Unfinished business left over from Afghanistan exit

Amid the chaos that followed the US pullout from Afghanistan on Aug. 15, 2021, the Biden administration declared that evacuated Afghans would be allowed to enter the United States via humanitarian parole. The initiative would provide them with temporary access to American soil, but not with a pathway to permanent residency.

In the weeks that followed, approximately 70,000 Afghans seeking to flee the returning Taliban government were evacuated. Nearly half had worked with the US government or American nongovernmental organizations; some were family members. Others had no prior affiliation.

After going through security and health screenings in third countries and on domestic military bases, the vast majority were resettled to numerous states – with Texas, Virginia and California being the top destinations.

Humanitarian parole was only ever intended as a temporary fix to an immediate problem; it is only valid for two years, after which an individual’s status must be adjusted.

And so, armed with popular – and bipartisan – support, legislators in Congress proposed the Afghan Adjustment Act in August 2022 to allow Afghans to transition from temporary to permanent residency in the US after further vetting.

Yet two years later, the act still has not passed. As experts on humanitarian rights, migration and refugees, we see the plight of tens of thousands of Afghans in the UA as the byproduct of the American political system in which bills struggle to pass. And the upcoming November elections will add another layer of uncertainty to those currently left in limbo.

Stalling in Congress

The first attempt at the Afghan Adjustment Act coincided with the first anniversary of the fall of Kabul. Introduced by Democratic Senator Amy