The tens of thousands of Afghans arriving in the U.S. need a pathway to real and lasting safety. 

Most Afghans are arriving with humanitarian parole, which only temporarily allows people fleeing danger to remain in the U.S. These Afghans will need to find another pathway to safety once their parole expires.  

Currently, the pathway available to them is asylum, a paperwork-intensive process with years-long backlogs that have prevented thousands of people from finding safety in the U.S. In order to make successful asylum claim, these Afghans will be asked to provide proof that a person would face violence in their home country – in relation to their work with Americans, with women’s rights groups, with reporting on corruption, and more. These documents are the same ones that Afghans were advised to destroy in order to escape or elude the Taliban during the evacuation. 

Afghans should not be penalized for how the U.S. evacuated them and the means by which their family was able to reach safety. 

To ensure that Afghans find real, lasting safety in the U.S., Congress must pass the Afghan Adjustment Act, which would allow Afghan humanitarian parolees to seek legal permanent residence in the U.S.