An appellate court has allowed the Trump administration to end a program that grants temporary deportation protections and work permits to more than 10,000 people from Afghanistan and Cameroon.
In a brief order Monday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit wrote that the plaintiff — an immigration advocacy group called CASA — has a plausible case against the administration for choosing to end temporary protected status, or TPS, for Afghans and Cameroonians. But the court said “there is insufficient evidence to warrant the extraordinary remedy” of blocking the government from phasing out TPS while the lawsuit works its way through the courts.
One week ago, the appeals court temporarily blocked the Trump administration from ending TPS for Afghanistan for one week, while it considered the merits of CASA’s case.
The administration had planned to end the program for Afghans last week. The program is set to end for Cameroonians in two weeks, on Aug. 4.
The appellate court on Monday directed a lower court to “move expeditiously” to hear the case.
Around 11,700 Afghans and 5,200 Cameroonians are enrolled in TPS, the government estimates. But roughly 3,600 of the Afghans and 200 of the Cameroonians have green cards, so they will not be affected. Those who lose their TPS protections can apply for asylum or some other form of legal status, but otherwise, they will be at risk of deportation.
AfghanEvac, a group that has helped relocate Afghans, said in a statement it is “deeply alarmed” by Monday’s ruling.
“Lives will be upended. Families will be separated. Allies will be detained, deported, or forced into hiding—while their legal rights remain unsettled,” AfghanEvac President Shawn VanDiver said in a statement Monday night.
CBS News has reached out to the White House, the Department of Homeland Security and CASA for comment.
The Trump administration has sought for months to roll back TPS, a program that allows the government to grant relief from deportation and work permits for people whose home countries are deemed unsafe due to natural disasters or war.
The government argues that the TPS program is intended to be temporary, and Cameroon and Afghanistan are now safe enough for TPS recipients to return.
Earlier this year, the Trump administration said Afghanistan’s security situation and economy have improved despite the Taliban’s 2021 takeover of the country following the U.S. military’s withdrawal. And the government said a pair of armed conflicts in Cameroon — including a separatist conflict and an insurgency by the extremist group Boko Haram, which the U.S. designated a foreign terrorist organization in 2013 — are “contained in limited regions” and don’t imperil people’s personal safety in most of the country.
“This administration is returning TPS to its original temporary intent,” Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem said in a May statement announcing the Afghanistan decision.
The State Department has placed a “Do Not Travel” advisory on Afghanistan, warning of the risk of “civil unrest, crime, terrorism, risk of wrongful detention, kidnapping, and limited health facilities.” The department advises travelers to Cameroon to exercise caution, and not to travel to certain parts of the country due to armed violence, crime and terrorism.
CASA has argued in court papers that both countries are unsafe, and TPS recipients could be endangered if they’re forced to return to their home countries. The group says the conflict in Cameroon — which involves English-speaking separatists in a mostly French-speaking country — has created a humanitarian crisis and wrecked the African country’s economy. And people from Afghanistan, the group notes, were made eligible for TPS because of repression by the Taliban and conflict between the group and ISIS-K insurgents.
CASA also argues the administration hasn’t followed the correct legal processes to end TPS, and contends the decision was “preordained” and based partly on “racial animus.”
“That animus is evidenced by the Trump Administration’s efforts to eliminate lawful immigration status for noncitizens from countries the Administration believes are predominantly non-white, while simultaneously removing immigration barriers to noncitizens from countries the Administration believes are predominately white,” the group said.
Earlier this month, a lower court judge denied DHS’s request to dismiss CASA’s lawsuit, but also denied CASA’s motion to halt the administration’s policy. CASA appealed, causing it to reach the 4th Circuit.
The Trump administration has sought to wind down TPS for hundreds of thousands of other migrants from Honduras, Nicaragua, Venezuela and Haiti. In May, the Supreme Court allowed the Trump administration to end TPS for Venezuelan migrants.
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