Kabul (BNA) United states media have reported that a large number of Afghans who have been transferred to the United States will not be able to obtain legal and permanent residence in that country, they will lose their case and will be deported.
According to BNA, ABC News reports that US officials do not plan to grant permanent residency to all Afghans transferred to the United States during the evacuation process.
A report by the US Immigration Service sent to Congress states that at least 36,433 Afghan’s refugees who have been resettled in the United States do not have a direct related to legal and permanent residency in the United States.
This represents more than 40% of the tens of thousands of Afghans that have been transferred to the United States as part of the largest evacuation and resettlement operation by the US government.
According to the report, immigrants who do not qualify for permanent residence will remain in legal uncertainty unless Congress legalizes them.
The report also said, that the US Refugee Program has already received 412,000 applications and that the application process has been delayed, and a large number of applicants may lose their case and be expelled.
“We urge Congress to pass legislation to regulate Afghanistan immediately,” said Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, director of the US Immigration and Refugee Agency. She who works to help Afghan refugees, called it an urgent need for settling.
Due to the fall of the Afghanistan government and the rapid takeover of the Islamic Emirate, the Biden government bypassed the process that took years to seek refuge and relocate thousands of Afghans to the United States. In the process, refugees became eligible for permanent residence one year after arriving in the United States.
The United States has used a humanitarian legal body called “parole” to accept Afghans refugees after inspects them at military bases in the Middle East and Europe. This allows immigrants to live and work legally in the United States for two years, but a humanitarian visa does not grant them permanent residency.
However, according to the US Department of Homeland Security, which was discussed with Congress on Friday,28 January 2022, at least 70,192 Afghans have been granted humanitarian visas as 15 November of last year. Five evacuees are said, to have been deported following the cancellation of their humanitarian visas. The Department of Homeland Security report did not provide reasons for the termination of their “conditional release” visas, but it may be due to criminal activity.
The spouse and children of special immigrant visa holders are automatically eligible for a Green Card, but this is also time consuming.
Thus, the limited number of evacuated Afghans did not need to accept a humanitarian visa. These individuals had previously obtained legal permission to enter the United States. These include 3,529 people who are permanent residents and 3,290 hold special immigrant visas.
According to the latest statistics, more than 76,000 Afghan citizens have been brought to the United States. Of these, 67,000 have been resettled by resettlement agencies or their families across the United States.
About 8,000 remain at three military bases in New Jersey, Virginia and Wisconsin. The US government hopes to relocate all evacuees from military installations by mid-February.
However, it is said that about 2,500 Afghan citizens are waiting for US flights to bases in Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.
According to the US Department of center immigration, hundreds of Afghan citizens have been barred from entering the United States. The reasons for these obstacles are security concerns. These people need to be inspected further. As of early January, 88 immigrants banned from entering the United States remained in Kosovo with 113 family members and were inspected.
It is also said that the process of passing the ‘Regulating Afghanistan’ law, which allows immigrants to stay permanently, has stalled in Congress, and that despite the efforts of immigration advocates to pass it, the bill remains in abeyance.
While efforts to resettle the Afghan’s citizen in the United States are supported by two both Republicans and Democrats, many Republicans have also raised questions about how the United States is handling immigrants. The US Department of center immigration says federal law enforcement and intelligence agencies are conducting biometric screenings and biographies of evacuees.
The U.S. Department of center immigration report states that 36,433 people who do not qualify for permanent residency include family members of U.S. citizens, Green Card holders, or special immigrant visa applicants. Potential applicants for special immigration visas have not yet been identified.
Without congressional approval, some evacuees can receive permanent residency through an asylum program or financial support from a family of eligible U.S. citizens. But many of these people may not have family members who are American citizens, and some may not be eligible for full asylum.
Bakhtar News Agency
