Afghanistan Peace CampaignTrump administration officials have discussed allowing some Afghan refugees to remain in the United States, days after a group of potentially vulnerable migrants from the war-torn country received emails from Customs and Border Protection revoking their humanitarian parole status, according to two administration officials familiar with the conversations.
The policy discussions come as prominent Christian leaders and nonprofit organizations have pressed the White House to protect what they say is a group of hundreds of at-risk Christian Afghan refugees — still a fraction of the thousands potentially facing deportation in the months ahead. The leaders argued they could face persecution if returned to Afghanistan, which has reverted to Taliban control after the U.S. withdrawal in 2021 — agreed to by President Donald Trump in his first term and executed by President Joe Biden.
Allowing even a fraction of those refugees to stay would mark a rare turnabout for an administration that has focused its efforts on removing temporary legal status for refugees from around the world as part of its deportation agenda. The push is unlikely to help Muslim Afghans, including those who helped American troops and civilians, who could also face dire consequences if they return to the country.
The Trump administration sent emails on April 11 to some Afghans who entered the United States after the Taliban takeover in 2021 and were granted temporary legal protections, revoking their parole and ordering them to leave the United States in seven days. But it’s unclear how many Afghans were affected by the directive — and the Department of Homeland Security would not confirm how many Afghans received the notice, or whether any of the emails were sent in error.
Administration officials have discussed ways the parole revocations could be modified to allow certain people to remain in the United States, according to one of the officials, granted anonymity to discuss the talks. Officials also floated an “exemption list” that identified people who may be most at risk if sent back to Afghanistan, the official said. It is still unclear if any specific policy change or reversal will take effect.
But both of the administration officials, granted anonymity to discuss policy considerations, said a final decision has not been made on any solutions for parole recipients. But there will likely be a push from the administration to urge Christian Afghans to apply for asylum — a message White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt echoed this week.
“If there are individuals here who came in through the Biden administration who want to claim asylum, there is a legal process to do that, and those cases will be adjudicated by a judge on a case by case basis,” said Leavitt, when asked Tuesday by a reporter if Trump would consider deportation exceptions for Afghans who may face death or torture upon returning to their home country.
Christian leaders lobby Trump
Among the Christian leaders pushing Trump on the issue was Franklin Graham, an evangelical megastar and part-time personal pastor to the president. Graham met with the president and Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem last week, according to one of the officials and another person familiar with the meetings, granted anonymity to discuss the private conversations.
The dynamic has set up a policy conundrum for the Trump administration, which rarely faces pressure from allies on its efforts to curtail immigration. Trump has moved quickly to undo Biden administration policies, targeting TPS and parole programs, which he has accused the Biden administration of abusing.
But the circumstances under which the Afghan refugees entered the United States further complicate the politics for the president. Trump has long railed against Biden’s handling of the disastrous Afghanistan withdrawal in 2021, which resulted in the U.S. rushing to evacuate 82,000 Afghans from Afghanistan after the Taliban takeover. The crisis has left thousands of Afghans in legal limbo, as Congress has also failed to reach agreement on a solution for the refugees to have legal permanent residency and eventually citizenship.
Christian advocacy groups have also tried elevating their concern for refugees facing deportation to Trump’s administration. In a memo first obtained by POLITICO addressed to Noem, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Speaker Mike Johnson and other Republican members of Congress, the organizations ask the administration to consider a temporary pause on the termination of parole status for Christian Afghan refugees.
“We recommend that the Department of Homeland Security and the Office of the President issue a 90-day pause on the decision to revoke the parole status or provide Temporary Protected Status to hundreds of Afghan Christian refugees seeking asylum legally within the United States of America,” the memo says.
One of the Christian refugees mentioned in an initial draft of the memo was tortured by the Taliban in 2021 and has since rebuilt his life in the United States as he awaits asylum adjudication. He is now facing deportation, the memo says.
The end of temporary legal protections
Afghan refugees who fled persecution after the U.S. withdrawal were granted temporary protections under three Biden-era programs. Thousands were granted humanitarian parole at the time through a program called Operation Allies Welcome, while others entered the United States through the CBP One app, which was launched in 2023 and allowed migrants seeking asylum to make appointments at ports of entry.
In addition to the thousands of Afghans granted humanitarian parole at the time, the Biden administration in 2022 also granted temporary protected status to Afghan nationals living in the United States without permanent legal status, citing armed conflict and insurgency in Afghanistan. The additional humanitarian protections were redundant for those already paroled into the United States but provided deportation relief to others who were not evacuated. The Trump administration also ended these protections earlier this month.
It remains unclear which Afghans have lost parole, and immigration advocates with Afghan clients say the notification process has been chaotic and confusing. An April 3 email from Customs and Border Protection was sent to some Afghan and Ukrainian refugees in error, the administration has confirmed in a court filing. But other Afghans received an April 11 notice — which mirrored the notices sent by mistake — revoking their temporary parole and giving them seven days to leave the country.
But even for Afghans whose parole hasn’t been terminated, their legal protections will begin to expire in the months ahead, starting in July and through October, said Shawn VanDiver, president and CEO of the nonprofit AfghanEvac.
Afghans who helped the U.S government during the war in Afghanistan have been able to settle in the U.S. over the years through the Special Immigrant Visa program, but the program is limited, and a number of Afghans are still in the process of obtaining more permanent status. The temporary protections provided more time, but now immigration groups are growing increasingly concerned about Afghans being forced to return under Taliban rule — especially those who worked with the U.S. or other western nations and fear retribution.
Many of these Afghans are Muslim, and would not be covered by any efforts by the Trump administration to protect Christian Afghans.
DHS did not answer multiple questions from POLITICO about the parole revocations, with DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin instead addressing Noem’s decision to end TPS — citing the “country’s improved security situation and its stabilizing economy no longer prevent Afghan nationals from returning to their home country.”
And on TPS, which an estimated 14,600 eligible Afghans will lose in May, McLaughlin added that it is “designed to be temporary” and that “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.”
Trump has moved quickly to halt temporary protected status for hundreds of thousands of migrants, efforts that have been stymied by the courts. The administration also ended legal protections for migrants from several countries from Central America, as well as parole for migrants who entered the country through the Biden administration’s CBP One app.
Dasha Burns and Sophia Cai contributed to this report.