Support the Afghan Adjustment Act

For over a year now, since August 2021, I’ve been among the volunteers all over the world who stepped up to help Afghans as their country imploded and our governments failed to uphold promises to stand by allies who fought alongside our service members. This work has included asking U.S. Rep. Diana Harshbarger and U.S. Sens. Marsha Blackburn and Bill Hagerty to support, or even cosponsor, the bipartisan Afghan Adjustment Act.

Officially introduced this past August in the House and the Senate after being heavily negotiated between Republican and Democrat sponsors, the Afghan Adjustment Act follows the model of standard bipartisan adjustment of status legislation passed after U.S. wartime withdrawals from Vietnam and Iraq. It’s a national security and veterans bill more than an immigration bill and would normally be no-brainer legislation when we end a 20-year war. But in our current political climate, it has faced an uphill battle, with more Afghan lives lost as unrecognized collateral damage as they wait for this bill.

The Afghan Adjustment Act would allow Afghans who entered the U.S. under humanitarian parole status — a one- to two-year temporary permission to reside in the U.S. — to request permanent residency. Applying for green card status would require substantive security vetting equivalent to the vetting required under the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program — considered the gold standard of vetting.

For anyone concerned over the less-than-ideal initial vetting for Afghans hurried to the U.S. in the August 2021 chaos, this bill is the answer. It encourages these Afghans to present themselves for more rigorous vetting in order to receive legal permission to remain in the U.S. Without this “adjustment in status,” Afghans in this situation must enter our massively backlogged asylum process or be deported.

The Afghan Adjustment Act also expands eligibility for Special Immigrant Visas to certain categories of Afghans who were trained by U.S. special forces but were never employed directly by the U.S. government. Creating a pathway to the U.S. for these highly trained allies is critical for U.S. national security.

Every major U.S. veterans’ organization, including the American Legion, Veterans of Foreign Wars, and Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, has asked Congress to support the Afghan Adjustment Act. Service members who served in Afghanistan remain desperate to see Afghan allies who served alongside them like brothers and sisters — in many cases saving American lives — have a path to safety, and a way to remain in the U.S. if they’re already here via humanitarian parole. Left in Afghanistan, they are being hunted by the Taliban and watching their families starve as another winter arrives without enough progress toward safety for allies to whom the U.S. made promises.

I was in high school when my whole community in Carter County lined the highway to send our local national guard unit off for Operation Desert Shield/Desert Storm and again lined the road, American flags flying high, to welcome them back. This too is who East Tennesseans are. A community that supports its service members so well needs to step up to support them again. We need to press Harshbarger and Blackburn and Hagerty to vote for the Afghan Adjustment Act this month.

Please make the calls or send the emails to their offices and remind them of who East Tennesseans are, and that they were elected to represent us and our values by voting for the Afghan Adjustment Act.

Kami Rice is cofounder of AlliedShepherd.org, a member of the Afghan Evac Coalition.