Will Humanitarian Parole Rescue These Afghan Lawyers?

Diana Jones, Reuters, Sept. 16, 2021

"The International Academy of Trial Lawyers will sponsor a move to bring four Afghan attorneys and their families, who face danger from the Taliban due to their work, to the United States under a program that could grant them temporary entry and the opportunity to apply for asylum.  The names of the Afghan attorneys, who are facing threats from the Taliban due to their work in a program supporting democracy in Afghanistan, can't be shared publicly due to the danger they face, according to the academy and nonprofit immigrant justice organization VECINA, which is behind the effort.  The International Academy of Trial Lawyers, which is an invitation-only organization for defense and plaintiffs' attorneys, has agreed to formally serve as the sponsors behind petitions to grant the attorneys and their family members access to the U.S. through what is called humanitarian parole.  The program, which allows people who are otherwise unable to gain access to the U.S. to enter the country temporarily, typically relies on a sponsor who petitions on behalf of entrants and agrees to take on financial responsibility for them once they arrive. ... The academy has partnered with VECINA, a donor-supported organization that trains pro-bono attorneys to help with asylum petitions and other immigration needs, on previous projects at the U.S. border, according to Gray.  Recently, the academy's foundation provided a grant to back VECINA's new project working to bring Afghans to the U.S. After learning about the attorneys, the group approached the academy about personally backing their entry on Tuesday, according to Gray and Silberfeld."