The Biden administration will provide relief to immigration to tens of thousands of Afghans in the United States, protecting them from deportation due to deteriorating economic and security conditions in Afghanistan following the Taliban’s takeover. Last year, people familiar with the plan told CBS News on Wednesday.

After determining that Afghanistan is too dangerous to be deported, Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas plans to allow Afghans in the United States to apply for temporary protection status (TPS), which would protect them. of deportation and would allow them to work legally for 18 months. said the sources.

The move, which is expected to be officially announced by Mayorkas on Wednesday, is especially significant for the more than 76,000 Afghans who were evacuated and resettled by the US after the chaotic US military withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021.

The evacuees entered the U.S. under a two-year humanitarian classification known as parole, not as traditional refugees, leaving tens of thousands. without a legal route to obtain permanent residence and be at risk of expulsion if their asylum applications are rejected.

Under U.S. immigration law, the DHS Secretary may offer TPS to U.S. immigrants if it is determined that their countries of origin cannot accept deportees safely due to armed conflict, natural disasters, an epidemic, or other “extraordinary” emergencies.

The TPS program for Afghanistan will be limited to eligible Afghans who were in the U.S. starting this week, which will make newcomers ineligible for relief. TPS has other eligibility requirements and does not apply to people convicted of certain crimes.

As part of broader efforts to limit humanitarian immigration programs, the Trump administration has sought to end TPS protections for hundreds of thousands of immigrants living in the United States, arguing that authority must be used in a limited way. However, federal courts stopped those plans.

The Biden administration has used the TPS authority more liberally, extending the program’s eligibility to an estimated 500,000 people in the U.S., including Venezuelans, Haitians, South Sudanese, and Ukrainians. offered protection a week after Russia invaded Ukraine late last month.

As part of the largest resettlement operation since the 1970s, the United States established an interagency system to examine, prosecute, and resettle Afghans who were in danger of being persecuted by the Taliban hardline regime, including the Taliban. who aided U.S. forces during the 20-year war in Afghanistan.

The first stage of the resettlement operation was completed last month, when the U.S. moved all evacuees from the temporary processing centers it established to national military sites. One-third of Afghan evacuees have settled in Texas, California and Virginia. figures of internal government show.

Parole allowed the Biden administration to quickly bring Afghan evacuees to the U.S., but the temporary immigration process does not allow beneficiaries to obtain permanent residency or green cards.

U.S. officials have determined that about 37,000 Afghan evacuees are eligible for permanent residency through the special immigrant visa program because they or their immediate family members helped the U.S. war effort in the United States. Afghanistan, according to a December Homeland Security (DHS) report.

But the report said another 36,000 evacuees have no legal way to secure permanent residency, leaving them in a legal limbo unless Congress legalizes them or applies for and gain asylum in the United States.

Despite voice calls from refugee advocates, however, Congress has not passed an Afghan Adjustment Act, which would provide green cards to eligible evacuees, putting them on a path to U.S. citizenship.