Nora Grace-Flood Photo
19-year-olds Zahra and Malalay with Sen. Blumenthal and IRIS Director Chris George.
Five years after her father was murdered by the Taliban, and just three months after the extremist group burned down her family’s house, 19-year-old Malalay stood with U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal in front of a cluster of TV cameras and pleaded for the passage of new legislation that could help her and her relatives establish a permanent home in the United States.
Malalay gathered with four other refugee Afghan women — as well as a host of immigration workers — Wednesday morning outside of New Haven’s Integrated Refugee and Immigrant Services (IRIS) to join Blumenthal in building support and awareness for the Afghan Adjustment Act. Blumenthal introduced the bipartisan legislation with colleagues including Amy Klobuchar, Lindsey Graham, Chris Coons, Roy Blunt, and Lisa Murkowski.
Since the Taliban regained control of Afghanistan in August 2021, IRIS Executive Director Chris George estimated, his organization, alongside roughly 200 other refugee relocation services across the United States, have helped to settle about 80,000 Afghans in new homes.
George and his team work to find refugees housing, connect them to healthcare, enroll children in school, help teenagers and parents find jobs, teach families English, and assist them in acculturating to their new neighborhoods.
“There’s a remaining piece of their settlement that has not been resolved, and that is their legal status,” George said.
That’s where the Afghan Adjustment Act is meant to help out. The legislation would allow Afghans who were admitted to the states on temporary humanitarian status — which is typically granted because of foreign emergencies and only lasts for one to two years — a unique pathway through which to apply for a permanent status.
Susan Schnitzer, executive director of the Connecticut Institute for Refugees and Immigrants (CIRI), said that “for anyone who has any knowledge of immigration legal services, trying to get asylum for 80,000 people can take decades.”
And, she pointed out, “we are talking about folks who have come without appropriate documentation because they have literally had to get up and flee their homelands.”
By creating a separate and streamlined process by which individuals who were granted humanitarian parole, Schnitzer said, “we can unclog an already overwhelmed immigration system.”
“We are a nation of immigrants, and we should be proud of it,” Blumenthal said. Looking at the five Afghan women standing beside him, he said his proposed act would “enable them to go to work, to raise families, to take their kids to school — they are becoming Americans.”
Currently, Afghans in the states on humanitarian parole can gain permanent legal status only through the asylum process or the Special Immigrant Visa process.
Blumenthal’s act doesn’t just create an independent pathway to specifically support Afghans in getting a green card, but expands the Special Immigrant Visa by broadening eligibility to include groups that worked alongside American forces, including the Afghan National Army Special Operations Command and the Female Tactical Teams of Afghanistan.
“This is not just my voice,” Malalay told her audience — she said she is representing “millions” of Afghans still suffering in her home country.
“People are without education, food, shelter, money, and peace,” she said.
“Many people say I’m very lucky to be in America. Yes, I’m safe… but worrying about my family …” she said, before adding: “I don’t want to live without my family, my mom. Everyday my 11-year-old sister cries,” she said, tears welling in her eyes.
“This act will give young girls and innocent children the chance to dream about freedom again,” said Zahra, another 19-year-old who said she has lived in the United States for seven years.
Speaking of her concerns for her relatives living in fear in Afghanistan, she said: “I live in a free country, yet I feel trapped.”
Nora Grace-Flood’s reporting is supported in part by a grant from Report for America.