SPECIAL EDITION: Three actions. Two deadlines. About ten minutes of your time.
Congress can protect Afghan allies who are already here, and two federal rules would strip their right to work and their day in court. You can weigh in on all three this week.
Every week we send you a lot. The news, the court fights, the case updates, the analysis. It all matters, and you can keep up with the full picture any time at afghanevac.org/policy. The one thing we never want lost in the shuffle is the part where you can change the outcome. So this is a special edition. We stripped everything else out and kept only what needs you to act.
Three things are moving at once, and two are on the clock. Congress has a bipartisan bill that would protect Afghan allies who are already here. At the same time, the administration has advanced two rules that target those same people. One strips their right to work. The other lets the government put asylum seekers in front of a deportation judge without ever hearing them out. You can weigh in on all three from your couch or your desk, and it matters more than you would think, because federal agencies are legally required to read and respond to substantive public comments before a rule becomes final.
Everything below points to sites where we have already set up the emails to Congress and the comment forms for you. Pick at least one. Do it. Then send this to three people who will do the same.
Deadlines at a glance
Work-authorization rule, comment by August 4. This is the most urgent. It is next week.
Asylum “no-interview” rule, comment by September 28.
Afghanistan TPS Act, no deadline, but every day counts. Act now.
1. Pass the bipartisan Afghanistan TPS Act (H.R. 9899)
On July 23, Representatives Jason Crow, Sam Liccardo, Don Bacon, and María Elvira Salazar, two Democrats and two Republicans, introduced the Afghanistan TPS Act of 2026.
It would designate Afghanistan for Temporary Protected Status through July 2029, restoring protection from deportation and the right to work to Afghan allies already living here, the same people this administration stripped of that status even as the Taliban made conditions worse.
TPS is a bridge, not a destination. It protects people who are already here, already vetted, and already working in American communities while their cases catch up. Keeping faith with our allies has never been a partisan position, and the sponsors of this bill just proved it again.
Two ways to act, and we need you to do both.
As an individual, tell your representative to co-sponsor H.R. 9899 and push for a vote.
As an organization, add your group to the endorsement list and lend your name to the coalition.
2. Stop the asylum “no-interview” rule (comment by September 28)
On July 28, DHS put into effect an interim final rule, “Affirmative Asylum Referrals Without Interview” (Docket USCIS-2026-0199). For the first time, it lets USCIS asylum officers send an affirmative asylum case to immigration court without ever interviewing the applicant, deciding it on the paperwork alone.
The asylum interview is often the only chance a person gets to explain, in their own words, why they fled and what waits for them if they are sent back. Take it away and the government can move someone toward deportation without ever hearing their story. Many Afghans who came through Operation Allies Welcome filed affirmative asylum claims. This rule reaches them.
It is already in effect, but the comment window is open, and public comments are how rules like this get challenged and changed.
Act. Submit a comment opposing the rule before September 28.
3. Protect Afghan allies’ right to work (comment by August 4, next week)
A DHS proposed rule, “Clarification of Discretionary Employment Authorization for Certain Aliens” (Docket USCIS-2026-0067), would let the government strip work authorization from people paroled into the United States, including the Afghan allies this country evacuated after the fall of Kabul.
These are people the United States flew here, vetted, and welcomed. Taking away their ability to work legally does not make anyone safer. It pushes vetted allies out of their jobs, off their leases, and into crisis, and it shifts the cost onto the communities and employers that depend on them.
This is the most urgent item on the list. The comment window closes August 4.
Act. Individuals or organizations can submit a comment opposing the rule before August 4, and we’ve made it easy.
Organizations can also sign on to our organizational comment sign on letter
Wear the ask, and take 25% off for reading this
We want to see Afghanistan TPS shirts everywhere. In Senate hallways, at district offices, and all over your feeds, because a bill moves faster when the people who decide can see how many of us are behind it.
Our new “Promises Aren’t Temporary” tee carries the name of the ask, H.R. 9899, right where people will read it. They look good, they start conversations, and every order puts real money behind this work and keeps us in the fight.
Because you opened this email, the first 50 orders are 25% off. Use code 25ATPS2026 at checkout, and move fast, because once 50 shirts are claimed the code is gone.
Wear it to the Hill. Wear it to the grocery store. Post it and tag us.
Do all of that and then do the one thing that multiplies all of it
Forward this to three people. Post it. Text it to the veteran who keeps asking how to help. Two minutes of your time moves the people who decide whether our Afghan wartime allies are protected or abandoned.
They kept their promise to us. Now we must ensure our country keeps ours.