The Jacob Blaustein Institute for the Advancement of Human Rights (JBI) strongly opposes the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) decision to terminate Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Afghanistan, as announced in the Federal Register on May 13, 2025, with an effective date of July 14, 2025. This abrupt and inadequately justified decision exposes thousands of Afghan nationals currently residing in the U.S. to a risk of facing well-documented grave human rights abuses and atrocity crimes at the hands of the Taliban, the de facto authorities in Afghanistan since 2021. The decision is at odds with both U.S. domestic law and international legal obligations that prohibit returning non-citizens to a country where they face persecution, torture, or other serious harm.
Persistent, Systematic, and Well-Documented Human Rights Violations Render Afghanistan Unsafe
In its May 13 announcement, DHS claims that Afghan nationals no longer face a serious threat to their personal safety from ongoing armed conflict or “extraordinary and temporary conditions” in Afghanistan. DHS cites a “notable reduction in violence and armed conflict,” signs of a slight improvement in Afghanistan’s economy, a slight reduction in the large number of individuals requiring humanitarian assistance, an increase in foreign tourism, and a decrease in kidnapping rates.
However, Afghanistan remains one of the most dangerous and repressive countries in the world. Indeed, the same experts on which DHS relied for its analysis of the prevailing security conditions in 2025 also observed that while armed conflict in Afghanistan may have decreased, it is also true that “broader human security has decreased for much of the population due to increased poverty, hunger and the Taliban’s repression and structural violence.” More than half of Afghanistan’s population requires humanitarian aid, and female-headed households are cut off from receiving it and from participation in the economy.
Critically, DHS’s assessment also ignores that the U.S. TPS designation for Afghanistan was issued in part due to the serious personal safety risks resulting from the Taliban’s total disregard for human rights.
In its September 2023 extension and redesignation of TPS for Afghanistan, DHS cited the Taliban’s commission of “summary killings, disappearances, information blackouts, and physical abuse” in response to resistance; repression of women’s ability to meaningfully participate in public and private life and the regular commission of gender-based violence; repression of the exercise religious freedom and targeted violations against the Hazara religious and ethnic minority; reprisals against former employees of the prior government; and abuses against activists, journalists, human rights defenders, and participants in protests. Not only are the patterns of human rights abuse flagged in the September 2023 TPS extension still occurring – as noted by the U.S. Department of State in its most recent Country Report on Human Rights Practices in Afghanistan, published in April 2024 – they have become more serious over time.
In its latest report, published in March 2025, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) noted that Afghanistan experienced “a continual and significant decline in religious freedom conditions” during 2024 and recommended that it be designated a Country of Particular Concern due to “systematic, ongoing, and egregious” violations, including targeted violence against and persecution of
religious minority communities. USCIRF also sharply criticized the deportation of Afghans, noting that they “face serious religious restrictions or even mortal peril upon their return.”
Similarly, in February 2025, the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in Afghanistan warned, “Intensifying Taliban repression, expanding discrimination against women and girls, shrinking civic space, violations against ethnic and religious and an alarming escalation in corporal punishment and other violence are stark warnings that things in Afghanistan are only getting worse.” He further noted that the Taliban’s “systematic gender oppression has been further expanded and institutionalized through new measures” and is “unparalleled globally,” potentially amounting to crimes against humanity. The UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) has documented dozens of targeted killings, including of six former government and Afghan security forces members between January and March 2025, as well as widespread arbitrary detention and torture and the brutal suppression of protests by Taliban authorities.
The UN High Commissioner for Refugees has maintained a “non-return” advisory for Afghanistan since 2021 urging all States to grant access to Afghan nationals and, where asylum systems are overwhelmed, to establish temporary protection or stay arrangements until conditions allow for safe, dignified voluntary repatriation. DHS’s decision to terminate TPS for Afghanistan directly contravenes this guidance.
Termination of TPS for Afghanistan Contravenes U.S. Domestic and International Law Obligations
DHS’s decision to terminate TPS for Afghanistan appears inconsistent not only with American values but also with both U.S. domestic and international legal obligations.
Under U.S. domestic law, set forth in Section 244(b)(3) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, TPS may only be terminated if the conditions that led to the initial designation no longer exist. Moreover, the government is required to base any decision to terminate TPS on an objective consideration and good faith analysis of country conditions. As the above statements from authoritative U.S. and international sources demonstrate, Afghanistan remains manifestly unsafe, and conditions that motivated the TPS designation for Afghanistan still exist.
DHS also justified the termination of TPS on grounds that the continued presence of Afghans in the United States contravenes U.S. national security and threatens public safety, citing alleged cases in which Afghan beneficiaries of TPS status engaged in fraud, yet these are concerns that could be adequately addressed through individual vetting and on a case-by case basis. Invoking isolated allegations of individual misconduct to justify terminating TPS disregards the clear intent of U.S. law that such determinations should be based on country conditions, not individual behavior.
DHS’s termination of TPS for Afghanistan also places the United States at serious risk of violating its international obligations, particularly the principle of non-refoulement, which prohibits the return of individuals to countries where they face a serious risk of torture or persecution, and reflected in instruments including the 1951 Refugee Convention and the Convention against Torture.
Conclusion
DHS’s decision to terminate Temporary Protected Status for Afghanistan defies reality; places thousands of Afghan nationals currently residing in the U.S. at risk of suffering grave harm; and could incentivize
other governments to similarly jeopardize the safety of displaced Afghans who would face violence, persecution, and brutal repression at the hands of the Taliban. JBI urges the U.S. government to urgently reverse course, vigorously oppose the Taliban’s inhumane policies, reaffirm its intention to adhere to its legal obligations, and restore the U.S. legacy of providing refuge to those fleeing persecution.