WASHINGTON — Congress left out of a Ukraine-focused supplemental spending bill a White House proposal to grant Afghan evacuees permanent protections in the U.S., leaving roughly 36,000 of them in legal limbo.
The move deals a blow to advocates who have spent months urging protections for those who were evacuated from Afghanistan last August but do not qualify for special immigrant visas.
The organization #AfghanEvac, which has worked to secure relief for Afghans, has met with the White House and with lawmakers on both sides of the aisle for months to push for the provisions. The Biden administration asked Congress to include the language in the Ukraine bill.
Shawn VanDiver, a Navy veteran and the founder of the group, has said there has been bipartisan support for the measures, which are known as the Afghan Adjustment Act but have not officially been introduced as a stand-alone bill.
“The work here isn’t close to done,” VanDiver tweeted Tuesday. “We know who blocked this and will press ever harder to get it done.”
The proposal would apply to the tens of thousands of Afghans who do not qualify for the narrow parameters of the Special Immigrant Visa program, reserved for Afghans who directly assisted the U.S. during the 20-year conflict.
These evacuees received temporary humanitarian parole when they entered the U.S., a status granted to immigrants without visas for pressing humanitarian reasons. But they can attain lawful permanent residency only if they apply for asylum through the backlogged system, with average wait times of more than four years.
The provisions were under consideration for inclusion in the Ukraine spending bill as late as Tuesday. Advocates acknowledged that they would be difficult to move as a stand-alone bill.
There are a dwindling number of must-pass bills on the agenda before the midterm elections in November, leaving few opportunities to pass the Afghan policy as part of a broader bill.
Ultimately, the Afghan proposal was stymied by Republican concerns about vetting as well as senators’ desire to move billions of dollars in Ukraine aid quickly.
“I do think it’s really important to keep the Ukrainian aid program an aid package about Ukraine, not adding anything to it,” said Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio.
