Statement - During and After the Fall of Kabul
Statement of Afghans for a Better Tomorrow and Project ANAR On
“‘During and After the Fall of Kabul: Examining the Administration’s Emergency Evacuation from Afghanistan”
Before the House Foreign Affairs Committee
March 8, 2023
Afghans for a Better Tomorrow and Project ANAR thank the House Foreign Affairs Committee for the opportunity to submit this statement for the record for its March 8, 2023 hearing: 'During and After the Fall of Kabul: Examining the Administration’s Emergency Evacuation from Afghanistan.’
Afghans for a Better Tomorrow (AFBT) is an Afghan American-led progressive community organization whose aim is to bring about transformative change for Afghans in the United States and beyond.
Project ANAR is an Afghan community immigration justice organization based in San Francisco, California, offering legal services, education, and advocacy. Project ANAR was founded and led by Afghan American women as a grassroots legal aid project.
Together, our organizations are dedicated to ensuring more just policies for the Afghan people so that they can live in dignity, prosperity, and peace.
Our Work and U.S. Failures During the Evacuations
Our organizations, like countless other Afghan diaspora groups, were formed in the wake of the U.S. evacuation of Afghanistan. As Afghans in the diaspora, the 20-year-long occupation of Afghanistan and the subsequent withdrawal had profound impacts on our community, families, and friends–both in the United States and Afghanistan. Our organizations have spent the last two years offering direct assistance, education, resources, and advocacy, to Afghans resettled in the United States and those left behind. We work in coalition with other Afghan community organizations, immigration and resettlement organizations, and others in addressing our community’s ongoing needs and seeking accountability for the failure to do right by the Afghan people throughout the course of two decades and four administrations.
As the United States prepared to make its military exit in the spring of 2021, Afghans knew there would be a need for pathways to refuge. It became apparent, however, that the U.S. was unprepared for what would come next in Afghanistan. The Afghan National Defense and Army Forces (ANDSF) slowly withered away without American support, allowing the Taliban to rapidly gain control over parts of the country and leave countless Afghans behind so-called “enemy lines.” In a matter of weeks, their ability to take steps to find safety for themselves and their families disintegrated.
In April 2021, AFBT warned that “[m]ost experts agree that after the U.S. withdrawal, much of the country could return to the cruel rule of the Taliban” and urged that the “Biden administration and the European Union should announce a bold refugee policy, welcoming any Afghan seeking refuge and safe haven.” Furthermore, we stated, “the United States and its NATO allies have a responsibility to open their doors, especially to those at-risk from Taliban persecution and repression.”
Three months later, in July, President Biden held a press conference defiantly sticking to his September evacuation deadline. AFBT shared in a statement that the “hasty withdrawal by US-led coalition forces continues to further endanger innocent Afghans throughout the country [...] The U.S. must open its doors to vulnerable Afghans seeking refuge and a dignified life.”
AFBT and Project ANAR reiterated our deep concerns throughout the next few weeks in our advocacy efforts to Congress and protests held throughout the United States. The calls against the hasty withdrawal, all led by Afghans, went widely ignored and dismissed.
To amplify the Afghan American voices, allied, powerful, and well-connected groups–including lawyers, veterans, and national immigration and resettlement organizations–spent months advising Congress and the administration about the anticipated consequences of the withdrawal as well as the urgent need for expanded immigration pathways. These calls were also ignored.
By mid-August 2021, the world watched as the Taliban completed its takeover of the country and the capital city of Kabul. Meanwhile, our Afghan American community entered “crisis mode.” Many started by attempting to evacuate friends, family, and others they knew through Afghan civil society. We spent the next few weeks collecting names, pictures of passports, and evidence of their risk of harm and compiled them into excel spreadsheets. We submitted them through members of Congress and the White House’s National Security Council, warning them of the impending consequences if the names on the list were not afforded evacuation. It became painfully clear early on that these efforts were not bearing fruit. Those on the lists sought refuge at the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul in futile attempts to navigate a crowd of thousands of Afghans in fear for their life. On this journey, they dodged Taliban checkpoints or were harassed by the Taliban, withstood gunfire at the airport, and sought a U.S. official who could guide them to safety- all to no avail. On August 26, 2021, a suicide attacker killed approximately 200 innocent Afghans trying to find a path to evacuation while leaving many more injured.
Ordinary community members, lawyers, and friends rallied to advocate for our loved ones in Afghanistan to reach safety while all of this unfolded. In our communications with Members of Congress and administration officials, we were encouraged to pursue Humanitarian Parole, a legal pathway historically and presently utilized to bring people to safety so they can pursue permanent protections in the U.S. It was the only pathway available to many Afghans. Project ANAR rallied to assist Afghans by connecting them to pro bono legal assistance to complete these applications. While we helped our community meet the barriers of overcoming exorbitant filing fees, preparing their applications with the help of lawyers, and then individually and collectively advocating for applicants after they had been filed, it has been to no avail. It is through investigative reporting and a FOIA request by Reveal that we have come to learn how few applications have been approved and how much money ($20 million) the U.S. has collected from those applications. We have also experienced this firsthand through our own clients and loved ones. The majority of those who filed these applications, those who sought evacuation pathways, and those who were eligible for other U.S. immigration pathways alike have been left behind.
One Afghan of the thousands left behind was Jamila Afghani.
"I had visas for 11 countries to get out, but every time we tried to get into the airport our attempts would fail. For about a week, we would go to the airport and wait for many hours to reach the different checkpoints. But the telephones near the gates did not work, the internet wasn’t working – all communications were down – so we were not able to communicate with our contacts inside the airport to tell them we were at the gate and someone should come and support us.
Each day, we would have to return to a different location rather than going home, and come back to the airport the next day to try again. We tried almost every possible way to get in. But they weren’t basing entry on who deserved or needed to get through."
Jamila Afghani is the founder of the local Afghan NGO, Noor Educational and Capacity Development Organization, which champions education for women in Afghanistan among their other efforts. She founded the organization as a refugee in Pakistan but then established it in Afghanistan just months after the Taliban were ousted from power in 2001. For the last twenty years, her NGO has supported girls and women throughout Afghanistan — and her work continues even today, with the country back under the Taliban’s rule. Jamila Afghani is the recipient of the 2022 Aurora Humanitarian Prize for her efforts toward a progressive Afghanistan.
How We Got Here
While the actions of the Biden administration during the evacuation process leave much room for criticism, most of the foundation for the ensued horrors in August 2021 were set in the many years before. This is a critical time to reflect on the past developments leading to these failures. The United States’ military presence in Afghanistan became one where “the mission grew muddled as they began adopting contradictory strategies and unattainable goals.”
Over the course of two decades, the word “progress” was consistently being used in Congressional hearings by officials from the Pentagon. Their “progress” over two decades, in reality, reflected a rise in civilian casualties and Taliban insurgency as well as an erosion of trust between Afghan citizens and the western-supported Afghan government in the midst of rampant corruption. The twenty-year-long NATO presence also had ensured many Afghans had crossed paths with the occupation; in the wake of the withdrawal, many are now under threat from the Taliban for having been friendly with American or NATO soldiers.
As the Trump administration set into motion an exit plan from Afghanistan, the U.S. initiated a negotiation with the Taliban in Doha, Qatar to end America’s presence in the country. This culminated in the Doha Agreement, which stipulated that the U.S. would withdraw in return for promises by the Taliban that it would not use Afghan soil for attacks and commit to talks with the Afghan government at that time.
However, from the start, the Doha talks excluded the voice of everyday Afghans from the diplomatic “peace process.” Afghan women and other Afghan civil society leaders advocated for inclusion in the process, to no avail. In the end, the Doha Agreement, signed by former President Trump, ensured that the people excluded were the very Afghans who would seek refuge in the United States or elsewhere.
The common thread of the past few years is that many Afghans were meaningfully excluded and intentionally overlooked. While warnings came from all sides of our community, a continued practice of community exclusion that lacked obvious consideration of the very people the U.S. meant to help directly contributed to the chaotic evacuation and the failed 20-year mission that preceded it.
Policy Recommendations
While much can be discussed or said about the mistakes of the past 20 years, the road ahead for Afghans will be incredibly challenging. While the U.S. might have exited the country militarily, it cannot ignore its moral obligations towards the Afghan people. Considering its role as a main actor that has direct responsibility for the decades of harm caused to Afghans by careless decisions of past and current administrations, the U.S. still owes a substantial debt to the safety and welfare of the Afghan people. We make the following recommendations as steps toward repairing this harm:
Permanent Status via the Afghan Adjustment Act: For Afghans that were part of the 2021 NEO and already in the United States, their entry to the United States was granted through the use of humanitarian parole. New Afghan arrivals, mostly here on a two-year parole status, will soon be out of status this summer. The Afghan Adjustment Act, introduced last year during the 117th Congress, remains the only logical and viable option for over 80,000 Afghans now residing within the United States. Tens of thousands have filed for asylum, but USCIS has adjudicated fewer than 1,200 of their applications. Legal services organizations such as Project ANAR are working to meet community needs by assisting with asylum applications and offering resources to community organizations, but cannot meet the community’s massive needs alone. We encourage Congress to follow historical precedent and ensure Afghans can start their new lives in the United States without having to live in legal limbo. Absent an Afghan Adjustment Act, vulnerable Afghans outside of the U.S. will remain in the same pipeline as those already here. Those resources could be focused on Afghans in urgent situations in Afghanistan and third countries by enacting a broadly supported bipartisan legislation that still utilizes the highest level of screening that exists in the immigration system. Furthermore, it will spare a traumatized community from the effects of individual retraumatization through the asylum process and alleviate further backlogs on a system Congress is well aware is already heavily strained.
Asylum and TPS Backlogs USCIS Processing: Afghans in the U.S. are seeking permanent protection here with the ultimate goal of completing the asylum process. USCIS is not meeting its obligation of completing adjudications within 150 days of processing for Operation Allies Welcome Afghan parolees. Afghans apply for Temporary Protected Status (TPS) to maintain their work authorization and lawful legal presence. Backlogs in TPS and asylum processing are pushing new Afghan arrivals into a state of legal limbo and anxiety while they await approval of their asylum and TPS applications. The majority of Afghans will lose their parole status in the coming months. USCIS must meet its processing obligations and adjudicate these applications in a timely manner. There must also be a pathway for re-parole, which is critical to ensuring that Afghans do not lose access to the work authorization, legal, and resettlement services that Congress has already authorized for them, which are essential towards their success, wellbeing and livelihoods in the U.S.
Expand USRAP and Utilize Complementary Pathways: One immediate need is the expansion of the U.S. Refugee Admission Program, which was dismantled during the years of the Trump administration. During FY22, only 25,518 refugees were admitted through the program despite the 125,000 cap set by the administration. The State Department’s Population, Refugees and Migration Bureau's February data indicates that only 3,069 refugees were admitted. If this pace were to continue, the Biden administration would fall short – again – of its goal of 125,000 admissions by 95,000 refugees. We strongly urge reinvestment and rebuilding of the USRAP program, which offers durable legal status. In the meantime, complementary pathways, including parole, must continue to be used to bring more people to safety more quickly. USRAP alone is not presently scaled to meet the needs of countless Afghans awaiting family reunification pathways, or otherwise vulnerable because of their marginalized identities and other factors. Just as there is historical precedent for adjustment of status legislation following U.S. military evacuations, there is precedent for long-term utilization of refugee and parole pathways to bring these populations to safety. USCIS must address the backlog of humanitarian parole applications and do right by those Afghans who pursued parole, including by offering them a pathway to safety and returning the $20 million of humanitarian parole application fees it collected from vulnerable Afghans, but that alone cannot absolve it of offering them an accessible pathway to refuge.
Consular Processing and Afghans in Third Countries: The closure of the American embassy in Kabul in the wake of the Taliban takeover poses a tremendous challenge to enabling Afghan nationals for asylum or refugee processing. The United States ought to use its diplomatic strength to allow increased processing in neighboring countries like Pakistan and establish consular processing in other 3rd countries. USCIS must pull from the innovations of other programs, including the Uniting for Ukraine program, to expand capacities for processing for the most vulnerable Afghans. It must increase access to third countries for Afghans without current passports and address the situations of Afghans who have been languishing indefinitely in third countries, separated from their families and communities, and lacking access to information and legal assistance.
SIV Processing: The Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) remains deeply mired in bureaucratic delays and backlogs. As one of the few legal pathways to the United States, we encourage Congress to make this program permanent and to work harder to remove all the bureaucratic delays, risking the lives of applicants who are on the run from the Taliban within the country. An estimated 62,000 principal applicants remain in process as of May 2022, according to a State Department Office of Inspector General report. At this moment, it would take over a decade to relocate eligible applicants to the United States.