Afghanistan Peace Campaign
A US Democratic lawmaker is seeking to force a vote in the House of Representatives on legislation that would restore Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Afghan nationals, potentially shielding thousands from deportation following the Trump administration’s termination of the protection in 2025.
Representative Sam Liccardo of California is backing efforts to advance the Afghanistan TPS Act of 2026, a bipartisan bill intended to make Afghans eligible for temporary protected status in the United States. The legislation was introduced in July and referred to the House Judiciary Committee, where it has remained pending.
The bill was introduced by Democratic Representative Jason Crow, with Liccardo and Republican Representatives Don Bacon and Maria Elvira Salazar among its co-sponsors. It seeks to restore a legal protection that had allowed eligible Afghans to remain in the United States temporarily.
The proposed legislation comes after the Trump administration announced the termination of Afghanistan’s TPS designation in May 2025. The decision put thousands of Afghan nationals at risk of losing their protection against deportation, including people who had supported US forces during the war in Afghanistan.
To bypass the committee bottleneck, Liccardo and Crow introduced a resolution on October 1 to set up a procedure for bringing the bill to the House floor. The resolution was referred to the House Rules Committee. If the process advances, lawmakers could use a discharge petition to seek a vote without the usual approval from House leadership.
Under House rules, a discharge petition generally requires 218 signatures to bring eligible legislation to the floor. The petition cannot simply be assumed to be active yet: the special-rule process must first meet the required procedural steps.
Liccardo has argued that the United States has a responsibility to Afghan partners who supported American forces as interpreters, informants and in other roles. Some of those Afghans could face serious risks if returned to Afghanistan, according to the bill’s supporters.
The legislation has bipartisan support, with Republican lawmakers among its co-sponsors. However, it has not yet passed the House, and the proposed restoration of TPS would require further legislative action before it could become law.
The number of Afghans affected requires careful attribution. Liccardo’s office said more than 9,000 Afghans had received TPS after the US withdrawal from Afghanistan, while the supplied draft cites about 8,000 people at risk of deportation.