As President Donald Trump pushes to increase mass deportation efforts, he and his team are weighing shielding some persecuted Christians from being shipped back to their home countries. Trump’s Department of Homeland Security (DHS) declined to renew temporary protected status (TPS) previously given to nearly 10,000 immigrants from Afghanistan, opening up an avenue for many to be deported once their current TPS expires on May 20. But some administration officials are considering protecting Afghan Christians from deportation, according to a report from Politico citing unnamed sources.

Administration officials are reportedly weighing either modifying the expiring TPS for Afghan Christians who would certainly face persecution upon returning to the now-Taliban-controlled country or creating an “exemption list” to protect persecuted Afghan Christians from deportations. Some Christian organizations and leaders, including Franklin Graham, have written to or met with the president, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio to advocate for shielding Afghan Christians from being deported to their home countries. According to the Christian Broadcasting Network, there are as many as 300 Afghan Christians in the U.S. who will be impacted by the end of TPS.

Trump has harshly criticized his presidential predecessor, Joe Biden, for mismanaging the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, which ceded control of the country to the Taliban. The 47th president has castigated the event as “the greatest foreign policy humiliation” in U.S. history, adding, “Biden’s botched exit from Afghanistan is the most astonishing display of gross incompetence by a nation’s leader, perhaps at any time.” During the 2024 presidential debate, Trump called Biden’s Afghanistan withdrawal “the most embarrassing day in the history of our country’s life,” later referring to it as “the most embarrassing moment in the history of our country.”

Following the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, the Islamic extremist Taliban took over the nation, reimplementing its strict enforcement of Sharia law, including the persecution of Christians, especially Christians who converted from Islam. Since 2021, Christian communities in Afghanistan have increasingly been driven underground, with the Taliban actively hunting down Christians, conducting door-to-door searches, paying family members to turn in Christian converts, and arresting, torturing, and killing Christians for their faith. In one instance, a Christian was slain after Taliban operatives searched his phone and discovered Christian content.

In comments to The Washington Stand, Arielle Del Turco, director of the Center for Religious Liberty at Family Research Council, said, “I’m very hopeful that President Trump will exempt Afghan Christians from the administration’s broader efforts to reduce immigration levels. These vulnerable Christians have been promised safety by the U.S. government after the Taliban took over Afghanistan following the Biden administration’s grave mismanagement of the U.S. troop withdrawal.” She noted, “If they are forced to return to Afghanistan, they will face near-certain danger. The Taliban has openly bragged about their efforts to eradicate Christianity from the country, wrongly claiming there are ‘no Christians’ in Afghanistan.”

“We need to operate with an abundance of caution before deporting religious minorities who have fled from persecution in their home countries, especially when the consequence is likely arbitrary imprisonment or even a death sentence,” Del Turco continued. She stated, “Ultimately, our hope is that by working on international religious freedom, the U.S. government can help alleviate some of the persecution issues that cause religious believers to seek refuge.” She added, “However, we must also keep a doorway open via the refugee program so that some of the most endangered Christians can find safety in the U.S.”

Ending TPS has been one of the many moves made by the Trump administration to curtail illegal immigration and facilitate mass deportations. In February, DHS formally ended the previous administration’s TPS grants for Haitian immigrants, many of whom entered the country illegally and were subsequently shielded by the previous administration via expanded and extended TPS. The Trump administration has explained that TPS was largely abused under the Biden administration and was used to facilitate mass immigration, rather than afford temporary shelter to actual refugees fleeing persecution.

However, federal judges placed temporary blocks on the Trump administration’s end of TPS. Obama-appointed Judge Edward Chen of the U.S. District Court for Northern California issued a court order barring the Trump administration from terminating TPS for approximately 300,000 Venezuelan nationals. Again, most entered the country illegally. Chen said that ending TPS for Venezuelan immigrants “threatens to: inflict irreparable harm on hundreds of thousands of persons whose lives, families, and livelihoods will be severely disrupted, cost the United States billions in economic activity, and injure public health and safety in communities throughout the United States.”

Another Obama appointee, Judge Indira Talwani of the U.S. District Court for Massachusetts, issued a similar court order just days later, blocking the administration from terminating a “humanitarian” parole program that allowed over 530,000 Cuban, Haitian, Nicaraguan, and Venezuelan immigrants to illegally enter the country and claim asylum. Although Talwani observed that the DHS Secretary has the authority to grant parole, she claimed that the same office “does not have the discretion to categorically terminate grants of parole…”