Chris Lange, FISM News
The Biden Administration on Wednesday granted temporary protected status (TPS) to Afghans who evacuated to the U.S. in the wake of the Aug. 2021 withdrawal of American forces from Afghanistan. The move blocks deportations of 76,000 refugees who were granted humanitarian parole essentially waiving immigration requirements. Afghans admitted into the U.S. under student visas are included in the directive.
“This TPS designation will help to protect Afghan nationals who have already been living in the United States from returning to unsafe conditions,” Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said in a release.
“Under this designation, TPS will also provide additional protections and assurances to trusted partners and vulnerable Afghans who supported the U.S. military, diplomatic and humanitarian missions in Afghanistan over the last 20 years.”
TPS is a mechanism whereby eligible nationals from designated countries living in the U.S. are granted the opportunity to apply for work permits and permission to travel.
In rendering the decision, DHS pointed to the ongoing armed conflict that continues in Afghanistan as well as “a collapsing public sector, a worsening economic crisis, drought, food and water insecurity, lack of access to healthcare, internal displacement, human rights abuses and repression by the Taliban, destruction of infrastructure, and increasing criminality.”
Pro-immigration and refugee groups lobbying for TPS for Afghan refugees renewed their push in recent weeks, citing the speed with which the administration offered the designation to displaced Ukrainians within days of Russia’s invasion. Lobbyists have also called on the administration to offer Afghan refugees a pathway to citizenship, citing the temporary nature of TPS protections which are often extended just days before they are set to expire.
“While TPS for Afghanistan is an important protection tool, it does not address the legal limbo faced by tens of thousands of Afghans evacuated to the U.S. on humanitarian parole,” Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, president of Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, said in support of the Afghan Adjustment Act, according to reporting by The Hill.
“Our nation’s moral obligation to our Afghan allies and friends demands the stability that only a pathway to permanent residence can provide,” Vignarajah continued. “Legislators have the mold from previous adjustment acts and the overwhelming support of Americans across the political spectrum. Congress must enshrine in law that our nation’s promise of protection is anything but temporary.”
The Biden Administration fell under intense bipartisan condemnation for the August 2021 withdrawal from Afghanistan that resulted in the deaths of 13 U.S. service members and left hundreds of American citizens and thousands of Afghan allies behind, along with tens of millions of dollars’ worth of U.S. military equipment, including Black Hawk helicopters and armored vehicles. A recent United States Army report details the administration’s unpreparedness for the withdrawal which opened the door to Taliban rule, resulting in the humanitarian catastrophe now unfolding. Persecution watchdog organization Open Doors recently named Afghanistan the most dangerous country in the world for Christians, noting that both believers and citizens linked to the U.S. are being hunted down in “door-to-door” sweeps.