{"id":9767,"date":"2025-05-30T20:33:36","date_gmt":"2025-05-30T20:33:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/a-historic-betrayal-murkowski-slams-trump-administration-revoking-protections-for-afghan-immigrants\/"},"modified":"2025-05-30T20:33:36","modified_gmt":"2025-05-30T20:33:36","slug":"a-historic-betrayal-murkowski-slams-trump-administration-revoking-protections-for-afghan-immigrants","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/a-historic-betrayal-murkowski-slams-trump-administration-revoking-protections-for-afghan-immigrants\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018A historic betrayal\u2019: Murkowski slams Trump administration revoking protections for Afghan immigrants"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) denounced the Trump administration\u2019s decision to axe temporary protected status for Afghan immigrants \u2014 the latest break by the centrist Republican from President Donald Trump\u2019s administration.<\/p>\n

In a joint letter with Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) to Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, the senator urged the administration to reconsider the cancellation of the temporary protection, which affords Afghans a work permit and legal status in the U.S.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis decision endangers thousands of lives, including Afghans who stood by the United States,\u201d Murkowski and Shaheen \u2014 the ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee \u2014 wrote<\/a>. \u201cThis decision represents a historic betrayal of promises made and undermines the values we fought for far more than 20 years in Afghanistan.\u201d<\/p>\n

The letter \u2014 which was sent May 23 and released Friday \u2014 comes amid reports that the State Department is shuttering the office that coordinated Afghan resettlement<\/a> for those who helped with the war effort, part of an agency-wide reorganization<\/a> aligning with the Trump administration\u2019s moves to reduce foreign aid and assistance and refocus on \u201cAmerica First\u201d priorities.<\/p>\n

Murkowski has not been shy about criticizing her own party, while encouraging her fellow GOP senators to do the same. The Republican has rebuked President Donald Trump for his close relationship to Russian President Vladimir Putin, accusing the U.S. of \u201cwalking away from our allies<\/a>.\u201d But she also acknowledged a reticence within Republican circles of defying Trump \u2014 saying \u201cwe are all afraid\u201d of Trump\u2019s retaliation<\/a>.<\/p>\n

She\u2019s also not the only Republican to raise red flags about the cancellation of TPS protections for some immigrants, with Miami\u2019s members of Congress also urging the Trump administration to continue the protections for Venezuelans and Haitians<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Alaska Republican first criticized the decision on TPS shortly after it was announced by the Department of Homeland Security, calling it \u201cconcerning\u201d in light of promises from Noem to address a backlog of asylum applications \u2014 which could dramatically increase as former TPS holders look for avenues to stay in the U.S.<\/p>\n

But eliminating TPS has been one of Trump\u2019s key campaign promises from the start, after calling the program corrupt and saying the legal status had been extended for too long.<\/p>\n

The battle over TPS has made its way to the courts. Earlier this month, the Supreme Court cleared the way for the Trump administration to revoke TPS protections<\/a> for roughly 350,000 Venezuelans.<\/p>\n

Murkowski has previously called out the withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan, which happened under the Biden administration, saying the \u201cbotched\u201d operation endangered many who then came to the U.S. \u2014 and that ending protections would only exacerbate the problem.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis administration should not compound that misstep by forcing them to return to the Taliban\u2019s brutal regime,\u201d Murkowski wrote on X<\/a> earlier this month.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) denounced the Trump administration\u2019s decision to axe temporary protected status for Afghan immigrants \u2014 the latest break by the centrist Republican from President Donald Trump\u2019s administration. In a joint letter with Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) to Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, the senator urged the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9767","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-congress"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9767","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9767"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9767\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9767"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9767"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9767"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}