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Witnesses urge U.S. to restore CARE office, TPS and SIV pathways as Pakistan deportations of Afghans rise
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Summary
Human rights witnesses told a congressional hearing that Pakistan’s phased deportation plan and forcible returns have sent more than a million Afghans home and that the United States should restore the CARE office, extend temporary protected status and resume refugee processing for Afghans with pending Special Immigrant Visas (SIVs).
“Since then, more than a million Afghan nationals have been forcibly returned to Afghanistan,” Ben Linden of Amnesty International told the commission as he described Pakistan’s 2023 deportation plan and the humanitarian risks he said deportations posed to Afghans.
Linden and other witnesses urged Congress to restore programs and processing that helped resettle Afghans at risk. They called for reconstituting the State Department’s CARE office and reversing its recent dismantlement, extending Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Afghans already in the United States, and accelerating processing of P-1/P-2 and Special Immigrant Visas (SIVs) for those who assisted U.S. forces.
Witnesses said Afghan refugees remaining in Pakistan face arbitrary detention, harassment, and extortion, and that many in line for U.S. relocation were stuck in limbo. Amnesty’s testimony described individual cases of journalists, activists, and women who said they feared return to Taliban-controlled Afghanistan.
Panelists pointed to international obligations: Ben Linden said forcible returns in the scale described would violate the principle of nonrefoulement under international human rights law. Several witnesses asked the commission to press the administration to restore institutional capacity and long-standing refugee admission channels.
Members of Congress at the hearing also raised the domestic policy connection: witnesses urged that the United States maintain pathways for allied Afghans and to use oversight and appropriations power to restore or support processing functions that had bipartisan backing in previous years.
The hearing included no binding decision; co-chairs asked staff to pursue follow-up with the administration and referenced letters and oversight tools to press for restoration of refugee processing and TPS protections.
