Afghan refugees need and deserve legal status in the United States

The Afghans evacuated by the United States have escaped the Taliban, but they still face a humanitarian emergency. These are refugees experiencing stunning loss and anxiety — they have well-founded fears of persecution as defined in the Refugee Convention and U.S. law — and they need and deserve legal status in the United States through a smooth and welcoming process. 

As we have seen, the Afghan refugees were and continue to be hurriedly evacuated and provided quick entry through what’s known as the parole authority of the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security. While this authority — used in the past for Cuban and Kurdish refugees, among others — enabled the United States to move quickly, it does not come with any assurances of support, a pathway to permanent residence in the United States or, most importantly, reunification with spouses and children left behind.

Congress should urgently solve this problem by passing legislation that will adjust the immigration status and that will immediately provide transition assistance to the tens of thousands of Afghan refugees who have arrived and will arrive in the future.