Key points
- Court has issued an administrative stay on termination of TPS for Afghans until July 21
- Earlier, DHS had declared on May 12 that TPS for Afghanistan would expire on July 14
- Court did not provide a reason for its ruling
ISLAMABAD: A United States court has for the time blocked plans by the government to end Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Afghans in the country, granting at least a one-week reprieve to thousands of people at risk of deportation to Taliban-controlled Afghanistan.
Radio Free Europe reported that the Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit in Richmond, Virginia, late on July 14 issued an administrative stay on the termination of TPS for Afghans until July 21, granting a request from immigration advocacy group CASA.
Reason for ruling
CASA filed for an emergency motion on July 14, the day the protected status for Afghans was to end.
The court did not provide a reason for its ruling. US administration will have until 11:59 p.m. on July 16 to respond.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) had declared on May 12 that TPS for Afghanistan would expire on July 14, with the decision affecting an estimated 9,000 to 12,000 Afghans currently living and working legally in the United States under the programme, according to Radio Free Europe.
Rights groups
Rights groups and Afghan refugees condemned the decision to allow the protections to expire, warning that it puts lives in jeopardy and ignores the realities on the ground in Afghanistan.
Reuters reported that the United States evacuated over 82,000 Afghans from Afghanistan after the Taliban takeover in 2021, of whom more than 70,000 entered the US on temporary “parole,” or legal entry for two years.
