Trump Admin Tells Afghan Refugees Who Fled Taliban to Self-Deport—Report
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The Trump administration has ordered some Afghan refugees who legally entered the U.S. after the 2021 Taliban takeover to leave the country within a week or face deportation and legal action, according to several reported emails.
Newsweek has reached out to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for comment via email on Thursday.
Why It Matters
The calls for self-deportation come amid an ongoing immigration crackdown by the President Donald Trump, who pledged to launch the largest mass deportation operation in U.S. history and has detained and deported thousands of people since taking office.
U.S. forces withdrew from Afghanistan in August 2021, ending a 20-year military presence that began as part of the War on Terror following the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
After the U.S. left, the Taliban quickly regained control of the country, prompting tens of thousands of Afghans to flee, especially those who worked with the U.S. government and feared retaliation.
In this photo provided by the Department of Homeland Security, military, Department of Homeland Security and non-government personnel wave as the final bus with Afghanistan refugees aboard departs Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst in New Jersey on… In this photo provided by the Department of Homeland Security, military, Department of Homeland Security and non-government personnel wave as the final bus with Afghanistan refugees aboard departs Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst in New Jersey on February 19, 2022.
Greg L. Davis/Department of Homeland Security via AP
What To Know
Many of those who fled Afghanistan applied for U.S. entry through Special Immigrant Visas (SIVs), asylum or Temporary Protected Status (TPS), a designation that shielded them from deportation. Other Afghans have sought refuge in the U.S. from religious and ethnic persecution in their home country.
The Trump administration is now moving to end TPS protections for thousands of Afghan nationals, which could result in their deportation back to Taliban-controlled Afghanistan.
In recent weeks, the DHS has been sending seven-day self-deportation notices to a variety of individuals, including those who arrived through arrived through legal programs, such as humanitarian parole.
Several local media outlets in Raleigh, North Carolina, have reported that Afghan members of the community received a DHS email asking them to leave the county within seven days or face legal action.
WRAL interviewed an Afghan migrant who shared an email titled “Notice of Termination of Parole,” stating that his “parole will terminate 7 days from this notice” and warning, “if you do not depart the United States immediately you will be subject to potential law enforcement actions.”
The migrant, who requested anonymity in the TV interview but identifies as a member of Apostles Church in Raleigh said, “If we go back to Afghanistan, we are not safe. It is like we are signing the suicide mission for ourselves.” He has an I-94 visa and is in the process of seeking asylum.
The Taliban is a Sunni Islamist extremist group known for its brutal tactics and severe restrictions on women and girls.
Between August 2021 and August 2024, nearly 150,000 Afghans resettled in the United States, according to Congress.
Other people have received similar emails, including U.S. citizen and immigration attorney Nicole Micheroni, who says she was told by the DHS: “It is time for you to leave the United States.” A senior DHS official previously told Newsweek that emails were sent to those associated with parole cases. Micheroni is not on parole.
On Friday, the DHS began enforcing the Alien Registration Requirement (ARR), which means illegal immigrants must register with the government within 30 days or face penalties.
What People Are Saying
Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, head of the refugee resettlement organization Global Refuge, told The New York Times last week: “For Afghan women and girls, ending these humanitarian protections means ending access to opportunity, freedom, and safety. Forcing them back to Taliban rule, where they face systemic oppression and gender-based violence, would be an utterly unconscionable stain on our nation’s reputation.”
A senior DHS official previously told Newsweek: “CBP has issued notices terminating parole for individuals who do not have lawful status to remain. This process is not limited to CBP One users and does not currently apply to those paroled under programs such as U4U and OAW.”
Shawn VanDiver, CEO of AfghanEvac, told NPR on April 16: “Each person who’s here on temporary protected status is somebody that is in danger if they return home because of their relationship to the United States. And in many cases, they’re people who stood with us in our time of need during war…ending temporary protected status for Afghans isn’t just cold. It’s cowardly. We promised them safety. Now we’re pulling the rug out from under these more than 10,000 people who stood with us, and they’re terrified. They’re scared.”
Julia Gelatt, an immigration expert at the Migration Policy Institute, told The New York Times last week: “Revoking T.P.S. for Afghans would be a stark reversal in the country’s treatment of Afghan allies who fought and worked alongside the U.S. government. Most Afghans in the U.S. have strong asylum cases based on their U.S. affiliation. This is even more true for Afghan women. Revoking their T.P.S. will push thousands of Afghans into our backlogged asylum system—if they can find a lawyer with capacity to support their application.”
What Happens Next
The current TPS designation for Afghanistan is through May 20 and the Trump administration has signaled it will not renew it. It is unclear how many people have self-deported after receiving DHS emails.
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