The Department of Homeland Security terminated humanitarian relief Monday that allowed individuals from Afghanistan to remain in the United States as long as the country was deemed unsafe.
Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem announced the end of temporary protected status, or TPS, for Afghanistan, stating that the return of individuals to the region no longer posed a threat to their personal safety.
“We’ve reviewed the conditions in Afghanistan with our interagency partners, and they do not meet the requirements for a TPS designation,” Noem said in a DHS release. “Afghanistan has had an improved security situation, and its stabilizing economy no longer prevent them from returning to their home country.”
However, U.S. service members and Afghans who assisted the U.S. during the war in Afghanistan and whose family members still live in the country told Military Times in February that the region was patently unsafe.
They said they constantly feared for their loved ones’ lives and said the Taliban were actively hunting anyone affiliated with the United States government.
The termination of TPS will go into effect on July 12, the DHS release said.
Temporary protected status — a protection from deportation awarded by the U.S. to individuals who would otherwise face danger if they return to their country — was offered during the Biden administration to Afghan nationals fleeing Afghanistan after the U.S. withdrew from the country.
Noem cited the shift in policy as part of an overarching effort to “restore integrity” in the American immigration system. DHS consulted with the State Department and analyzed a U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services review of Afghanistan’s conditions as part of its decision, according to the DHS release.
The policy shift is unconscionable, said Shawn VanDiver, CEO of AfghanEvac, an organization that assists Afghan allies and refugees with relocation efforts.
“Afghanistan remains under the control of the Taliban,” VanDiver said in a statement. “There is no functioning asylum system. There are still assassinations, arbitrary arrests, and ongoing human rights abuses, especially against women and ethnic minorities.”
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VanDiver, speaking to Military Times, described the termination’s ripple effects.
“A lot of these people are students or people who were brought here by the United States government during the withdrawal,” he said. “By nature of them having been in the United States of America for the last three and a half years, they’re now in danger.”
He also said it would affect individuals’ livelihoods, since losing TPS for many would mean they could no longer work.
“We’re going to create this epidemic of homelessness,” he said.
VanDiver estimated that more than 11,000 individuals from Afghanistan living in America would be affected by the termination of TPS.
DHS’ move to end TPS for Afghans comes on the heels of the department’s separate decision to resettle white South African refugees in America, a decision that AfghanEvac labeled a “hypocrisy” in the face of the government’s dismantling of the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program, or USRAP, for Afghan refugees earlier this year.
U.S. Senator Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, also expressed dismay at the administration’s focus on South African refugees.
“It is baffling as to why the Trump Administration is admitting Afrikaners for resettlement while continuing an indefinite suspension for thousands of legitimate asylum seekers who have fled persecution, often because their lives were at risk,” Shaheen said.
President Donald Trump, shortly after suspending USRAP on Jan. 27, signed an executive order on Feb. 7 promising to assist with relocation efforts for white “ethnic minority” Afrikaners who the order said were being discriminated against.
Trump claimed at a White House news conference Monday that white South African farmers were facing genocide in their home country, a catalyst for their swift relocation to the United States.
“Farmers are being killed,” he told journalists at the conference. “They happen to be white. Whether they are white or Black makes no difference to me. But White farmers are being brutally killed and their land is being confiscated in South Africa.”
Police data shows that the majority of murders on farms that took place between 2020 and 2024 however, involved Black South Afrikaners, according to The New York Times.
Upwards of 40 white South Africans granted refugee status by the Trump administration arrived Monday at Washington Dulles airport in Virginia, according to multiple reports.
Riley Ceder is a reporter at Military Times, where he covers breaking news, criminal justice, investigations, and cyber. He previously worked as an investigative practicum student at The Washington Post, where he contributed to the Abused by the Badge investigation.
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