Demonstrators gather in support of the Afghan Adjustment Act to support new Afghan immigrants, at the Capitol in Washington, Monday, Sept. 19.

Photo: Mariam Zuhaib/Associated Press

The Taliban are continuing their march to the Middle Ages, last week banning Afghan women from working for non-governmental organizations doing humanitarian work in the country. It seems some of the women weren’t always covering themselves from head to toe. Meanwhile, the U.S. Congress fell short of providing the help that Afghan allies deserve.

The modest good news is that the omnibus spending bill extended the special immigrant visa (SIV) program for another year through 2024. The program offers permanent U.S. residency to Afghans who worked closely with the U.S. government, the military and its contractors, as well as their spouses and children. Only some 14,000 SIVs were available in November, though some 63,000 Afghans have applied. The omnibus opens up 4,000 more visas, but that’s still too few given U.S. promises to protect Afghans who worked with the U.S.

The bad news is that Congress failed to pass the Afghan Adjustment Act. Some 72,500 Afghans are already in the U.S. under a temporary protective status known as humanitarian parole. Yet that expires next year. The bill would have provided a path to a green card for them, coupled with extensive vetting.

The Afghan Adjustment Act would create an SIV for select members of the Afghan armed forces. And it would create an office in the State Department to review applications and issue visas to Afghan partners still trapped by Taliban rule.

Worthy candidates include Mohammad, age 22, who is in the U.S. on humanitarian parole but remains in legal limbo. (We’re withholding his full name out of security concerns for his family still in Afghanistan.) Mohammad worked with the U.S. Army for nearly two years checking roads for improvised explosive devices and defusing bombs. “Every day was the scariest day,” he says. “We went to a mission. We didn’t know we will come back alive. We lost friends.”

Mohammad, who aspires to become a nurse or police officer in the U.S., sought an SIV a year and a half ago. His application is pending as the supply of SIVs dwindles. President Biden owes a particular moral debt given his chaotic flight from Kabul, and the Afghan Adjustment Act ought to be a bipartisan priority in 2023.