"It's time for you to leave the United States."
The instruction to leave appeared in the inboxes of thousands of Afghans living in the U.S., delivered in a brief email in April from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). "You are currently here because the Department of Homeland Security paroled you into the United States for a limited period," the email stated. "Your parole will terminate 7 days from the date of this notice."
Z., a nurse's assistant, had just finished her hospital shift and was on her way home when she saw the message. It sent chills down her spine. "I couldn't sleep. I was scared. [I thought], what should I do?" she told NPR. (She asked that NPR identify her only by her first initial because she fears reprisals in Afghanistan, and does not want to jeopardize her immigration case in the U.S.)
Z. fled Afghanistan in 2023, received humanitarian parole and was granted Temporary Protected Status (TPS) when she arrived in the U.S, allowing her to stay and work legally. TPS is not a route to permanent residence or citizenship; instead, it confers a special immigration status on people like Z., who are fleeing persecution in countries experiencing armed conflicts, natural disasters, or other dangerous conditions. While under TPS, individuals are protected from deportation and can apply for other forms of legal status. Z. qualified as a result of worsening conditions under Taliban rule in Afghanistan, particularly the dangers faced by Afghans who helped the U.S. over the past 20 years.
Z. had worked for years as an emergency room nurse, often in Médecins Sans Frontières hospitals in Afghanistan. After getting married, Z. says her husband became addicted to drugs, leading her to file for divorce and raise their two children on her own. When the Taliban returned to power, her life became increasingly dangerous, particularly as women's rights became curtailed.
One day, Taliban soldiers pulled her off a bus on her way to work and began to scream at her. "'Why don't you have a long dress? You don't have a hijab! You don't have a mahram (a male chaperone)!'" Z. told NPR. "They said 'you have to go back (home). If you don't go, we will kill you.'"
After that, she said, the harassment continued. When Z. took a higher paying job in a different city, leaving her children with her parents, she lived by herself — forbidden for women under Taliban rule. One night, men came to her home at 1 a.m., banging on the door. Z. woke up terrified and asked her downstairs neighbor to pretend to be her husband. But the Taliban were not fooled. "They searched my place and when they saw me, why are you living alone - ohhhh - they knew about me," she says.
Still, she avoided capture — but her parents told her she might not be so lucky a second time. Z. left Afghanistan through Iran, obtained a visa to Brazil, and then made a grueling three-month journey, often on foot, through Central America to Mexico. She claimed asylum at the U.S. border, passed her interview, and entered the U.S. legally. Now she works to send money home to support her children.
The immigration plan
The email Z. received was sent to thousands of humanitarian parole recipients, but it was not a formal legal order.
Immigration advocates say it served a purpose beyond the notification — it was also meant to scare people. "Every person that leaves the country through fear is accomplishing the administration's current goal," says Brian Green, an immigration lawyer based in suburban Denver.
Green says the Trump administration has targeted the removal of 1 million people in its first year, a costly goal.
"Everyone that leaves voluntarily is cheap for the government," he says.
Green also noted that the DHS email doesn't legally apply to Z., whose asylum claim is pending. He advised everyone who received the email from DHS to seek legal counsel.
On May 12, Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem announced an additional measure - the termination of Temporary Protected Status for Afghanistan, effective July 14. Noem said "an improved security situation" in addition to a "stabilizing economy" means Afghans can return home.
This troubles Green — many Afghans here on TPS assisted the U.S. after 9/11, and are targets for the Taliban. "It's worse for someone who's been in the United States, who probably has an education and for Afghan women that have work experience… I wouldn't want to be in their shoes. And that's what America is supposed to do, is protect people that helped us."
Mixed messages from Washington
The administration's claim that Afghan security and its economy have improved is widely disputed. The State Department strongly advises against travel to Afghanistan, "due to civil unrest, crime, terrorism, risk of wrongful detention, kidnapping, and limited health facilities."
In June, President Trump banned travelers from 12 countries that "pose a very high risk to the United States" and included Afghanistan. The administration cited the country for its lack of a "competent" authority for issuing passports, and appropriate "screening and vetting measures." (The ban includes exemptions for Afghans on certain visas, including SIV holders — for people employed by the U.S. government in Afghanistan post 9/11 — and those related to American citizens.)
The ending of humanitarian parole and the TPS program, along with the new travel ban serve not only as an effort to deport Afghans already in the U.S., but to restrict more from coming in the future.
When asked about the ending of the program, assistant secretary of Homeland Security Tricia McLaughlin said in an emailed statement to NPR, "Although TPS was terminated as required by law, any Afghan who fears persecution is able to request asylum. All aliens who have had their TPS or parole terminated or are otherwise in the country unlawfully should take advantage of the CBP Home self-deportation process to receive a free one-way plane ticket and $1,000 financial assistance to help them resettled elsewhere."
Another asylum seeker, A., spoke to NPR on the condition that we only use his first initial, because he fears retribution in Afghanistan for speaking out, and is worried it might jeopardize his immigration case. He worked as an engineer in Kabul, and owned a construction company that held U.S. government contracts.
He fled Afghanistan with his family when the Taliban came to power: he knew he would be a target. He is a father of six, including four daughters, and he feared they could be kidnapped and sexually abused by the Taliban. "The Taliban take the girls and the boys for their own pleasure and as a father, I have no say. For no reason, they can just come and take your kids by force," he says. He says he cannot see a future for his girls back in Afghanistan.
The Taliban have severely restricted women's rights in Afghanistan. "Afghanistan right now is kind of a jail for all those people living there," says Abdul Feraji, an investigative journalist from Afghanistan. "For women - they don't have their rights, there is no school, no park, no going outside without a man to buy something for yourself."
Feraji says sanctions, limited investment and the restrictions on women working, have left Afghan men struggling to provide basic food for their families. "When we are talking about food in Afghanistan - it's just having bread with sweet tea - those people are living with nothing," he says.
A 2024 United Nations report found that 23.7 million people — over half of the population — required humanitarian assistance last year. In addition, Secretary Marco Rubio terminated all but two State Department and USAID programs in Afghanistan, one of which expires at the end of June. In total, 22 programs worth nearly $1.03 billion were shuttered, according to the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction.
Responding to the DHS claim that Afghanistan has had an "improved security situation" Feraji says over a dozen terrorist organizations — including Al Qaeda and ISIS — now operate freely within Afghanistan.
Feraji says the termination of TPS not only ignores the reality on the ground, but also the growing threat these groups pose. The consequences, he fears, could extend beyond Afghanistan.
"Please, people of the United States, don't forget 9/11. It was not just for Afghanistan. This fight was for freedom. This fight was for democracy."
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