Visa-Less Afghans Get Fee Exemptions and Jump the Processing Line
USCIS doling out ‘free’ immigration benefits despite being underwater financially
By Robert Law on November 10, 2021
In the immediate aftermath of the Biden administration’s botched military withdrawal from Afghanistan, it flew tens of thousands of un-vetted, visa-less Afghans into our country. Supportive media told the American people that these Afghans are “refugees” or heroic interpreters eligible for Special Immigrant Visas (SIVs), but that largely was untrue. Rather than admitting its errors and figuring out how to settle these Afghans in countries closer to their homeland, the Biden administration continues to take steps to allow them to remain in the United States.
It started with Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas’s unlawful use of categorical parole to allow the Afghans into the country. By virtue of being “parolees”, they all immediately became eligible for work permits (employment authorization documents, or EADs). As I scooped back on September 9, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) was unable to handle the dual adjudicative burdens of vetting the Afghans and processing the EAD applications, so the Biden political appointees ordered adjudicators to issue work permits first and “resolve” vetting issues later. As a direct result of this policy, an 18-year-old girl was raped by an Afghan parolee and sources told me that USCIS is allowing the accused to keep his work permit while the charges are pending.
Now, DHS wants to ensure that every visa-less Afghan who does not already have an EAD gets one “for free”, and as quickly as possible. In a November 8 press release, DHS announced that all 70,000 Afghan parolees will receive a fee exemption, meaning paying nothing, for their initial work permit and biometric services, and “streamlined processing” of the application, meaning they will jump to the front of the line. The same preferential treatment applies to the smaller number of Afghans who actually qualify for SIVs.
https://cis.org/Law/VisaLess-Afghans-Get-Fee-Exemptions-and-Jump-Processing-Line
