More than 46,000 applications for humanitarian parole have been submitted by Afghan allies and families seeking safety in the U.S. The status allows applicants to live and work in the U.S. for a period of time. But CBS News reports that of those applications, fewer than 5,000 have actually been processed by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). Even fewer have been approved, with most rejected.
“As of June 2, only 297 parole requests from Afghans had been approved by USCIS, while 4,246 requests had been rejected, according to the agency figures, which suggest that most of the tens of thousands of pending cases will be rejected under the standards being used by the U.S. government,” CBS News reports.
RELATED STORY: 'Stranded and in danger': U.S. sued over unjust denials of humanitarian entry for Afghans
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CBS News reports that Zaker Hussain filed an application on behalf of his brother Mohammad and Mohammad’s family, citing Hussain’s work translating for the U.S. Marine Corps and Mohammad’s work with the U.S.-backed Afghan government. (He told CBS News that the Taliban has access to his files in the presidential palace.) Signed affidavits, passports, and IDs were submitted. Then they waited.
But just before New Year’s Eve 2021, they found out the application had been denied. CBS News reports that the rejection letter stated that the federal government “did not find sufficient evidence” that Mohammad and his family were “at risk of severe targeted or individualized harm.”
“When the U.S. rejected his parole application, Mohammad said he felt ‘like a dead person but breathing,’” the report said. He told CBS News that he and his family “don’t feel safe. We don't know what will happen in an hour. We don't know what will happen tomorrow."
The Department of Homeland Security has claimed to CBS News that the approval process has been complicated by the fact that the vast majority of applicants are still in Afghanistan, where there is no U.S. consulate. “But advocates said officials can conduct interviews remotely or waive them, noting that Ukrainian refugees are not required to undergo interviews before being paroled into the U.S.”
Civil rights advocates in Massachusetts recently sued the federal government on behalf of stranded Afghans who have filed, without success, for safety in the United States. The complaint stated that three relatives of one plaintiff who worked with U.S. military and is now a U.S. citizen were murdered while waiting for decisions.
“The plaintiffs who remain in danger in Afghanistan and surrounding countries include a female judge who sentenced members of the Taliban, other women who previously rose to positions of prominence, and people who directly supported the United States in Afghanistan or worked with the U.S.-backed Afghan government, and their family members,” the ACLU of Massachusetts said.
Senate Democrats last month also noted the “stark inconsistencies” when it comes to the treatment of Ukrainian and Afghan refugees who are seeking safety here. They noted that while Afghan refugees “must provide proof of individualized, targeted violence by the Taliban,” Ukrainians don’t have to show that they were specifically targeted by Russian invaders. Afghan applicants have also had to pay certain fees that Ukrainians have had exempted.
"Processing one group's claims at a much lower evidentiary threshold, and at no cost, without doing so for the other is a jarring example of inequity," Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service President Krish O'Mara Vignarajah told CBS News. "This process is meant to save lives and reunite families—an applicant's fate shouldn't be dependent on their nationality.”
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