DHS sued over lifting deportation protections for Afghans, Cameroonians

Immigration advocates are suing on behalf of Afghans and Cameroonians set to lose protections from deportation after the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said it plans to let their temporary protected status (TPS) expire.

“Each designation was first made in 2022, in response to the prolonged armed conflicts, hunger, and human rights abuses afflicting both countries. Each designation was extended fewer than 18 months ago for similar reasons,” Citizens Assisting and Sheltering the Abused, also known as CASA Inc., wrote in the lawsuit.

DHS announced the plans last month, but it has yet to formally announce the move in the Federal Register as required.

“A TPS designation cannot be terminated in this manner," the lawsuit says. "Instead, Congress established a strict process for terminating TPS designations, one that required [Homeland Security] Secretary [Kristi] Noem to publish notice of her decision in the Federal Register at least 60 days before the current designation period ends.”

The advocates added the formal process helps “provide certainty to TPS beneficiaries and an orderly transition in the event of a termination.” 

“The statute further prescribes what happens when the Secretary fails to follow that process: the TPS designation is automatically extended for at least another six months,” they wrote.

DHS did not respond to request for comment.

The group also said the decision was made in part based on “racial animus,” pointing to a string of comments from President Trump and Noem as well as plans to lift protections for immigrants from non-white nations, while opening the refugee program to Afrikaners in South Africa.

The suit argues that both Afghanistan and Cameroon retain the dangerous conditions that sparked the Biden administration to designate TPS for citizens already in the U.S.

Afghanistan remains under Taliban rule and deteriorating conditions in the country have accelerated since the U.S. withdrawal in 2021, including widespread food insecurity.

Many of the roughly 80,000 Afghans who came to the U.S. after the fall of Kabul have adjusted their status, either securing asylum or a special immigrant visa given to those who assisted U.S. military efforts there. 

But many are still protected under TPS, and DHS previously estimated that approximately 14,600 Afghans would be eligible under the latest redesignation.

They estimated less than 8,000 Cameroonians would be protected under the last redesignation, citing armed conflict in maintaining the protections.

“Since 2014, ongoing armed conflict between the Government of Cameroon and nonstate armed groups in the Far North Region, specifically Boko Haram and the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), has resulted in killings, kidnappings, displacement, and destruction of civilian infrastructure,” the Biden administration wrote in the 2023 redesignation.

While awarding TPS requires considerable review of conditions in the designated country, rescinding the protections also requires a determination that it “no longer continues to meet the conditions of designation.”

“In stark contrast to the lengthy process described above, Secretary Noem decided to terminate the TPS designations for Afghanistan and Cameroon within less than three months of taking office,” CASA wrote.

“Secretary Noem could not have engaged in the typical review process within the shortened timeframe of at most three months, and any consultation with the State Department or other government agencies was at best cursory.”