This holiday season, more than 70,000 Afghans in the United States, many of whom American service members rescued last year, are living in limbo, with no guarantee they will be allowed to stay in the U.S. beyond next year.
Many of these Afghans fought alongside American troops in our longest war. U.S. service members helped them and their families flee a collapsing Afghanistan because their service to the U.S. put them in mortal peril. Those veterans and their Afghan counterparts now sit anxiously, waiting to see if Congress will keep honoring America’s promise.
A bipartisan Congressional coalition has put forward a solution: the Afghan Adjustment Act, which would allow Afghans who came to the U.S. during the evacuation to be re-vetted and apply for a permanent status — something which eludes them right now. It also ensures the sustainability of Afghan resettlement, through a task force that will outlast any administration or Congress. Passing this law would immediately improve the lives of tens of thousands of our allies and friends, who have already survived so much to come this far.
