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The Biden Administration will now allow Afghans in the U.S. to apply for Temporary Protected Status (TPS), a designation that would protect them from deportation for 18 months, grant them a work permit, and give them authorization to travel.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) estimates that 72,500 Afghans already in the U.S. will qualify for TPS. This won’t affect Afghans trying to access the U.S. who remain abroad, and doesn’t guarantee permanent stay in the U.S. for those who are already here.
“[TPS is] yet another short term band-aid for a population that needs and, frankly, deserves some kind of protection,” says Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, president and CEO at Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service (LIRS), a refugee resettlement organization. “Our nation made a promise that we would safeguard them in return for their service and sacrifice, we can’t put an expiration date on that promise. And we can’t leave them to be subject to the whims of future administrations.”
When the U.S. withdrew from Afghanistan in August 2021, it began the evacuation of thousands of Afghans. Ultimately, nearly 80,000 were evacuated and permitted to remain in the U.S. under a designation known as humanitarian parole. DHS first announced it would begin to offer TPS to Afghans on March 16, but it first had to go through a process of publishing the designation in the Federal Register. That publication came on Friday, opening the door to TPS for Afghans.
TPS doesn’t offer the same benefits that refugee status would, including a permanent path to residency in the U.S. But it may offer a temporary solution to a looming crisis: Afghans’ humanitarian parole status is only good for two years. It would take an act of Congress to adjust their humanitarian parole status so that they can apply for a…
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Source : time
