The Biden administration announced that it is easing restrictions that unfairly block Afghan allies from immigration relief. Under U.S. law, Afghan allies can be flagged and barred from a chance at a visa or asylum for even just having to pay their electric bill to the Taliban, The Los Angeles Times reports. Under changes announced Wednesday, the administration will make exemptions on “a case-by-case basis, to ensure individuals who would otherwise be eligible for the benefit or protection they are seeking are not automatically denied.”
“Doctors, teachers, engineers, and other Afghans, including those who bravely and loyally supported U.S. forces on the ground in Afghanistan at great risk to their safety, should not be denied humanitarian protection and other immigration benefits due to their inescapable proximity to war or their work as civil servants,” Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said.
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Under the planned changes, Afghan allies “would only be exempted if they have undergone rigorous screening and vetting, and are individually determined to not pose a risk to national security or public safety.” The Biden administration said that both Democratic and Republican administrations have exercised this exemption authority nearly three dozen times: in 2007, 2014, and most recently in 2019.
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“These exemptions will allow eligible individuals who pose no national security or public safety risk to receive asylum, refugee status, or other legal immigration status,” Mayorkas continued, “demonstrating the United States’ continued commitment to our Afghan allies and their family members.
“Immigrant advocates and attorneys have been urging the Biden administration to consider such circumstances for Afghans who helped the US and are seeking humanitarian relief since the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan,” CNN reports. Numerous advocates welcomed the announcement this week, including refugee resettlement agency Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service (LIRS) and Human Rights First.
“We applaud the Biden administration for ensuring the United States offers protection to at-risk Afghans who served as soldiers alongside the U.S. military and worked as human rights advocates and in the government,” said Human Rights First Veterans for American Ideals and Outreach Director Chris Purdy. “Their lives are at risk because they stood up to the Taliban, and the U.S. Government recognizes that their safety is our responsibility.”
LIRS President Krish O'Mara Vignarajah called the guidance “a needed and positive step that will allow some Afghans to pursue their asylum cases.” Both O'Mara Vignarajah and Purdy stressed the need to pass permanent relief for our allies through the Afghan Adjustment Act. But while the president included this bill in his Ukraine package, Senate Republicans blocked this relief. Recall the Republicans had also pretended to care about Afghan allies amid the Biden administration’s historic Operation Allies Rescue evacuations last summer. But then in the fall, they voted for an amendment from the atrocious Tom Cotton that sought to cut off help to these newly arrived refugees.
“Anwen Hughes, a director of legal strategy for the refugee program at Human Rights First, said that the implementation of the exemptions would be key,” The Los Angeles Times continued. “’It is not like this is a blanket waiver, but it does mean that in those cases where everyone agrees people were victims of the unjust consequences of these statutes, now there’s going to be a tool to provide them with relief,’ she said.”
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