NEW YORK, June 9 (Xinhua) -- Fear and frustration are felt by the Afghans in the United States as well as by immigration activists, attorneys and others, who ask that those who were evacuated from Afghanistan receive permanent legal status and those left behind be given a path to safety, reported The Charlotte Observer on Thursday.
"I do think that our government needs to take responsibility and figure out how to fix it, because these are people who helped us," said Debbie Berman, an attorney with the Chicago-based law firm Jenner & Block that's representing Afghans still trying to flee their country.
More than 88,500 Afghans who worked with American soldiers as translators and in other capacities since 2001 have arrived in the U.S. on military planes since the chaotic withdrawal, according to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Most were admitted under a program called humanitarian parole that grants them some legal status, including the ability to work.
"However, many others were left behind and some made their way to the U.S. on their own -- seeking the fulfillment of a promise of protection the U.S. made to its Afghan allies. It's a promise many feel has been broken," noted the report.
The Afghan Adjustment Act, a proposed law to streamline their immigration process, has stalled in Congress, according to the report. As of the end of April, only about 8,100 applications for asylum or special visas for Afghans employed by the U.S. government had been approved, according to Homeland Security. ■