This story was originally produced by the Keene Sentinel. NHPR is republishing it in partnership with the Granite State News Collaborative.
After the chaotic withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan in 2021, Sher Alam Mashwani's family came to the U.S. under the humanitarian parole authority, which granted them a temporary stay in the U.S. for two years. They now live in Keene.
“These people in Keene are very nice. I am happy here. My son is getting a great education here, and he will learn good English,” said Mashwani, who fled Afghanistan in the fall of 2021, soon after U.S. forces withdrew from the country. He first arrived at Fort Pickett in Virginia with his wife and young son, and has been living in Keene since March 2022.
The United States’ chaotic exit from Afghanistan in August 2021, in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, left almost 3.2 million Afghans displaced from their homes, and nearly 88,000 were resettled in the U.S, according to data from the Department of Homeland Security. Most of these 88,000 evacuees, including Mashwani, came to America through the humanitarian parole process, which grants temporary legal status for two years from the date of entry.
“[In June], Biden is doing something, which is good for us,” Mashwani said, of the Biden administration’s announcement on May 5 that it was establishing a process to allow Afghan evacuees to apply for re-parole starting this month.
While re-parole would extend temporary status to evacuees like Mashwani and his family, the absence of a clear pathway to permanent residency or citizenship leaves them without any long-term solution.
“When the fall of Kabul happened in 2021, many Afghans fleeing the Taliban came to the United States. They all came under the parole program,” said Lina Shayo, an immigration attorney with Manchester-based Mesa Law who is handling Mashwani’s case.
Although parole grants people with ”urgent humanitarian reasons” the ability to live and work in the U.S. temporarily, it does not guarantee a pathway to immigration, according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Parole is different from the Special Immigrant Visa granted to Afghans who assisted the American military in some capacity during the war in Afghanistan. Special Immigrant Visas were introduced in 2009 under the Afghan Allies Protection Act to give those “faithful and valuable” to the U.S. government a means to qualify for permanent residency, also known as a Green Card, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services website states.
The ability to apply for re-parole “is good for us,” Mashwani said. “Our case hasn’t moved much forward. With the re-parole application, our case will go forward. Our original parole is due to expire in November this year.”
According to Dr. Ahmed Kutty, a Peterborough resident and a volunteer with the Team Monadnock Neighborhood Support Team for Afghan Resettlement, a local group that works alongside Ascentria Care Alliance to help refugees in the area, Mashwani and his family qualify for Special Immigrant Visa status.
“We are supposed to be gathering supporting documents, but there is some inadequacy because the family left Afghanistan under emergency evacuation efforts in the summer [of 2021],” Kutty said. “He has copies on the phone. But a couple of them are not legible.”
Along with Shayo, Kutty is currently filling out a DS-157 form, the U.S. Department of State’s petition for Special Immigrant Visa applicants, on Mashwani’s behalf.
To grant an Special Immigrant Visa, the state department requires proof of employment by or with the American government in Afghanistan for at least one year and a letter of recommendation from U.S. military personnel who had personally worked with the applicant, Kutty said.
Kutty said the ideal scenario for Afghans living in limbo would be for Congress to pass the Afghan Adjustment Act.
U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, who has pushed for Afghan resettlement legislation in the past, is a cosponsor of the act, which was introduced in the Senate last August. Under the Afghan Adjustment Act, all Afghans who were paroled to the U.S. would be eligible for permanent residency.
“What we really need is the Afghan Adjustment Act to pass that will allow everyone who was evacuated from Afghanistan to have a clear path to live in the U.S.,” Shayo said.
While she feels the Afghan Adjustment Act is the best way forward for her Afghan clients, for the time-being she thinks Special Immigrant Visa is the best-case scenario for everyone eligible.
“SIV is better than parole, because parole is temporary, but people need to re-apply because parole is due to expire. My clients still need the ability to be safe and to work,” Shayo said, explaining that in the absence of re-parole many of her clients would have faced potential deportation.
Meanwhile, options such as parole and Special Immigrant Visas are available only to Afghans who have already arrived in the U.S. According to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services website, the United States has ceased operations in the Afghan capital of Kabul and cannot help anyone “leave” Afghanistan.
“[For those wanting to come to the U.S.] you can register and come to neighboring countries. It will take months or years before everything goes through and is adjudicated,” Shayo said. ”There are pathways for those still in Afghanistan, but not quick.”
As for Mashwani’s current situation, he has a job at Cheshire Medical Center and said he receives “bohot achha help” (“great help” in Urdu) from the area support group, which is helping him resettle locally.
“I am very happy in the area. People are happy to help us here. The hospital here gave me medical care.”
“The support group said that they would help me buy a car,” he added.
He is hopeful a permanent pathway to immigration will open so he can secure a better future for himself and his family.
“I want to get a Green Card and citizenship. I just could not live in Afghanistan,” Mashwani said.
Editor’s note: Mrinali Dhembla, deputy local news editor at the Keene Sentinel, spoke with Mashwani in Urdu and translated the conversations.
These articles are being shared by partners in The Granite State News Collaborative. For more information visitcollaborativenh.org.
