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Many Afghan refugees here in the United States lose protection today. Temporary protected status allowed people fleeing persecution in Afghanistan to stay and work in the U.S. legally as they applied for asylum. The Trump administration says they no longer need that protection. Some Afghans who helped America during the war in their home country say there's no way they can go back. NPR's Monika Evstatieva reports.
MONIKA EVSTATIEVA, BYLINE: It's time for you to leave the United States. That's the first sentence Z read when she opened an email from the Department of Homeland Security notifying her that she needs to leave the country in seven days.
Z: 11:30, I saw the email. I couldn't sleep. Like, I was scared. What should I do? Should I call to who?
EVSTATIEVA: We're only using Z's first initial to protect her identity because she fears reprisal in Afghanistan and does not want to jeopardize her immigration case. Z worked for years as an emergency room nurse, a job she loved until the Taliban came to power and reintroduced a strict form of Islam where women have few rights. She had two strikes against her. She was working at a foreign-funded hospital, and she was a single mother in a place where women cannot go outside without a male chaperon. Eventually, Taliban soldiers came for her.
Z: Taliban, when they come, just like that.
(SOUNDBITE OF HAND KNOCKING)
Z: (Imitating door knocking) Open. Open the door, open the door. I just wake up. I was scared. I was in shock.
EVSTATIEVA: She was able to avoid capture. But her parents told her she might not be as lucky the next time the Taliban come, so she fled.
Z: When I talked with my parents, they said, yeah, you have to go.
EVSTATIEVA: Z came to the U.S. and was allowed to enter, stay and work here while applying for asylum because of TPS - temporary protected status. That program ends today. Z is now a nurse assistant in a U.S. hospital and sends money back to support her kids. She says going back to Afghanistan is not an option.
Z: We cannot go for working, for teacher, like, doctors, nothing. When they go outside, maybe get killed.
BRIAN GREEN: Everyone that leaves voluntarily is cheap for the government. And it makes the Trump administration's goal of removing 1 million people.
EVSTATIEVA: Brian Green is a longtime immigration lawyer based in the Denver suburbs. He says the email Z received telling her she had to leave in seven days is not a legal document.
GREEN: It's propaganda. So if someone has an asylum application pending, they can stay in the United States while that court case is going forward.
EVSTATIEVA: When asked about the decision to end Afghans' TPS protection, Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security Tricia McLaughlin said in an email statement to NPR, although TPS was terminated, as required by law, any Afghan who fears persecution is able to request asylum. DHS estimates there are approximately 12,000 Afghans on TPS in the United States. Many of them are part of a group that helped the U.S. after 9/11 and are now being hunted by the Taliban. Green says Afghans are now at an even higher risk if they have to go back.
GREEN: It's worse for someone who's Afghan 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.
EVSTATIEVA: DHS cited a, quote, "improved security situation" to end TPS. But Abdul Feraji, an investigative journalist from Afghanistan, disagrees. He says there are over a dozen terrorist organizations now operating freely in the country.
ABDUL FERAJI: Al-Qaida is there. ISIS is there. Please, people of United States, don't forget 9/11. It was not just for Afghanistan. This fight was for freedom, for democracy.
EVSTATIEVA: Feraji says terminating TPS not only ignores the reality on the ground, but also the growing threat of terrorism. The consequences, he fears, could extend far beyond Afghanistan.
Monika Evstatieva, NPR News.
(SOUNDBITE OF MOUNTAINS' "SHEETS TWO") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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