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This brief analyzes challenges being erected at every stage of the U.S. asylum process and the key leverage points for philanthropy.

This memorandum synthesizes interviews with key advocate stakeholders to identify the current challenges facing the U.S. asylum system, asylum seekers, and advocates for asylum seekers, and strategic leverage points and funding opportunities for grantmakers.

We find ourselves in a precarious moment for the right to seek asylum in the United States. While advocates continue to push for more inclusive and welcoming state and local policies for immigrants, refugees, and asylum seekers, the fundamental right to seek safety in the U.S. continues to be at grave risk. Though last month’s U.S. Supreme Court decision cleared the way for the Biden administration to rescind the inhumane Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP), also known as “Remain in Mexico,” an array of cruel and ineffective asylum and immigration policies still stand, foremost among them Title 42.

Soon after the U.S. government’s hasty and chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan last summer, the United States received over 80,000 Afghan evacuees, many of whom were at added risk due to their association with the U.S. government during the two-decade war. Ninety percent of these migrants entered the country on humanitarian parole (HP), which allows them to live and work in the U.S. for two years, but does not provide a path to permanent residency, leaving them in legal limbo. The Afghan Adjustment Act (AAA), would allow Afghans with humanitarian parole to apply for permanent legal status and would expand the categories of Afghans eligible for Special Immigrant Visas (SIVs).