Amid Ongoing Battle Over Afghan Deportations, US Legislators Push Law Granting Protection

US plans to deport 150 Afghans back to their homeland via Pakistan have sparked fears for their safety and led to a series of court hearings that have so far prevented the flight taking off.

But this week, activists and lawmakers have been been promoting legislation on Capitol Hill to provide longer-term protection for thousands of Afghans across the United States.

Democrats will be able to force a vote in the House of Representatives when their new majority takes control of Congress in January. But dozens of meetings have been held this week aimed at securing bipartisan support, given what its supporters see as the urgency of the situation around planned flights.

“The issue is trying to get it done this term fast enough to make sure that we put some pressure on stopping these flights,” Democratic Congressman Scott Peters told RFE/RL. “We're working with Republicans we think might be supportive as well.”

Temporary Protection

US authorities revoked Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for thousands of Afghans in May last year.

"Afghanistan has had an improved security situation, and its stabilizing economy no longer prevents them from returning to their home country," then-Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem said at the time.

Noem’s successor Markwayne Mullin does not appear to have commented on specifically Afghan TPS but speaking more generally about Trump administration actions to remove TPS status from 13 nations, he has stated that "TPS was temporary, it was never meant to be permanent status."

"You had an opportunity while you were here to try to change your status,” Mullin told a news conference in New York on July 1. “You have to go back to a country that they'll either take you, or back to the country you came from."

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) estimated last year that there were some 11,700 Afghan nationals with TPS status.

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The new legislation, called the Afghanistan TPS Act, would restore their status. It would also make TPS available to other Afghans, including at least some of the 150 people on the planned deportation flight.

The bill was drafted by Democratic Congressman Jason Crow, who served in Afghanistan with the US military. He has been taking part in the push for support in Washington this week, along with US and Afghan veterans of the 20-year US-led fight against the Taliban and Al-Qaeda that followed the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington in 2001.

“Our Afghan partners put their lives on the line to help protect American servicemembers like me," Crow said. "After more than two decades of war, we made a promise that we’d look after them. It’s both a moral and national security imperative that we keep that promise.”

The deportations issue is causing grave concern among the Afghan community in the United States. Several people have told RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi that they are worried about themselves or their loved ones.

“Families in our communities are afraid,” Zarif Aminyar, an Afghan-born business executive and activist, told a public meeting this week in Sacramento, California -- home to one of the country’s largest Afghan diasporas. “They’re afraid that the country they sought for safety is no longer hearing their humanity.”

Deportation Flights

Multiple US media reports in early November said that US authorities were set to deport 150 Afghans through a flight from Louisiana to Pakistan and then onward to Afghanistan.

A court ruling on November 3 granted a four-day temporary restraining order. A further ruling on November 7 extended this indefinitely.

“The complaint more than adequately alleges that the Afghan nationals face a likelihood of irreparable harm if deported from this country and transported to Pakistan to be turned over to the Taliban,” stated Judge Victor Marrero in his November 7 ruling.

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But this ruling only applies to five people represented by Project Rousseau, a US non-governmental organization that brought the case to court.

Shawn VanDiver, a former serviceman who is head of AfghanEvac, a group campaigning on this issue, told RFE/RL that a deportation flight was planned for next week.

“The flight for the 150 is rescheduled to November 16,” he said. “They all have final orders of removal.”

The DHS declined to confirm this flight.

“For operational security reasons and the safety of our officers, we would not confirm future removal operations,” a spokesman told RFE/RL.

“Temporary Protected Status (TPS) is exactly that -- temporary. For too long, TPS has been allowed to function as a de facto amnesty program despite Congress never intending it to be permanent,” he said.

“What we would say now is: It’s closing time…The good news is it’s not too late to get a $3,000 check and a free flight home,” he added, referring to conditions for a voluntary deportation program.

218 Votes

Supporters of the legislation need 218 signatures on a discharge petition to force a House vote, requiring the backing of at least four lawmakers beyond the chamber's 214 Democrats. Outgoing Congressmen Don Bacon and Brian K. Fitzpatrick are among the Republican supporters of the legislation.

The act “provides temporary protection and work authorization for eligible Afghans who are already here, while requiring biometric and biographic information and criminal and national-security background checks,” stated Bacon when the bill was introduced.

“This is not a permanent immigration status,” Bacon added.

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If the vote clears the House and then the Senate, another question is whether US President Donald Trump would sign it.

“You know, one step at a time, right? I mean, that'd be a good problem to have if we can get this thing passed out of Congress,” said Peters, who wrote an open letter signed by 66 Democrat lawmakers calling on Mullin and Secretary of State Marco Rubio to stop the deportation flight.

He added that Trump might not need to sign it.

“He has, even sometimes when he's not signed a bill, taken the political signal and cooperated. And any way we can stop these flights would be great.”