Columbus awaiting about 350 Afghans
Columbus’ two resettlement agencies are expecting the arrival of about 350 Afghan nationals in the coming months.
As nearly 20,000 Afghan refugees await their next steps at military bases across the United States, local resettlement agencies are preparing to offer them initial relocation assistance through the Afghan Placement and Assistance Program by the Department of State.
In Columbus, Community Refugee and Immigration Services (CRIS) will resettle approximately 250 Afghans and US Together will resettle 95, although the plan is still undergoing rapid changes, according to the agencies.
“They have to get a roof over their head. They have to get their kids in school. There are going to be mental health issues. I’m very hopeful that we’ll have the ability to provide more services. Those details are still emerging.”
Details about the State Department program are yet to be publicly announced.
Almost all Afghan families who will settle in Columbus came to the U.S. on humanitarian parole, a little-known process that allows immigrants in exceptional circumstances to enter the country without visas. They likely will arrive in Columbus within the next six months, according to CRIS Executive Director Angie Plummer.
“It could be very soon that we start getting notified that people are coming,” Plummer said. “I don’t know how much they’ll be spaced out. We are working very hard to put the systems in place, recognizing that we’re rebuilding a lot of the infrastructure that we currently have.”
In early August, the Department of State unveiled a plan to give certain Afghan nationals refugee status under priority-2 designation. Those who have directly assisted the U.S. military could also apply for a Special Immigrant Visa.
These two statuses, however, have stringent eligibility requirements and could take more than a year to get processed, according to Allyson Dipofi, supervising immigration attorney at Catholic Charities, Diocese of Cleveland.
Humanitarian parole, on the other hand, can be more broadly applied to at-risk Afghans. Under expedited processing, petitioners can get a decision in a matter of days.
Although humanitarian parole is rarely authorized during normal times, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said in August that the government would parole some Afghan evacuees into the U.S. on a caseby-case basis.
If their parole applications are successful, Afghan nationals will undergo rigorous security and medical screening, including getting their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. They will then have two years in the U.S. to apply for immigration status.
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has not released any statistics on the number of Afghans who have been granted paroles.
So far, approved parolees are mostly those who have been evacuated from Afghanistan and are in the late stage of applying for a Special Immigrant Visa, according to Dipofi. It is unclear what will happen to applicants who are still in Afghanistan or who do not have a pending visa application.
“In a crisis like this, the normal channels are not going to be sufficient,” Dipofi said. “Something has to be created specifically to address this particular humanitarian crisis. These are families who helped our government. They deserve our protection after 20 years of being on our side.”
While parolees could stay and work in the U.S. legally on a temporary basis, they are not eligible for the full range of resettlement services that refugees are entitled to.
To help them adjust to their lives in America, the Department of State is working to offer parolees initial relocation assistance under the Afghan Placement and Assistance Program, according to a U.S. Department of State spokesperson.
As with traditional refugee resettlement, local agencies will get a onetime $2,275 stipend for every parolee they relocate, $1,225 of which will be used to pay for the person’s material needs and the remainder is used to cover the agencies’ administrative expenses.
The department is working with Congress to determine whether federal benefits such as Medicaid will be offered to Afghans granted parole. As of now, “the support coming from the private sector will be critical to meeting the needs of this population,” the spokesperson said in an email.
Agencies such as CRIS are hoping to provide additional services to parolees to meet their housing, employment and medical needs. But it remains unclear what they will be able to do, Plummer said.
“They have to get a roof over their head. They have to get their kids in school. There are going to be mental health issues.” Plummer said. “I’m very hopeful that we’ll have the ability to provide more services. Those details are still emerging.”
Notably, Afghan parolees are not eligible to receive federally funded cash assistance typically available to refugees, which Plummer said might induce additional stress for those struggling to cope with the trauma of war.
“One of my concerns is that this group is going to be so traumatized that they need a little time to exhale before we throw them into the workplace,” she said. “But if they aren’t getting any cash assistance, they can’t be still for long because they’ve got to start working to pay their bills.”
Handling a big caseload in a short amount of time will not be easy, Plummer said. In lieu of a comprehensive plan by the government, community organizations and residents are stepping up to fill the needs of Columbus’ soonto-arrive Afghan residents.
“The really good news is lots of people are interested in helping,” Plummer said. “We’re trying to get groups to make welcome kits to bring to the family. This way, we don’t have to spend that $1,225 on trash bags, laundry detergent and things like that, knowing that they will be donated.”
Right now, her agency’s biggest concern is finding housing for the Afghans, especially since they tend to have larger families. Many community members have offered up their own rooms to house the newcomers, according to Plummer. Airbnb also has agreed to provide temporary housing to some Afghan families.
In terms of permanent housing solutions, however, Plummer said she hopes more local landlords will be open to working with the parolees.
“We need landlords to work with us, knowing that the families will have limited income when they first come here,” she said. “We can explain to them that they have $1,225 each to prepay some rent. And right now, the job market is so good that people are going to be able to find work and get going very soon.”
Ultimately, it should be up to Congress to allocate more funding to local organizations, according to Ali Noorani, president of the National Immigration Forum, a Washington, D.c.-based policy organization.
“It’s nothing short of inspirational that across the country you have religious groups, civic associations, veterans groups all coming together to ensure that Afghan nationals are welcome to their communities,” Noorani said. “But it’s so important for Congress to pass the legislation necessary to appropriate dollars so that resources are available for these families.”
Yilun Cheng is a Report for America corps member and covers immigration issues for The Dispatch. Your donation to match our RFA grant helps keep her writing stories like this one. Please consider making a tax-deductible donation at https://bit.ly/3fnsgaz. ycheng@dispatch.com @Chengyilun
Angie Plummer, CRIS Executive director