The Trump administration plans to end deportation protections for more than 8,000 migrants from Afghanistan, many of whom arrived after the chaotic US withdrawal from the country.
The Department of Homeland Security said Friday that the conditions in Afghanistan no longer meet the threshold for Temporary Protected Status, which is aimed at foreigners from countries experiencing armed conflict, a natural disaster or other extraordinary conditions. The Biden administration first offered TPS for Afghans in 2022 after the military pullout, citing ongoing strife.
President Donald Trump has been removing TPS status for people from a range of countries including Venezuela and Haiti while simultaneously arresting and deporting tens of thousands of undocumented immigrants. DHS also said Friday that it will end TPS for about 3,200 migrants from Cameroon who have been protected since 2022. Their status will expire June 7.
CASA, an advocacy group for Cameroonian and other Black and Latino migrants, said it would sue to restore TPS protections.
“By ending TPS for Cameroon, President Trump has again prioritized his instincts for ethnic cleansing by forcibly returning people to violence, human rights violations and a humanitarian crisis,” CASA Executive Director Gustavo Torres said in a statement.
For Afghans, TPS protections will end in mid-May. The expirations were reported earlier by the New York Times.
Trump’s move to revoke an extension of TPS for hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans was blocked by a federal court last month. A different federal judge said earlier this week that she would block — for now — the administration’s plans to end humanitarian protections for a total of more than half a million people from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela who entered the country legally as part of a Biden-era parole program.
Administration officials have recently extended the crackdown to student visa holders and even lawful permanent residents.
Separately, more than 200 mostly Venezuelan men were also deported to a notorious maximum security prison in El Salvador after Trump invoked the Alien Enemies Act of 1798. The men were accused of belonging to the Tren de Aragua gang. Bloomberg News found that only a small fraction of them had ever been charged with serious crimes in the US.
The administration has also mandated the use of an immigrant registration requirement not widely used since World War II. Foreigners over 14 years old who are in the country illegally for more than 30 days are required to register or face criminal charges and daily fines of as much as about $1,000. The registration requirement also covers some Canadian tourists planning to be in the US for extended periods.
Earlier this week Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said the administration is working to expand its deportation efforts and “put the operation on steroids.”
With assistance from Hadriana Lowenkron.
This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text.