While mounting criticism was mounted over the rejection of thousands from Afghans seeking refuge under the Taliban, the Biden administration quietly increased eligibility rules for humanitarian entry to the U.S. amid growing concern about the internal guidance and training materials from the government that CBS News obtained.
These policy changes were implemented internally this spring. They concern a decades-old legal power called parole, which allows U.S immigration officials to allow immigrants without visas to enter the country in cases of urgent humanitarian need or "significant public benefit."
U.S. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), which oversees legal immigration, receives approximately 2,000 parole requests per year from immigrants. The number of parole applications rose dramatically after the Taliban seized control of Afghanistan in 2021.
Tens of thousands were among the Afghans who filed parole applications, many of which were unable to get into Kabul's airport in enough time to be evacuated last summer by the U.S. These include Afghans who aided U.S. troops, their families, former Afghan government employees and members of the long-persecuted Hazara ethnic tribe, as well as others who fear they might be subject to Taliban persecution.
Between July 2021, and earlier this month USCIS received more than 46,000 applications for parole from Afghans abroad. CBS News reported that USCIS had denied 93% of the applications it received by June 2nd, despite receiving fewer than 5,000 of them. Unresolved parole requests from Afghans number more than 40,000.
CBS News reviewed multiple USCIS parole denials and found that Afghan applicants failed to prove they were at risk of "severe, targeted or individualized harm" to their country.
Some Democratic lawmakers and refugee advocates criticized the U.S. for relying on narrow interpretations of the parole authority in order to deny Afghans desperate requests.
Advocates also compared the high denials to the Biden administration’s wide use of the parole authority for admitting other populations, such as the Ukrainians displaced from Russia's invasion of their homeland. They also cited the large number of parole authority users who allowed admission to more people, including the over 70,000 Afghans who were evacuated and resettled last year by the U.S.
CBS News obtained internal USCIS guidance that shows that the agency has expanded humanitarian parole eligibility to include people who can prove they are a member of "targeted groups" that have been subject to "widespread systematic or pervasive" attacks. The guidance stated that members of a targeted group must be subject to "serious harm," which could mean physical or psychological injury, or even death.
Prior to the changes, humanitarian parole applicants had been instructed to provide third-party evidence specifically naming them as victims of serious harm.
USCIS adjudicators revised their guidance, stating that this proof "still remains preferred evidence," but expanding other forms of evidence to include country conditions reports that show the targeting and evidence that the applicant is a member of that group.
The guidance stated that "isolated incidents of injury to other members of the group will generally not suffice."
The guidance states that for applications from individuals in third-country countries, adjudicators must consider the applicant's inability to access International protection programs; their risk of serious harm there; their possibility of being deported to a country where they could be hurt; their legal and living circumstances.
The USCIS stated that the policy changes were the result of an internal review of the humanitarian parole process.
The agency stated that USCIS had revised its guidance for adjudicators regarding the types of evidence they consider relevant to evaluating parole applications based primarily upon protection against individualized or targeted injury. USCIS felt that it was time to review our policies in light of the large number of parole requests made primarily due to Afghan humanitarian crisis.
Some of the thousands of Afghans with parole cases pending could be helped by USCIS's policy changes. Future applicants too may benefit from these changes. However, immigration lawyers said that the impact of these rules will depend on how adjudicators enforce them as well as whether they lower the high denial rate.
It sounds, at face value, like it could be beneficial. We need to wait and see how it is actually implemented." Karlyn Kurichety (legal director at Al Otro Lado), a California-based advocacy organization that has filed parole requests for Afghans, said that we just need to wait and see.
USCIS also stated other reasons why it hasn't processed most parole requests for Afghans. The vast majority of cases were denied.
Alice Lugo, DHS assistant secretary for legislative affairs, stated that a ninefold increase in parole requests had led to processing times being extended by "several more months" in response to concerns expressed by Democratic Massachusetts Senator Ed Markey in December 2021.
Lugo stated that "the main limiting factor in timely adjudications of parole applications are that the volume of receipts significantly exceeds resources." She wrote this June 14th letter noting that USCIS had assigned 90 officers to examine these cases.
Lugo also stated that the "evidentiary standards for individuals who request parole are the same regardless the nationality or the location of the beneficiary." She noted, however, that many Afghan parole applicants remain in Afghanistan and cannot be interviewed in person with U.S. officials.
Lugo's letter to CBS News stated that the U.S. Embassy has suspended all operations in Afghanistan, including consular processing. "USCIS cannot approve a parole request while the beneficiary remains in Afghanistan."
USCIS should conduct parole interviews remotely for Afghans, or waive them as was done for displaced Ukrainians who were paroled into the U.S. in late April under a private sponsorship program. They also called for an identical private sponsorship policy for Afghans.
USCIS reviews sponsorship requests made by U.S. citizens under the Uniting for Ukraine program to determine if they have the financial resources to support the displaced Ukrainians. After these sponsorship bids have been approved and background checks are complete, Ukrainians who are identified as U.S. sponsors can travel to the U.S. where they will be granted parole by airport officials.
Afghans can file humanitarian requests for assistance. Other requests require $575 in application fees. Sponsorship requests for Uniting for Ukraine are free. Uniting for Ukraine cases can be processed electronically in weeks, if not days, unlike Afghan parole requests.
DHS denied that it used different standards for these people, and said it is committed both to helping displaced Ukrainians as well as at-risk Afghans. DHS also claimed that Afghans seek permanent resettlement while Ukrainians need temporary refuge.
But critics disagree. Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat, called Afghan parole requests processing "dismal" and "discriminatory".
Markey stated to CBS News that thousands of Afghans were denied humanitarian parole and that only a handful have been granted. "This is a moral crisis. These families are welcome in our communities by the American people.
