Afghan refugees in the U.S. without legal status will be granted temporary deportation relief for the next 18 months, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced on Wednesday.
The Temporary Protected Status (TPS) grant will be available to Afghans who entered the U.S. after the evacuation of Afghanistan last year. The grant also extends to vulnerable Afghans who supported the U.S. military, diplomatic and humanitarian missions in Afghanistan over the past two decades, DHS said in a statement.
The United States accepted more than 75,000 Afghans who fled after the Taliban took over following U.S. troops withdrawing from Afghanistan after 20 years. Since then, the country has had an ongoing humanitarian crisis with millions of people facing starvation and hundreds of thousands having lost their jobs.
"This TPS designation will help to protect Afghan nationals who have already been living in the United States from returning to unsafe conditions," Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said in a statement.
TPS requires Afghans to be in the U.S. as of Tuesday and pass a background check to qualify for the program. About 72,500 Afghans who entered the U.S. under short-term protection, called humanitarian parole, could be eligible.
Another 2,000 Afghans who were already in the U.S. on student, employment and tourist visas, and can no longer return to Afghanistan because of the Taliban takeover, can qualify for the program as well.
About 40 percent of Afghan refugees who were admitted into the U.S. after last summer would qualify for a special immigration visa, which can lead to permanent residency. However, acquiring the visa is a lengthy process and refugees could lose their legal residency status while waiting during their two years of humanitarian parole, the Associated Press reported.
For a country to be have TPS status in the U.S., it must have an armed conflict, environmental disaster or extraordinary and temporary conditions. Currently, 12 countries have designated status in the U.S., with Homeland Security recently adding Ukrainian and Afghan refugees to the list, according to the agency.
Homeland Security granted TPS status for Ukraine on March 1, following Russia's invasion. Residents of Ukraine had to be in the U.S. on March 1 to be eligible for protection.
More than 3 million people have fled Ukraine since the beginning of the war, with most entering neighboring European countries such as Poland, Romania and Moldova. Very few refugees have been admitted into the United States.
Update 3/16/22, 12:07 p.m. ET: This article was updated with additional information.
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