FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 26, 2022
#AfghanEvac Statement on Congressional Inaction on Afghan Adjustment Act
‘Shameful moment in U.S. history’ represents ‘betrayal of our allies’
Washington DC – Following congressional approval of the Fiscal Year 2023 appropriations omnibus bill without inclusion of the Afghan Adjustment Act – without which tens of thousands of Afghans will be left without a pathway to remaining in the U.S. after their humanitarian parole begins to expire in August 2023 – Navy veteran and #AfghanEvac founder Shawn VanDiver released the following statement:
“The Afghan Adjustment Act is crucial to keep the promise we made to our allies — a promise the Senate and House have broken. This is a shameful moment in U.S. history. Other allies will take note and our country is less secure because of this.
To say we are disappointed and dismayed is just scratching the surface. Without this bill, people our own government brought to our shores will face new uncertainty and instability brought about by our own government. Make no mistake about it — this is a betrayal of our allies, veterans, and frontline civilians with whom they stood shoulder-to-shoulder in America’s longest war.
The Afghan Adjustment Act is needed to create stability and a legal path forward for the more than 70,000 Afghans brought here by the U.S. government during the chaotic military evacuation in August 2021. We made a promise to Afghan allies that if they stood by us, we would stand by them. After 20 years of conflict, at great personal sacrifice and risk to their own lives, our congress is unable to enable our country to follow through with the bare minimum to keep that promise.
We have to make this right. We continue to expect Congress to take swift action to right this absolute travesty of a decision early in the next Congress.
Our relocation efforts will continue and #AfghanEvac will keep pushing our government partners to do better by our Afghan allies. We are grateful to the Members of Congress who supported this bill and the advocates who worked tirelessly to get it included. We are not done.”
The act had received the support of bipartisan members of Congress, dozens of America’s highest ranking military members, veterans organizations and various cities across the nation.
The Afghan Adjustment Act, known in the House as H.R. 8685 and in the Senate as S. 4787, would mirror efforts made by the U.S. government for Vietnamese and South Asian refugees following the fall of Saigon.
As a result of the U.S.’s hurried evacuation from Afghanistan, the vast majority of Afghan evacuees were admitted to the country on a temporary basis under “humanitarian parole,” which does not confer a direct pathway to lawful permanent residence.
In order to provide such a pathway, as the U.S. has previously done for every generation of modern wartime evacuees, the Afghan Adjustment Act would allow eligible Afghan evacuees to apply for lawful permanent residence in the U.S. after one or two years of physical presence in the country.
The more than 200 organizations that make up the non-partisan #AfghanEvac coalition work hand-in-hand with government entities and advocate for ways to provide new Afghan community members with the stability they need to resettle and thrive in their new lives here.
For twenty years, Afghan allies worked and fought side-by-side with U.S. and allied forces through the longest war in American history. The #AfghanEvac coalition is committed to ensuring that their service, partnership, and commitment to American ideals is honored.
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