A new United Nations report on the abuses of the Taliban in Afghanistan highlights how important it is for Congress to extend the humanitarian parole offered to roughly 79,000 Afghans who came to the United States two years ago, and to offer them a pathway to permanent residency.
We hardly need to recount the messy and tragic way U.S. forces evacuated Kabul in the face of advancing Taliban forces. Tragically, a suicide bomber outside the airport killed Marine Staff Sgt. Taylor Hoover of Utah, along with 12 other service members. Many people who had aided Americans were left behind in the chaotic evacuation.
The U.N. report concluded that the Taliban has violated the terms of its own “general amnesty” for former government workers and members of the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces. It reported “218 extrajudicial killings, 14 enforced disappearances, over 144 instances of torture and ill treatment, and 424 arbitrary arrests and detentions” between Aug. 15, 2021, and June 30, 2023. The Taliban denies the charges.
“In interviews, individuals recounted beatings with pipes, cables, verbal threats and abuse at the hands of de facto security force members,” the report said.
These details should be considered previews of what awaits Afghan refugees in the United States if they are forced to return.
A bipartisan bill known as the Afghan Adjustment Act would provide a pathway for these people to obtain green cards. Anyone unable to pass a criminal background check would be denied. The act would provide those who served in the Afghanistan Army Special Operation Command, Air Force, Special Mission Wing or Female Tactical Teams, and their families, such a pathway as well, The Wall Street Journal reported.
The State Department would be required to evaluate visa applications from people left behind in Afghanistan, possibly providing a way for them to escape, as well, if they haven’t already been killed.
As usual in Washington these days, nothing is simple; not even something as seemingly honorable as helping those who put their lives on the line to help the United States.
A competing bill has been introduced by Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark. It would do much the same as the other bill, but it also would limit the president’s ability to grant humanitarian parole status, which is what President Joe Biden did to the Afghan refugees. This measure has more to do with the current immigration problems at the southern border than with anything happening in Afghanistan.
That isn’t the end of the complications. Sponsors of both bills are looking to attach their measures to the National Defense Authorization Act. But Republicans want that act to include language that does away with the Pentagon’s diversity, equity and inclusion programs, and to restrict transgender health care in the military.
We agree with many of the concerns expressed by Republicans regarding these issues. But the overriding consideration ought to be the quickly expiring clock on Afghan refugees who deserve so much more for their loyalty. Allowing their temporary status to expire would send a powerful message to any foreign nationals in other trouble spots who may be asked to help U.S. forces in the future.
The best course may be to separate these bills from the larger defense bill, then to compromise on a final version. Perhaps the president’s authority to issue humanitarian parole should be considered separately, as well.
While Congress has developed a habit of avoiding compromises on large, heavily publicized issues, Americans ought to expect and demand much more.
As we said at the time, President Biden’s inability to plan for an orderly retreat from Afghanistan was humiliating. The nation had a moral obligation to rescue Afghans who were loyal and helpful to U.S. armed forces. The U.N. report makes clear what so many feared — that the Taliban remains a brutal and merciless force bent on revenge.
Granting the nation’s loyal friends a pathway to permanent status is the least the nation can do.