rump Orders Afghan Refugees to Self-Deport: "They Will Be Killed"

[struggle4progress]

Tim Miller talks with veteran Will Selber on the letters the Trump Administration have sent to Afghan refugees saying they have seven days to self-deport, many of which risked everything to help American forces.

[struggle4progress]

1. Afghan refugees need to stay in America

... last Friday ... U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi L. Noem announced that the Trump administration would revoke temporary protected status (TPS) for Afghans who evacuated to the United States after their country fell to the Taliban in 2021. This sets the stage for more than 9,000 people to be deported, beginning May 20. A DHS spokeswoman says Noem made this decision based on a “review of the conditions in Afghanistan.”

To claim the situation has improved enough for Afghans to safely return is to turn a blind eye to the Taliban’s draconian rule, which is especially barbaric for women and girls. The government does not allow girls to receive education beyond sixth grade. In December, seeking to close what it saw as a loophole, the Taliban banned women from studying to become midwives or nurses. Some provinces bar male doctors from treating female patients, which means denying women any medical care. No wonder Afghanistan has the world’s highest rate of maternal mortality outside Africa.

Many women in Afghanistan don’t leave home because they fear the morality police, who enforce strict gender segregation and require that they wear hijabs. Women are not to look at men other than their husbands or relatives. Last year, the Taliban restricted women from even raising their voices in public.

In 2023, Alejandro Mayorkas, Noem’s predecessor as DHS secretary, extended TPS for Afghans for 18 months. The people needed protection, he said, because there was a “serious threat posed by ongoing armed conflict; lack of access to food, clean water and healthcare; and destroyed infrastructure, internal displacement and economic instability.” These conditions still exist ...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2025/04/17/afghanistan-tps-taliban-kristi-noem/

[Srkdqltr]

2. He'll change his mind later this week.