Senators eye clear path for refugees
Murphy, Blumenthal say United States must cut red tape
Senators Chris Murphy and Richard Blumenthal are calling upon the U.S. Secretary of State to cut through red tape to allow more Afghanistan refugees into the country.
Along with 26 other Democratic senators, they want to help Afghans who already hold approved visa petitions but do not have a visa yet due to immigration caps. Similar changes were made in the past to allow more refugees from Haiti, Cuba, and Hungary.
“As the situation on the ground in Afghanistan becomes more dangerous, thousands of Afghans are desperately seeking to leave the country to avoid possible persecution,’’ the senators wrote to Secretary Antony Blinken. “We fully support efforts to provide humanitarian protection to those Afghan nationals in need. However, we write to draw your attention to the possibility that there are many nationals from Afghanistan in the family and employment-based immigration system for whom a visa is not yet available due to visa caps in immigration law.’’
They added, “In this context, the United States has a moral obligation to provide assistance to expedite the evacuation of Afghans at risk. Individuals with approved visa petitions have already completed multiple steps of the immigration process, and are merely waiting for a visa to become available.’’
The request by the senators has historical precedent.
The same program was used in 2014 under then-president Barack Obama in Haiti when family members of American citizens and green cardholders allowed to come to the United States.
Children whose parents died in an earthquake in Haiti were allowed entry in 2010.
Immigrants also arrived during a migration crisis in Cuba in 1994 and following the Hungarian Revolution of 1956.
“Every option to save human life should be on the table, including this prudent proposal, which could result in the immediate reunification of families and come at little cost to the government, since sponsoring family members assume responsibility for the foreign national,” the Democratic senators wrote.
In a separate letter released Friday, Murphy and more than 30 other members of Congress called upon the U.S. treasury secretary to ensure that nongovernmental organizations can get assistance to those most in need.
“Even before the recent violence, the number of Afghans in need of humanitarian assistance had nearly doubled since last year, reaching 18.4 million people — or about half the population,’’ the letter said. “More than five million people were experiencing emergency levels of hunger, while nearly half of all children under five were expected to be acutely malnourished this year. With the chaos of the past few weeks, which has led to mass displacement, these numbers will undoubtedly increase.”
Another problem with red tape is that the Afghan families seeking humanitarian parole are required to pay a fee of $575 per person so that they can enter the United States. For large families, the fees can be prohibitive as a family of five, for example, would be required to pay more than $2,800.
Some members of Congress are seeking to eliminate the humanitarian parole application fee, while other agencies are trying to raise money from donors to cover the costs.
Robert Fishman, executive director of the Connecticut Immigrant and Refugee Coalition, known as CIRC, said recently that his group had already raised more than $10,000 but needed more in order to cover the fees for as many refugees as possible.