During the chaotic United States withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021, our allies sought safety from Taliban rule through a variety of U.S. refugee, visa, and parole programs. Two years later , an unconscionable number of our allies remain in limbo, whether awaiting processing in Afghanistan or seeking permanent status inside the U.S.

The beleaguered Special Immigrant Visa program promised to grant legal permanent residence to Afghans with qualifying employment on behalf of the U.S. government. Over 152,000 SIV applicants remain in Afghanistan. Adam Bates, supervisory policy counsel at the International Refugee Assistance Project, told the Washington Examiner that "the law establishing the SIV program generally requires applications to be adjudicated in nine months. Very clearly, they’re not putting everyone through in nine months. It’s been 24 months since all of this started, and the backlog has grown.”

The Priority-1 and Priority-2 programs within the United States Refugee Admissions Program offered refugee status to Afghans with “ compelling protection needs ” or who were endangered by work on behalf of the U.S. The 26,932 Afghan applicants whose referrals were accepted into the USRAP were told processing would take 12-18 months after they arrived in a country with an operational U.S. embassy. Many applicants moved to Pakistan, where they deal with increased costs of living and the looming threat of deportation, while being unable to work or send their children to school.

A State Department spokesperson told the Washington Examiner that USRAP processing has now commenced. Declining to confirm how many USRAP applicants have been processed, the State Department spokesperson stated that “7,095 Afghan individuals have arrived in the U.S. under various pathways” since July 2021. In the best-case scenario in which each arrival represented a USRAP applicant, 73% of applicants remain unprocessed.

Shawn VanDiver, founder of the #AfghanEvac coalition, could not confirm the number of applicants being processed monthly. He told the Washington Examiner he is "happy with the evidence observed thus far, but they need to plus it up quickly.'"

Humanitarian parole grants temporary status in the U.S. to individuals fleeing hardship. The program has failed nearly all 44,785 Afghans who applied between Jan. 1, 2020, and April 6, 2022. Freedom of Information Act requests from IRAP and the American Immigration Council found that only 114 Afghans received conditional approval of parole petitions, while U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services took in $19 million from $575 per-person application processing fees.

Difficulties continue to plague 77,000 Afghan nationals granted parole after being evacuated to the U.S. during Operation Allies Welcome, which followed the U.S. withdrawal. Operation Allies Welcome granted arrivals eligibility for expedited asylum, as well as federal assistance and work authorization. In May 2023, as their parole periods drew to a close, the Biden administration announced new processes for evacuees to obtain two additional years of parole and work authorization.

Afghans with asylum applications or paths to permanent status will be automatically considered for a parole extension. Those without a pending green card or asylum application must apply for a new parole period. Danilo Zak, director of policy and advocacy at Church World Service, told the Washington Examiner he is concerned that Afghans who have difficulties submitting re-parole requests may “lose access to services [and] fall out of status.” Jill Marie Bussey, director for public policy at Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, has witnessed the uncertainty, stress, and anxiety that plague Afghans without a permanent path to status. Bussey told the Washington Examiner that “living in two-year increments … doesn’t really honor the dignity of the human being.”

Failure to assist Afghans struggling to evade Taliban brutality has led to a new Afghan immigration crisis. After acquiring Brazilian humanitarian visas, Afghans are navigating the deadly Darien Gap and making their way through cartel territory to the Mexican border to request asylum in the U.S. In fiscal 2021, Customs and Border Protection data showed just 72 encounters with Afghans at the southwestern border. In fiscal 2022, the number increased to 1,676. In the first nine months of fiscal 2023, 10,190 Afghans arrived at the southwestern border.

Afghans who have requested asylum at the southwestern border do not receive the benefits afforded to those who arrived under Operation Allies Welcome. They are often granted conditional parole and placed under removal proceedings with the more than 2,500,000 individuals in the U.S. immigration court backlog.

Laila Ayub, co-founder of Project ANAR, told the Washington Examiner that some Afghans are being placed in detention facilities. In the past year, Ayub said her organization has “assisted tens of detained Afghans,” some of whom “worked with U.S.-affiliated nonprofit organizations, or worked under the previous Afghan government … but do not qualify for existing pathways to refuge.” Immigration and Customs Enforcement did not respond to a request for the number of Afghans currently in its detention facilities.

The advocates who spoke to the Washington Examiner touted the Afghan Adjustment Act as a first step to resolving some of the burdens facing Afghans. The bipartisan legislation would create new SIV eligibility categories, provide a pathway to legal status for all Afghans who arrived during Operation Allies Welcome, and increase vetting standards for Afghan refugees.

In addition to passing this legislation, Congress, the Biden administration, and bureaucratic leaders must acknowledge the dangers that plague our overseas allies by increasing processing speeds while alleviating hardships for allies who have escaped the violence of their homeland to seek asylum at the southwestern border.

Beth Bailey ( @BWBailey85 ) is a freelance contributor to Fox News Digital and the co-host of The Afghanistan Project, which takes a deep dive into the tragedy wrought in the wake of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan.