President Donald Trump and his administration have been steadily ending programs aimed at providing Afghan immigrants and refugees with legal status. They have even notified Afghans who were legally admitted on parole that they will have to leave the country.
That means they could be forced to return to Afghanistan, where their lives would be under threat from the Taliban regime.
Roughly 200,000 Afghan immigrants and refugees have come to the U.S. since the fall of Kabul to the Taliban in August 2021. That includes about 10,000 in Greater Houston. While some of them have since received green cards or even U.S. citizenship, many have more tenuous legal status — such as humanitarian parole orTemporary Protected Status (TPS). The latter lets individuals from countries where their lives might be in danger – from wars or environmental disasters, for example – stay in the U.S. until it is safe for them to return home.
Reports began emerging as early as February that the State Department was planning to close its Office of the Coordinator for Afghan Relocation Efforts (CARE) and end the program it oversees, Operation Enduring Welcome.
U.S. Rep. Michael McCaul, a Republican who represents a district stretching from Houston to Austin, is the former chair of both the House Foreign Affairs Committee and the House Homeland Security Committee. In March, he signed ajoint letterto Trump, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem urging them not to end Operation Enduring Welcome.
"Such a decision would abandon over 200,000 wartime allies and have lasting consequences for America's global credibility, military operations, and veterans," McCaul and two of his House colleagues wrote. "The Taliban considers anyone who worked with the U.S. to be an enemy. They are being hunted, detained, and executed. Over 3,200 documented killings and disappearances of former Afghan military personnel, interpreters, and U.S. government partners has already occurred."
'If I go back ... 100%, they're going to kill me'
Sayedyaqoob Qattali spent years aiding U.S. forces as a security commander for the Afghan Interior Ministry in Herat Province. He was caught there when Afghanistan's government fell to the Taliban and was unable to get U.S. help to evacuate.
"I went to Iran, and I applied for Brazil humanitarian visa,” Qattali said. “That was just the option that was left. Then, after one year, I got the visa, humanitarian visa."
What happened next was an odyssey. From Brazil, he and his family went to Peru, then to Ecuador, Colombia, Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala and, finally, Mexico. Most of the time, they walked.
"In all these countries, we got the like paper, the legal paper that we can stay there," Qattali said.
Once in Mexico, Qattali and his family applied for U.S. humanitarian parole visas under what was known as the CBP One application.
"Some of people was there, like, they were waiting one, two, three months," Qattali said. "And fortunately, we received an appointment after two days."
Qattali and his family came to Houston, getting relocation help from the Houston-based veterans' organization Combined Arms. Qattali speaks seven languages. He soon got a job as a leasing agent. Everything was going well. Then Trump took office, and one of his first actions was toend the CBP One programfor new applicants.
Qattali managed to keep off the administration's radar until April.
"Unfortunately," he said, "we got an email last week that you have to leave. We have, like, seven days. After that, they’re going to charge ... $900 per day."
Qattali's attorney told him not to worry as he's protected by the asylum application process, but he's still frightened for his future.
"I have ... a threatening letter," Qattali said, "If I go back, like, 100%, they’re going to kill me and my family as well."
Temporary Protected Status ends
The current grant of Temporary Protected Status for Afghans began in September 2023 and extends through May 20 of this year. Afghans who are here on TPS got a shock in April when Homeland Security Secretary Noem announced she would not be renewing the protection for Afghans when it expired.
After that, any Afghans in the U.S. under the program will be at risk of deportation to Afghanistan. That includes close to 1,000 Afghans living in the Houston area.
"Everyone I speak to is concerned that if this protection is revoked, a lot of people's life are going to be in danger," said Khalil Yarzada, a former Afghan translator for U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, who became a U.S. citizen in February. "A lot of people are going to see a target on their back."
Ali Zakaria, an immigration attorney based in West Houston, said part of Trump's motivation for ending programs like TPS for Afghans is because of his campaign pledge to enact mass deportations when he took office.
"When you actually look at the immigrant population and you look at how many of those are actually deportable, the number is not that high," Zakaria said. "What the Trump administration’s policy (is) at this moment is to create this mass group that can be deported, and one way is to cancel the existing legal protocols or legal protections that are in place, and thus making those people unlawfully here, and then deport them."
Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary for public affairs at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), issued the following statement explaining the decision to end TPS for Afghans:
"Secretary Noem made the decision to terminate TPS for individuals from Afghanistan because the country's improved security situation and its stabilizing economy no longer prevent them from returning to their home country," McLaughlin wrote. "Additionally, the termination furthers the national interest and the statutory provision that TPS is in fact designed to be temporary. Additionally, DHS records indicate that there are Afghan nationals who are TPS recipients who have been the subject of administrative investigations for fraud, public safety, and national security."
Noem's position is at odds with that of the State Department, particularly on the issue of the security situation in Afghanistan. TheState Department's websitelists the travel advisory for Afghanistan as Level 4: "Do Not Travel, due to armed conflict, civil unrest, crime, terrorism, and kidnapping. Travel to all areas of Afghanistan is unsafe."
Two of the staunchest critics of President Joe Biden's handling of Afghanistan were McCaul and his fellow Texas Republican, U.S. Sen. John Cornyn.
Houston Public Media reached out to both for their reactions to the approaching end of TPS for Afghans.Cornyn did not respond to repeated requests for comment. McCaul, however, sent the following statement:
"From the Houthis in Yemen to the cartels on our coasts, the Trump administration is taking decisive action to root out terrorism and make our world safer,” McCaul said. “The Taliban, however, have made their thirst for retribution against those who helped the United States clear. Until they demonstrate clear behavioral changes, I urge the administration to continue prioritizing the safety of the Afghan men and women who risked their lives to help our troops."
'We don't feel safe'
Even Afghans who have the legal protection of a pathway to U.S. citizenship worry what Trump's policies mean for them. Muhammad Amiri is a former pilot trainee with the Afghan Air Force, who found himself stranded in the United Arab Emirates when the Taliban took Kabul. Amiri managed to get to the United States on what's known as a Special Immigrant Visa (SIV), a status for which individuals who fought and worked alongside U.S. forces in Afghanistan are eligible.
Four months ago, he received his green card.
"The words cannot express just my feeling," Amiri said. "It was out of my control. I started crying, and the tears were coming, just without any control. And just, I thanked God."
Amiri has had several careers since coming to the U.S. He's currently a security supervisor at the Museum of Fine Arts Houston, and he's taking IT courses with the goal of getting a job working as a computer help desk associate. He also recently got engaged.
But Amiri's fiancée is still in Afghanistan, and until his legal situation is settled, he doesn't dare leave the U.S. to see her, for fear he might not be allowed to return. Indeed, he worries even his green card won't protect him in the current climate.
"It doesn’t matter just how you got here, just during the Biden (presidency). Just now they restarted or just to check in background on everyone," Amiri said. "We don’t feel safe, and we don’t feel good because now, we feel threatened, if they send us back to our country, it will be the same story. (We) feel threatened of to be tortured, maybe be killed by Taliban."
Zakaria, the immigration attorney, said that people like Amiri are right to be worried.
"Unfortunate as it sounds," Zakaria said, "my first advice to all my clients — and my family and friends — is that, if you’re not a U.S. citizen, do not talk or post on your social media anything that’s negative about the current administration. Do not voice your opinion. Do not engage in any protest, because you will be targeted by this administration for revocation of your status."
The last two Congresses have taken up a bill called the Afghan Adjustment Act, aimed at speeding up the path to permanent legal status for Afghans who aided U.S. forces during the war – expanding the eligibility for the SIV program. The measure died at the end of 2022 and 2024, and the current Congress has yet to refile the bill.
"Personally, I would like to see that happen yesterday," said Yarzada, who heads the SIV and Allies Program atCombined Arms. "The SIVs have given so much of their life, of their livelihood, to be in a place where they are, and I think it is our duty as Americans to support them, to give them a fair shot, a fair chance to be able to build a life here in the United States, because this is the most American thing that we can do."
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