The Trump administration has ended temporary protections of more than 10,000 people from Afghanistan and Cameroon and got on track for deportation in May and June, Homeland Security officials said Friday.
Many Afghans affected by the decision had entered the United States after a disastrous withdrawal from the United States in 2021. Now, the Trump administration is sending them back to the country under Taliban rule.
Afghans and Cameroonians lived legally in the United States under temporary protected status, aimed at preventing immigrants from being returned to countries facing conflict and natural disasters. People with protected status are also permitted to work in the United States.
The Trump administration is targeting TPS as part of a widespread crackdown on immigration. Trump officials say the program is being used inappropriately to allow people to stay in the US indefinitely. Already this year, the administration has tried to cut off Venezuelans from the TPS, reducing the time Haitians can protect them.
Krish Omara Vignalaja, head of Global Refugee Resettlement Organization, said it was “unconscious” to send migrants back to Afghanistan.
“For Afghan women and girls, ending these humanitarian protections means ending access to opportunity, freedom and security,” Vignalaja said. “Forcing them to be part of Taliban rules where they face whole-body oppression and gender-based violence would be a totally ruthless stain in our country's reputation.”
This effort can face legal challenges. Earlier this month, San Francisco federal court judge Judge Edward M. Chen temporarily blocked the Trump administration from ending the TPS for Venezuelans.
In his decision, Chen said the Trump administration's efforts “had severely disrupted lives, families and livelihoods, costing billions of dollars in US economic activity and threatened to irreparable harm to hundreds of thousands of people who would undermine the safety of public health in communities across the United States.”
The lawyers in the lawsuit, which challenged the Trump administration's decision on Venezuela, said they would look into the latest moves by Homeland Security Secretary Christie Noem.
“We will carefully examine the termination to determine whether the government is complying with the TPS Act in its decisions in Afghanistan and Cameroon. We will ensure that it is safe to accept the interests of the people in response to the requirements of the TPS Act.”
The Biden administration first protected immigrants from Afghanistan in 2022, following the collapse of the government there and the Taliban's acquisition. In 2023, they expanded these protections, saying that they “destroyed the serious threat posed by the ongoing armed conflict, the lack of access to food, clean water and healthcare, and infrastructure, internal evacuation and economic instability.”
The Biden administration also expanded protections for people from Cameroon in 2023, citing ongoing conflicts within the country. Noem finished it earlier this week.
Gustavo Torres, executive director of immigration advocacy group Casa de Maryland, said in a statement that Cameroonians were unable to safely reside in their country due to armed conflict. “Cameroon's ongoing violence, human rights abuses and humanitarian crisis continue to put citizens at severe risk,” he said.
More than 9,000 Afghans and 3,000 Cameroonians had TPs at the end of last year, according to the Congressional Research Service.
“The secretary has concluded Afghanistan's TPS as he determined that Afghanistan has not continued to meet the statutory requirements for the designation of the TPS,” said Tricia McLaughlin, a spokesman for the agency.
Julia Gerratt, an immigration expert at the Institute for Immigration Policy, said the move would have far-reaching impacts in Afghanistan communities.
“Unsubscribing the TP for Afghans is a tough reversal in the treatment of Afghan allies that worked against the US government. Most Afghans in the US have strong asylum cases based on US affiliation. This is even more true for Afghan women,” she said. “If we cancel their TP, thousands of Afghans will be pushed into our backlog's asylum system. If we can find a lawyer who has the ability to support the application.”
