
Beth Bailey (@BWBailey85) is a freelance writer from the Detroit area.
