Afghans in US feel betrayed as Trump ends deportation protection

• TPS protections for Afghans to end July
• "Petrified" Afghans say move is huge betrayal
• Trump administration says Afghanistan safe

LONDON - When the Taliban seized Afghanistan, public prosecutor Roya fled for her life - 18 months and 11 countries later she arrived in the United States believing she had finally found safety.

But now Roya is terrified she may be forced back to Afghanistan after the Trump administration announced it would end Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Afghans, leaving them at risk of deportation.

"This is truly shocking and an injustice to those who cooperated with the Americans for 20 years," said Roya, 34, who used a pseudonym for safety reasons.

"It is a betrayal by the Trump administration," she told Context.

TPS will end on July 14, impacting an estimated 11,700 people. They include Afghans who previously worked for the U.S. in Afghanistan as well as journalists, political activists and others who fear reprisals by the Taliban.

"People are petrified," said Arash Azizzada, founder of Afghans For A Better Tomorrow, a New York-based community organisation.

"Everybody has seen the horror of the Taliban regime so you can just imagine how deeply scared people are. I've been fielding calls from people in tears."

He said it was shocking how fast the U.S. had moved from calling Afghans allies to painting them as a potential threat.

Members of Congress, U.S. veterans and rights organisations also condemned the decision as cruel and dangerous.

Some contrasted the announcement with Trump's surprise move this week to welcome a group of white South Africans as refugees, saying it showed the administration's blatant racism. 

'Don't send me back'

The Biden administration evacuated tens of thousands of Afghans following the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021.

Others like Roya, who could not access help in the chaotic aftermath of the Taliban takeover, have arrived in the U.S. via Mexico after arduous and risky journeys through Latin America.

Afghans who worked with the U.S. can apply for Special Immigration Visas, while others fearing persecution can apply for asylum. Both routes provide permanent residency.

However, thousands of Afghans are stuck in a legal limbo because of a huge backlog in processing applications. Roya has been waiting nearly two years for a decision.

During her career as a prosecutor in the north of Afghanistan, she helped put a number of Taliban members behind bars, making her a target if she returns.

"If my life hadn't been in danger, I would never have left my country," said the mother-of-three.

"If the Trump administration plans to deport me, I'll tell them: 'Please shoot me here, but don't send me back to Afghanistan under Taliban rule'. They've no respect for women."

Taliban restrictions

After taking power, the Taliban swiftly reversed two decades of Western-backed efforts to boost women's rights in the patriarchal country.

They have banned older girls from education, barred women from most jobs and imposed harsh restrictions on daily life.

Roya fears for her 9-year-old daughter's future. She is thriving at her school in New York, but in Afghanistan high schools for girls remain shut.

"Returning to Afghanistan under the Taliban is simply impossible for me," she added. "Even imagining it is unbearable."

TPS is granted to people from a specific country due to conflicts, disasters or "extraordinary" conditions that prevent them returning safely. It allows them to work and protects them from deportation.

Afghanistan's original TPS designation was renewed for 18 months in 2023 and Afghans had hoped it would be renewed again.

But in a notice published this week, Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem said it was now safe for people to return to Afghanistan, citing improvements in security and the economy.

Immigration attorney Laila Ayub, who runs an Afghan community organisation in San Francisco called Project ANAR, dismissed the statement as absurd.

She said it was nonsense to suggest the country was safe or the economy was stable, and that many Afghans could face persecution, retaliation, torture or even execution if returned.

"The U.S. government has repeatedly promised these people they would have protections here, but now they've been left at the whim of the Trump administration's cruel anti-immigrant policies," Ayub added.

She urged Afghans not to panic, saying they would not be deported overnight from July 15 and still had the right to pursue asylum claims.

Immigration crackdown

Although security has improved in Afghanistan, poverty and repression have deepened.

U.N. experts say the Taliban's treatment of women could amount to a crime against humanity.

More than half the country's 43 million people need humanitarian assistance and many are internally displaced.

Ayub said U.S. decisions to cut aid to Afghanistan would only worsen conditions.

The move to end TPS for Afghans comes amid a wider immigration crackdown.

Trump has halted the U.S. refugee resettlement programme, stranding thousands - including Afghans - who had already secured permission to enter the U.S..

There are also reports that the administration is considering a travel ban on people from Afghanistan.

(Reporting by Emma Batha and Orooj Hakimi; Editing by Jon Hemming)