Deportation Nears For Thousands Of Afghans Evacuated To The U.S.

Refugees board buses that will take them to a processing center after they arrive at Dulles International Airport after being evacuated from Kabul following the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan Aug. 27, 2021, in Dulles, Virginia. Chip Somodevilla via Getty Images Afghan evacuees who have been living in the United States since August 2021 will soon reach the end of their temporary two-year stay. Following the fall of Kabul amid the chaotic U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021, the U.S. government used a policy known as humanitarian parole to bring Afghans who aided American forces and who feared Taliban retaliation onto American territory. According to unpublished DHS data reported by CBS News, only 4,775 applications from Afghan evacuees seeking asylum or a special visa status had been granted as of Feb. 12 compared to the approximately 80,000 Afghans who have resettled in the U.S. since August 2021. “The bottom line is we can’t send them back,” Rauf said, “because the situation of Afghanistan gets worse every day.” A Human Rights Watch report reveals that despite the Taliban’s declaration of amnesty, the group has executed or forcibly disappeared more than 100 former members of the Afghan National Security Forces.