US orders Afghan refugees to leave country or face deportation

ISTANBUL

The Trump administration has ordered Afghan refugees who entered after the country’s 2021 Taliban takeover to leave the US within a week or face deportation, an order that could end up being a death sentence for entire families.

The US Department of Homeland Security sent emails to Afghan refugees living in the Southern state of North Carolina demanding they leave the country within seven days or risk deportation and legal penalties, according to Newsweek magazine.

Pursued as part of the ongoing US crackdown on immigrants, the order could result in persecution or even death for its targets, many of whom helped US forces during its 20-year war in Afghanistan, along with their families. Campaigning last year to return to the presidency, then-candidate Donald Trump pledged to get tough on immigrants who were criminal offenders, not allies of the US in a dangerous, divisive war.

Following the US military's 2021 withdrawal from Afghanistan, many Afghans who assisted American forces were granted entry under humanitarian parole, Special Immigrant Visas (SIVs), or Temporary Protected Status (TPS).

Many assisted US forces with matters ranging from translation, relations with local tribes, gathering intelligence, and avoiding injury or death from Taliban attacks.

When the US began to prepare to withdraw from Afghanistan, under a February 2020 deal reached by the Trump administration in its first term, many of the local allies were promised US resettlement, mindful that if they were captured by a resurgent Taliban, they would face almost certain death.

However, in its second term the Trump administration is now seeking to end TPS protections for thousands of Afghan nationals, potentially leading to their deportation to Taliban-controlled Afghanistan.

An anonymous Afghan migrant told local broadcaster WRAL: “If we go back to Afghanistan, we are not safe. It is like we are signing the suicide mission for ourselves.”

According to the US Congress, almost 150,000 Afghans resettled in the US between August 2021 and August 2024, including families.

Critics of the forcible deportation plans call it inhumane to treat loyal US allies with such disrespect, adding that if they are deported, the US will find it much harder to attract any local supporters in any future international conflicts.