A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
The Trump administration is ending temporary protections for thousands of people from Afghanistan, Haiti, Venezuela and other countries. They were under temporary protected status, which prevented them from being returned to countries facing conflict or the aftermath of natural disasters. The Trump administration says the program is being used improperly, letting people stay too long. Many Afghan refugees were given this status in 2021, following the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan. So this morning, we've called up Shawn VanDiver. He's president and CEO of AfghanEvac, a nonprofit that helps people from Afghanistan resettle to America. He's also a military veteran. Shawn, so can you explain exactly who are the Afghans who are affected by this?
SHAWN VANDIVER: Sure. Thanks so much for having me on. Look, these are folks who arrived during the withdrawal from Afghanistan, the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan. These are students who were here getting their education. To a person - each person who's here on temporary protected status is somebody that is in danger if they return home because of their relationship to the United States.
MARTÍNEZ: OK.
VANDIVER: And in many cases, they're people who stood with us in our time of need during war.
MARTÍNEZ: So that's why they have refugee status?
VANDIVER: That's why they have temporary protected status, right?
MARTÍNEZ: OK. So, what have you been hearing from the people that you work with? I mean, are they feeling worried, and are they thinking about what they might be planning on doing?
VANDIVER: Listen, ending temporary protected status for Afghans isn't just cold. It's cowardly. We promised them safety. Now we're pulling the rug out from under these more than 10,000 people who stood with us, and they're terrified. They're scared. They don't know what to do. It's all - it seems like chaos is part of the point here. But, look, it's just - it's wild, right? We can separate these families in hours. We - when it's time to fix a policy mistake, DOGE forgets how fast to move, and they don't know how to do it, right?
Since President Trump has returned to office, we've watched protections for our Afghans unravel in almost real time. On Day 1, he issued all these executive orders that stopped the Enduring Welcome program - right? - our main pipeline for bringing Afghan allies to safety following the chaotic withdrawal. And ever since, everything has been completely frozen. Now they're taking away TPS. They've taken away parole. It amounts to - it's not even a paperwork problem, right? It's a deliberate campaign to make Afghans disappear from our immigration system, and it's working.
MARTÍNEZ: I got to guess, too, Shawn, that women from Afghanistan are maybe particularly worried right now.
VANDIVER: Oh, my goodness. Look, women can't be out in public. They can't work. They can't drive. They can't speak or be heard in Afghanistan. I think that if any member of the Trump administration, including Secretary Kristi Noem, who's behind a lot of this, it seems, if they had to spend a week in Afghanistan, they may change their tune.
MARTÍNEZ: Yeah. I remember we spoke to you before President Trump was elected in November, during the third anniversary of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan. This was something that you were really concerned about then. I mean, did you ever imagine that this would actually be where we are right now?
VANDIVER: You know, I thought it would be a little bit rough, but I thought because President Trump campaigned on Afghanistan, whether it was every day at the DNC Afghanistan came up or every debate he brought it up, whether it was President Biden or Vice President Harris, he stood with the families from Abbey Gate. So I thought that maybe it would be bad, but it would get fixed. And now it seems deliberate, right? It seems like they mean to do this, right? This isn't just about immigration. It's about whether the United States honors its promises. If we can't stand by the people who bled with us, what does our flag even stand for?
MARTÍNEZ: That's Shawn VanDiver, President and CEO of the nonprofit AfghanEvac. Shawn, thanks.
VANDIVER: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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