Veteran decries DHS ending Afghanistan’s Temporary Protection Status

By Justin Berger

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    ASHEVILLE, North Carolina (WLOS) — Thousands of Afghans are in jeopardy of being deported after the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) terminated Afghanistan’s Temporary Protection Status (TPS) program.

Afghanistan’s protected status expired in May and will be terminated on July 14.

“This administration is returning TPS to its original temporary intent. We’ve reviewed the conditions in Afghanistan with our interagency partners, and they do not meet the requirements for a TPS designation. Afghanistan has had an improved security situation, and its stabilizing economy no longer prevent them from returning to their home country. Additionally, the termination furthers the national interest as DHS records indicate that there are recipients who have been under investigation for fraud and threatening our public safety and national security. Reviewing TPS designations is a key part of restoring integrity in our immigration system,” Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security Kristi Noem said.

Skip Rohde, an Asheville artist and United States Navy veteran, worked with the State Department in Iraq and Afghanistan after his retirement.

“We were trying to help the Afghans build their own government,” Rohde said.

During his yearlong deployment to Afghanistan, he worked with an interpreter, Bashir. The two still keep in touch which is why Rohde knows Bashir is still in Afghanistan unable to get a Special Immigrant Visa.

“We tried to help him get his visa, but we could never find out what it was that was preventing him from getting one,” Rohde said. “The government does not have the backs of those that it owes a huge debt to.”

TPS is separate of the Special Immigration Visa; DHS can designate a foreign country “due to conditions in the country that temporarily prevent the country’s nationals from returning safely, or in certain circumstances, where the country is unable to handle the return of its nationals adequately.”

“It’s a very cruel form of politics,” Rohde said. “Many of these people will die when they get back to Afghanistan so that politicians here can score a political point.”

He remembers a man he worked with whose family had TPS, now they are now at risk.

“One of the smartest people I’ve ever met,” Rohde said. “One of the most capable and he worked Navy SEALs in combat in Afghanistan and his family is here on some of these visas so it affects him, somebody who was in combat with US Navy SEALs and they may send some of his family back.”

Rohde’s art reflects his reality: depictions of war and loss.

Several of sketches he drew of people in Afghanistan now sit in the Smithsonian and his sketch of Bashir will soon go on display in New York with other veteran-made art in July.

“These people put their lives on the line to be friendly to the United States, help us, and we turn our back on them,” Rohde said. “The old song ‘Give Us Your Tired, Your Poor,’ no that’s been tossed out the window. We’re not that way anymore.”

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