For the last six months, 16 special-operations-focused organizations have fought tirelessly in support of Afghan allies. Working together as the Moral Compass Federation, they aim to overcome policy roadblocks to evacuate Afghans who remain in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan and to assist Afghans looking to create a new life in the United States.
The issues of status and transportation stand in the way of evacuating nearly 33,500 high-risk Afghan allies. This vast number includes intelligence officials, commandos, special forces units, and their families. Though most are under serious threat from the Taliban and have worked side-by-side with Americans, they have no immediate means of accessing U.S. citizenship. Most are ineligible for special immigrant visas. The broken humanitarian parole process seems to be little more than a money pit, thus far bringing U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services up to $23 million in application fees, but resulting in just 160 conditional acceptances from 40,000 applications.
Although these Afghan allies of America are eligible for Priority-1 referrals to the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program, Moral Compass Federation members say most have not been referred. Priority-1 referrals must emanate from the U.S. government agency to whom the referred individual is known.
Even if these endangered Afghan allies had referrals to the Priority-1 program, the State Department would not evacuate them from Afghanistan. In contradiction to a Reuters article recently stating the U.S. soon plans to evacuate 1,000 SIV applicants and 1,000 refugees from Afghanistan each month, the State Department told the Washington Examiner it “does not facilitate travel to a third country” for those with referrals to the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program, which includes up to 28,000 Afghans.
At this point, the Priority-1 and Priority-2 programs are “hopelessly snarled and ill-suited to the current situation,” Ambassador Kelley Currie, a human rights lawyer and member of the U.S. Afghan Women’s Council, told the Washington Examiner. For months, Currie has recommended measures for revamping the programs and finding partners to facilitate evacuations. Currie recommends abandoning the Priority-1 and Priority-2 designations “in favor of a parole category that would allow for the most at-risk Afghans inside Afghanistan and in third countries to be able to leave, with or without U.S. government help, once they have been identified as meeting the category criteria.”
Evacuation organizations, such as the members of the Moral Compass Federation, could be a valuable asset. As Currie says, they have already “accumulated all the necessary information to identify and delineate the universe of Afghans who should be included in [a new] parole category.” She says more urgency is needed.
While working toward evacuating allies left behind, the Moral Compass Federation is simultaneously working on policy goals for Afghans who are in the U.S. Daniel Elkins, CEO of the Special Operations Association of America, told the Washington Examiner that the Moral Compass Federation is advocating for Afghan military members who “have been trained by the most elite units in the U.S. military” to be able to serve in the U.S. military in exchange for a green card.
The Moral Compass Federation also supports the retention of U.S.-based Afghan military scholars who are “in uniform [and] already working alongside U.S. military persons” through the International Military Education and Training program.
The U.S. government should listen up — and then act more quickly and effectively.
Beth Bailey (@BWBailey85) is a freelance writer from the Detroit area.
