Here & Now

Legal Complexities of Resettling Afghan Refugees

Frederica Freyberg:

Fort McCoy is one of the last bases open, and officials are hoping to have everyone resettled by the end of February. The UW Law School Immigrant Justice Clinic has been working with refugees there over the months since their arrival. Professor Erin Barbato directs the clinic, and she joins us now. Thanks for being here.

Erin Barbato:

Thanks so much for having me.

Frederica Freyberg:

So as pointed to in Marisa’s reporting, how complicated is the legal process for Afghan refugees airlifted here?

Erin Barbato:

It’s incredibly complicated and it’s something that I think was surprising to everyone as we started navigating the system and trying to figure out how to provide legal resources to the people that arrived, because before they arrived, we thought many of them would be going through the process of applying for special immigrant visa and now they’ve looking that a majority of them will be going through the asylum process.

Frederica Freyberg:

So what is mostly the current legal status of people now in Wisconsin, if you know?

Erin Barbato:

Most of the people that came over from Afghanistan that did not already have an immigrant visa or were U.S. citizens or a special immigrant visa, they were admitted in something called parole status, that the government has the ability to admit people into the United States for humanitarian reasons. So that’s how many of the people arrived and are now living in that status while they seek the next steps to have a pathway to citizenship here in the United States.

Frederica Freyberg:

What is your clinic doing now for Afghan refugees at Fort McCoy?

Erin Barbato:

At Fort McCoy, we’re not working there anymore. Things are coming to a close there, but we are starting to provide legal services to Afghans who are living in the community and seeking asylum, or in the process of deportation. So we’re hoping to provide representation to a number of families and individuals, but there are not enough resources at the Immigrant Justice Clinic and really hoping to create more of a community effort with other NGOs in the state.

Frederica Freyberg:

Is it true that people could be sent back to Afghanistan if they don’t complete the asylum application process in time?

Erin Barbato:

It is a possibility. Normally when someone is applying for asylum, they need to apply within the first year of arriving in the United States. There are some exceptions to that, and it looks like there may be an exception applied in this case because everybody — most people who arrive with parole have two years of status as parolees before their lawful status would be terminated. So they may have a little bit more time to apply. But if you don’t apply and you fall out of status, you may be facing deportation.

Frederica Freyberg:

In fact, just a minute ago, you spoke to some of the people in the deportation process. How does that happen to someone?

Erin Barbato:

Some people can be placed in the deportation process because they are convicted of something or they’ve done something that makes them what’s called deportable and then they have to go in front of an immigration judge. Most of the people from Afghanistan are going to be going through the affirmative asylum process. So it’s through U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services which is not in front of an immigration judge but if they’re not successful with obtaining asylum at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, they will then be in front of a judge for kind of their last chance.

Frederica Freyberg:

Backing up a little bit, since everyone who was brought here already went through background checks, couldn’t Congress just pass a bill saying that people who were emergency evacuated automatically get asylum?

Erin Barbato:

A lot of people specifically with this situation, we’re hoping there would be something called like an Afghan Adjustment Act. What we’ve had before with the Cuban Adjustment Act, which would allow everybody who came in this emergent situation to have an expedited manner to obtain their lawful permanent resident status and then have a pathway to citizenship. But so far it doesn’t seem like there has been much movement in our Congress to make this happen.

Frederica Freyberg:

Marisa, in her story also, spoke to the trauma of what happened to these folks and how they landed in Wisconsin. What did you learn from people when you were working with them at Fort McCoy about that trauma and how they’re able to kind of move through that?

Erin Barbato:

So we work with a lot of people who are seeking asylum from around the world. I’ve been doing this for a number of years now, and the stories are very similar. This is a particularly traumatic situation where people were evacuated without much time to prepare, which is common in asylum, but in this situation, they were brought to a country, to locations they’ve never known before. So the trauma is something people are really going to need resources to deal with and to heal from, and I’m hoping that we can provide that as a country to these people from Afghanistan.

Frederica Freyberg:

All right. Well, professor, thank you very much and thank you for your work.

Erin Barbato:

Thank you again for having me and thank you for your work on this.

Frederica Freyberg:

These segments are part of a PBS Wisconsin-WPR-WisContext collaboration, utilizing reporting, research and community-based expertise to provide information and insight about issues that affect Wisconsin. Look for a full presentation of this partnership reporting online this coming Monday morning, and hear from the journalists on “Central Time” on the Ideas Network Monday afternoon.