Biden administration extends temporary fix for Afghan refugees in US

by Jared Gans - 05/06/23 12:00 PM ET

The Safi family celebrates Eid by taking family photographs on the National Mall, Tuesday, May 3, 2022, near the U.S. Capitol in Washington. The family was evacuated from Afghanistan and is trying to make a new life in the U.S., while in immigration limbo. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

The Biden administration has extended a temporary fix to allow Afghan refugees to continue to live and work in the United States.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said in a release on Friday that Afghan nationals who arrived in the U.S. under humanitarian grounds through Operation Allies Welcome (OAW), which allowed vulnerable Afghans to resettle in the U.S. as the Taliban took over Afghanistan, to request re-parole starting next month.

The release states the requests will be reviewed on a “case-by-case basis for urgent humanitarian reasons and significant public benefit.”

The administration’s action comes as the authorizations for the Afghan nationals start to expire this summer.

Congress has been unable to advance the proposed Afghan Adjustment Act, which would provide 80,000 Afghans who fled Afghanistan in 2021 a path a citizenship in the U.S.

“The Biden-Harris Administration is committed to the continued safety, security, and well-being of the thousands of Afghan nationals who arrived in the United States through OAW and continue to through Enduring Welcome (EW),” the release states. “The Administration has repeatedly put forward an adjustment act and publicly called on Congress to support a bipartisan adjustment act that would provide a durable, more streamlined immigration pathway for those currently in parole.”

The release states that Afghan nationals in the U.S. should pursue permanent status in the U.S. that they are eligible for.

It states that DHS will start hosting Afghan Support Centers on May 17 to provide information about immigration and social services available to the refugees. The first location will be in Phoenix, and others will be announced in the coming weeks.

The federal government announced toward the end of last summer, just over a year after the Taliban took over Afghanistan, that it would largely end its use of humanitarian parole to allow Afghans to enter the country, requiring those yet to arrive to demonstrate family ties in the U.S., a connection to the U.S. military or that they are among the most vulnerable to gain entry.