It was shaping up to be a typical workday. That is: typical for a top pilot in the Afghan Air Force. But his routine flight that day would soon become his final one out of the country. It was August 15, 2021, and the Taliban had entered Kabul.
“It is dangerous because the Taliban call us enemy,” he says through an interpreter. “We are their enemy, so we realize that we cannot go back.”
The pilot, who WKNO is calling “S” due to safety concerns for his family members whom he had to leave behind, is waiting for his wife and three young sons to join him here in Memphis. They are still in hiding more than a year after his departure – unable to work or attend school. They had to sell possessions like carpets to survive.
“Now as you see, the situation, especially for woman in Afghanistan, they are not free,” he says. “People are jobless; they don’t have jobs. [There are] a lot of robberies, thieves around because they live in poverty.”
S is one of the roughly 60 Afghans who have been relocated to Memphis since the country’s government crumbled last year. He arrived last summer after about nine months in a camp in the United Arab Emirates and another month-long wait in Virginia.
Starting over has been challenging. Although he’s a trained pilot, he’s only been able to find work at a welding company. Still, he’s extremely grateful to the U.S. government and local organizations for helping him rebuild his life and find employment, but there's one more thing he still needs.
“The only thing that I really want from the U.S. government is [to] process my documents fast,” he says.
That’s because S, like tens of thousands of Afghan nationals who came to the U.S. as part of the so-called Operation Allies Welcome, are here with a temporary legal status known as humanitarian parole. To stay permanently, they have to apply for asylum, a complex process that takes months and until it's granted, they have had no formal process to petition for immediate family members to join them.
“They are helpless to bring their families here, even though they are safe and secure,” says Casey Bryant, executive director of Advocates for Immigrants Rights, an organization helping Afghan evacuees living in the Memphis area apply for permanent legal status.
But, she says this limitation is expected to change. The State Department launched a web page last month that outlines ways to streamline the family reunification application process. The website indicates that those with parole status will be able to request immediate family members be able to move here independent of the standing of their asylum case. However, the application form that would create this official pathway for entry hasn’t yet been published.
Still, Bryant says the website shows progress is being made and will give her organization time to prepare to submit paperwork.
“It is heartening to know there is something on the horizon to benefit them,” she says. “The government grinds on slowly...but they don't usually announce a thing without actually doing it. It's just a matter of when will they roll out the form.”
There is also a push for Congress to pass the Afghan Adjustment Act, which would create a direct path to permanent residency for Afghan nationals admitted to the U.S without having to apply for asylum. Although it has bipartisan support and the endorsement of former military officials, somelawmakers have opposed it, citing security concerns.
In the meantime, S is being patient, but says explaining to his young sons why they’re not together is difficult.
“I always tell them that America is a good place. It’s very safe. People are very kind. The only thing that is not here is you,” he says. “I miss them here.”
