WASHINGTON: The Trump administration has terminated temporary deportation protections for thousands of Afghans and Cameroonians in the US, a US Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said on Friday, building on Trump’s far-reaching immigration crackdown. An estimated 14,600 Afghans eligible for Temporary Protected Status will now lose it in May. Some 7,900 Cameroonians had access to the status but will lose it in June under the termination.

US President Donald Trump, a Republican, took office in January pledging to deport record numbers of migrants in the US illegally. At the same time, he has swiftly moved to strip migrants of temporary legal protections, expanding the pool of possible deportees. Trump has criticized high levels of illegal immigration under Democratic former President Joe Biden and said Biden programs offering legal status overstepped the bounds of the law.

The TPS program is available to people whose home countries experience a natural disaster, armed conflict or other extraordinary event. The status lasts 6-18 months, can be renewed by the Homeland Security secretary, and offers deportation protection and access to work permits. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem found that the conditions in Afghanistan and Cameroon no longer merited the protected status, spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement. Trump tried to end most TPS enrollment during his 2017-2021 presidency but was thwarted by federal courts.

A US district judge in late March blocked his attempt at ending the status for Venezuelans, saying that officials’ characterization of the migrants as criminals “smacks of racism.” Afghanistan has been under Taleban rule for four years, during which it has been accused of committing human rights violations and crimes under international law against the Afghan people, especially women and girls. US cuts to food assistance in Afghanistan may also worsen already widespread hunger in Afghanistan, according to the World Food Program, which warned it can support just half the people in need — and only with half rations. A third of the population of around 45 million people needs food assistance, with 3.1 million people on the brink of famine, the UN says.

In Cameroon, violence has torn through the country’s two English-speaking regions – the north-west and south-west – since 2016, when the government imposed French-speaking teachers and lawyers on English-speaking schools and courts. Peaceful protests were met with military force and arrests. As security deteriorated, an anglophone separatist movement emerged calling for the independence of the region they called “Ambazonia”. The war has left more than 6,000 people dead and at least a million displaced internally, while more than 80,000 have fled to neighboring Nigeria.

Parole revoked

The US evacuated more than 82,000 Afghans from Afghanistan after the Taleban takeover in 2021, including more than 70,000 who entered the US with temporary “parole,” which allowed legal entry for a period of two years. The Temporary Protected Status offered another avenue of protection. DHS said in 2023 that it was warranted due to armed conflict and insurgency in Afghanistan.

Advocates have said in recent days that migrants who entered the US via a Biden-era app known as CBP One, including Afghans, have been receiving notices revoking their temporary parole and giving them seven days to leave the country. McLaughlin confirmed this week that the department had revoked some migrants’ parole, saying DHS was “exercising its discretionary authority.” She did not provide the number of revocations. “Affected aliens are urged to voluntarily self-deport using the CBP Home App,” she said in a statement. The notices mirror messages sent in error last week to Ukrainians. — Agencies