In the year since the botched U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, tens of thousands of Afghans have been forced to suffer through another administrative disaster, this one unfolding mostly in drab D.C. office buildings via mountains of monotonous paperwork.
In the aftermath of the pullout and the lightning-quick Taliban takeover, Afghans who worried for their lives and freedom — including many who are at risk for supporting U.S. aims and weren’t able to immediately evacuate with the retreating Americans — were told that they could apply for humanitarian parole, which would allow them to enter the U.S. and remain here in safety while they sought a more permanent status.
A year on, this has started looking like a bait and switch. Reveal at the Center for Investigative Reporting revealed recently that, of about 66,000 applications filed last July and this May, only 8,000 had even been processed. Of those, there were a total of 123 approvals, about 1.5% of the applications resolved and 0.2% of the total applications filed. The government collected a $575 application fee for each.
