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Thousands of US Afghans face the risk of deportation after a federal appeals court refused to postpone the Trump administration’s decision to remove legal protections.
In April, the government said it would end the Temporary Protection Status (TPS) for people in Afghanistan and Cameroon, which allows immigrants, which are considered protection from limited periods of deportation and work permits.
The administration had planned to suspend the TPS for Afghans last week, but the programme is scheduled to end for Cameroonians on August 4th. The decision is expected to affect an estimated 11,700 Afghans and 5,200 Cameroonians, government data shows.
CASA, a nonprofit immigration advocacy group, has sued the administration over the cancellation of the TPS for citizens from both of these countries. He said the decision was racially motivated and failed to follow the process set out by the Congress.
Virginia’s Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals said in its ruling later Monday that CASA filed a plausible case against the government and directed the lower court to “moves quickly” to hear the case.
However, the appeals court said there was “inadequate evidence to ensure an extraordinary remedy for postponement” of the Trump administration’s decision not to expand the TPS for the people of Afghanistan and Cameroon.
In other words, protections have ended while the lawsuit unfolds.
The Court of Appeal also said that many of the TPS holders in both countries may qualify for other legal protections available to them.
“Shark” conditions in Afghanistan
However, without the extension, Afghanistan and Cameroonian TPS holders would have faced a “devastating choice,” and CASA warned in court documents.
“We abandon their homes, abandon their jobs, uproot their lives, and remain in the United States in a state of legal uncertainty while they either return to a country facing serious physical harm or death threats, or wait for other immigration processes to unfold,” the nonprofit said.
TPS is usually volatile every 18 months, as it is up to the Secretary of Homeland Security to update protections regularly.
The Trump administration has pushed for the removal of TPS from people in seven countries, with hundreds of thousands of immigrants from Venezuela and Haiti having the most impact.
Homeland Security officials said the situation in their home country is improving in their decision to end Afghan TPS. Some NGOs disagree with that.
“The end of the TPS is not consistent with the reality of the ground situation in Afghanistan,” Krish Omara Vignala, president and CEO of Global Shelter, said in a statement.
“The conditions remain miserable, especially for allies who supported the US mission and for women, girls, religious minorities and ethnic groups targeted by the Taliban.”
Additional sources •AP
