1000’s of Afghans dwelling in the USA face an unsure future after a federal appeals court docket dominated on July 21, 2025, that the Trump administration can finish a humanitarian aid program that supplied them work permits and safety from deportation.
This system, short-term protected standing, often known as TPS, grants authorized standing to individuals from sure overseas nations who’re already within the U.S. and have fled armed battle or pure disasters. It’s often granted for 18 months, with an possibility of an extension.
About 8,000 Afghans and seven,900 Cameroonians benefiting from this humanitarian safety have been affected by the Might 2025 resolution from the administration to terminate TPS.
Afghans within the U.S. first obtained TPS in 2022, after the Taliban returned to energy in Afghanistan in late 2021.
The Taliban implement a repressive interpretation of Islamic legislation that features banning girls and women from attending faculty or working outdoors their dwelling. The Taliban emerged within the early Nineties and managed Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001. They have been overthrown after the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 however regained management in 2021 after the withdrawal of U.S. and NATO forces.
In 2023, the Division of Homeland Safety prolonged TPS for Afghans via 2025, because the situations that triggered the preliminary designation – specifically, armed battle in Afghanistan – have been deemed to be ongoing.
In Might 2025, nonetheless, Secretary of Homeland Safety Kristi Noem introduced the termination of TPS for Afghans, stating that Afghanistan not poses a risk to the protection of its nationals overseas and that Afghan nationals can safely return to their nation.
“We’ve reviewed the conditions in Afghanistan with our interagency partners, and they do not meet the requirements for a TPS designation,” Noem stated in Might 2025. “Afghanistan has had an improved security situation, and its stabilizing economy no longer prevent them from returning to their home country.”
Most Afghans who’ve arrived within the U.S. since 2021 share a worry of persecution by the Taliban. That features individuals who labored for the previous authorities, advocated for ladies’s rights or labored with the U.S. navy in Afghanistan.
As a migration coverage scholar, I consider the cancellation of TPS for these Afghans gained’t result in voluntary repatriation, because the worry of persecution by the Taliban stays a critical concern for a lot of. As an alternative, it’s going to doubtless power hundreds of individuals into illegal residency within the U.S. That, in flip, wouldn’t solely go away hundreds vulnerable to deportation however restrict their employment alternatives within the U.S. and hold them from financially supporting the households they left behind in Afghanistan.
US asylum course of
Illegal U.S. residency can disqualify Afghans from accessing advantages akin to Medicaid and Non permanent Help for Needy Households, a federal program that gives money help and assist companies to low-income households with kids.
For Afghan TPS holders with out another pending authorized standing – akin to asylum claims, for instance – the termination additionally means the lack of work authorization, as their employment authorization doc was tied to having TPS. This will reduce off hundreds of Afghans from monetary stability, in accordance with the nonprofit group World Refuge.
Many Afghans are prone to search different authorized pathways to stay within the U.S., mostly via the already underresourced asylum course of. For these individuals, the outlook appears to be like daunting. Submitting an asylum software with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Companies means becoming a member of an unprecedented backlog.
Taliban safety personnel stand guard as an Afghan lady walks alongside a avenue within the Baharak district of Badakhshan province on Feb. 26, 2024.
Wakil Kohsar/AFP by way of Getty Photographs
On the finish of 2024, practically 1.5 million asylum functions have been pending with USCIS, in accordance with the American Immigration Council, a nonprofit advocacy group. Most candidates confronted estimated wait occasions of as much as six years for a choice.
Asylum candidates are allowed to stay within the U.S. whereas their software is pending. And so they can apply for work authorization, however solely after the asylum software has been pending for no less than 150 days. Nonetheless, the work authorization is just not issued till a minimal of 180 days has handed since submitting for asylum.
So Afghan nationals making use of for asylum following the TPS termination face a compulsory six-month interval with out authorized work authorization. This era can stretch even longer, relying on how lengthy it takes candidates to retain an lawyer and full the complicated software course of.
Monetary lifelines
Like many forcibly displaced populations, Afghans typically arrive within the U.S. with extraordinarily restricted monetary assets.
Compelled migration is usually abrupt and unplanned, leaving little alternative to liquidate property or withdraw funds. The small amount of money or valuables that this inhabitants manages to hold is commonly simply sufficient to achieve quick security.
Towards this background, the flexibility to work is a essential subject for Afghans within the U.S. Most Afghans within the U.S. are additionally supporting older mother and father and quick or prolonged relations in Afghanistan, in accordance with unpublished analysis I’m conducting with my colleagues, Proscovia Nabunya and Nhial Tutlam. This makes well timed entry to authorized employment not solely a matter of survival for themselves but in addition a lifeline for family members left behind.
TPS was by no means meant as a long-term answer. And the variety of Afghan nationals who held it as their sole authorized standing within the U.S. was comparatively small – estimated at round 8,000 – in contrast with the over 180,000 Afghans who’ve arrived within the U.S. since 2021.
What’s extra regarding for Afghans within the U.S., nonetheless, are the federal government’s assertions surrounding the termination of TPS for this group. If the U.S. authorities now maintains that Afghanistan is secure for return, it raises issues about how this stance might affect the adjudication of Afghan asylum claims.
Though most Afghan asylum functions are grounded in a mixture of things – fears based mostly on nationality, ethnicity, faith and political opinion – labeling Afghanistan as secure for return may undermine claims that depend on nationality as a central foundation for defense.
