America’s mission in Afghanistan isn’t finished

In the two decades that American troops fought in Afghanistan, they received crucial help from Afghan nationals. These local allies served as translators, interpreters and in other positions on behalf of U.S. forces at great peril to themselves and their families.

Now the peril is even greater, and America should not abandon them.

Since the U.S. abruptly pulled out of Afghanistan a year ago, the fundamentalist Taliban regime that assumed power has adopted a hard-line, brutal approach to governance. Officials have relegated women to subservience and broken their promise to allow education for girls. They have instituted outlandishly repressive responses to dissent. And they have murdered American allies.

As the U.S. prepared to withdraw from Afghanistan, lawmakers took steps to protect America’s allies in the country, such as expanding the Special Immigrant Visa program, which allows qualified applicants to relocate to the United States. Red tape and backlogs prevented many eligible Afghans from obtaining an SIV before the withdrawal in late August 2021. Now, in addition to bureaucratic roadblocks, Afghan allies face the cruelty of the Taliban if they’re caught.

“They get killed, tortured, primarily,” said U.S. Rep. Jason Crow of Centennial in an interview this week.

Crow has helped lead congressional efforts to do right by America’s Afghan friends. A former Army Ranger, Crow himself served in Afghanistan. He introduced last year the ALLIES Act, which increased a cap on SIVs by 8,000 visas, bringing the total to 19,000, and expanded eligibility. He introduced the HOPE Act, which streamlined the SIV application process. The Democrat has been a consistent advocate for Afghan allies, criticizing the Biden administration for its handling of the withdrawal.

Most recently a bipartisan group of lawmakers including Crow introduced a new bill, the Afghan Adjustment Act, which would provide relief for Afghan evacuees who came to the United States on an emergency basis.

In the chaotic withdrawal, more than 76,000 Afghan evacuees were transported to the United States. They arrived first at military bases, then were resettled throughout the country, including about 2,000 in Colorado. Some are SIV-eligible, but many were government workers or otherwise susceptible to Taliban retribution, and they were admitted to America under humanitarian parole status. Such status allowed a rapid transfer, but it was temporary and came with other limitations.

The Afghan Adjustment Act would convert the status of these evacuees to refugee and permit them to apply for permanent legal status, Crow said.

“The downside of humanitarian parole is parolees are not entitled to refugees’ benefits,” Crow said. “So the Afghan Adjustment Act would solve that issue, the benefits issue, the ability of Afghans to work and to support their families, and provide an avenue to permanent residency, and ultimately citizenship.”

In addition to bipartisan congressional support, the bill has earned praise from immigration advocates.

“It would provide stability to tens of thousands who are stuck in legal limbo, and it would follow through on promises to so many allies who put their lives at risk in support of the twenty-year U.S. mission in Afghanistan,” the National Immigration Forum’s Danilo Zak wrote.

But many Republicans have approached Afghan resettlement programs with skepticism or outright hostility. The Trump administration’s mishandling of immigration functions in general has hindered the nation’s ability to efficiently accommodate vulnerable Afghans. U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa and then-Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama complained the SIV program is too expensive. U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley introduced a bill that would subject evacuees to exorbitant vetting, even though safety concerns related to refugees are almost always unjustified. “The chance of an American being murdered in a terrorist attack by a refugee is about 1 in 3.86 billion per year,” according to a Cato Institute study.

Meanwhile, tens of thousands of allies are still in Afghanistan. Anyone who applies for an SIV faces extreme jeopardy, not least because they are required to appear for an in-person interview in the capital.

“They have to make their way — which has always been a problem — make their way past Taliban checkpoints, to Kabul, and explain why they’re going to Kabul, with paperwork in hand, which is very dangerous,” Crow said.

Even those who are approved for a visa must still find a way out of Kabul, which itself is hard, partly because control of the airport is disputed, Crow said.

“On average, you’re talking about in the dozens of folks that are able to get out and make that perilous journey,” he said.

Crow is working on ways to further facilitate SIV approvals. For example, he plans to introduce a bill that would waive the in-person interview requirement and allow the interview to be virtual, he said.

After the U.S. invaded Afghanistan in October 2001, many Afghans joined America’s mission. These Afghan allies trusted their American brethren, and they put their lives on the line for U.S. troops.

“I may not be here having this conversation with you right now had it not been for the service of those Afghans,” Crow told NPR last year. “And we owe to them the same level of loyalty and protection and service that they provided to us over the last 20 years. It’s a moral issue. It’s a national security issue, and we have to make sure we’re doing what’s necessary to get it done.”

Until the U.S. does what’s necessary to get it done, America’s mission in Afghanistan remains unfinished.