A woman advocating for around two dozen Afghan Christian refugees facing deportation who attend her North Carolina church has pushed back against the Trump administration’s assertions that conditions in Afghanistan have improved enough for them to return and is still looking for someone in Washington to champion their cause.
Julie Tisdale, a seminary student who attends the Church of the Apostles in Raleigh, has expressed her disappointment that the Trump administration appears to be “doubling down” on its push to remove Afghan Christians from the country. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security announced last month that it is ending temporary protected status for Afghanistan effective July 14.
Two months ago, Julie Tisdale wrote an op-ed for The Christian Post expressing concern about the plight of the refugees who attended her church after they had received a notice from the Trump administration informing them they had one week to leave the U.S.
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After the week came and went without incident, Tisdale told CP in an interview a week later that members of her church had engaged in conversations with members of Congress on behalf of the Afghan Christian refugees.
“We are continuing to try to reach out to senators and congressmen and other people who may know, have contacts … in the administration,” she told CP this week. “We have lots of people who have told us that they understand, they’re sympathetic, but we have yet to find anybody who’s willing to really be the champion for this and raise the issue very publicly.”
Temporary Protected Status has enabled Afghan nationals to remain in the U.S. after the Taliban retook control of the country following the withdrawal of U.S. troops in the summer of 2021. In a May 14 statement, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem insisted, “Afghanistan has an improved security situation, and its stabilizing economy no longer prevent them from returning to their home country.”
“We’ve reviewed the conditions in Afghanistan with our interagency partners, and they do not meet the requirements for a TPS designation,” she said, adding that “DHS records indicate that there are recipients who have been under investigation for fraud and threatening our public safety and national security.”
Tisdale strongly disagrees that protection from deportation is no longer necessary for the Afghan Christian refugees who attend her church.
“The issue for these people is not economic insecurity,” she said. “Afghanistan’s a poor country. We all know that. That is not the issue. The issue is that these people are vulnerable not because they’re poor but because they are Christians and targeted by the Taliban for converting.”
Afghanistan ranks as the 10th worst country for Christian persecution, according to global watchdog Open Doors’ World Watch List. The group warns it is nearly impossible for most Afghan Christians to practice their faith openly because conversion is punishable by death under Islamic law. Such restrictions have been “increasingly enforced since the Taliban took control of the country in 2021.”
In addition to those who face persecution from the Taliban for their embrace of Christianity, Tisdale cited others who are vulnerable “because they worked with the U.S. military and therefore, the Taliban, which is the Afghan government, views them as enemies.”
In her previous interview with CP, Tisdale expressed certainty that the Afghan Christian refugees who attend her church face certain death if they return to their home country.
“And they know that’s certain because they have already experienced torture for no crime other than conversion,” she asserted. “I have heard those stories firsthand. I’ve heard stories about the ways in which the authorities were made aware of their conversion and then promptly arrested them.”
“They disappeared for days, weeks, possibly longer,” she recalled. “They suffered all sorts of torture while in prison, and so having endured that once, were they to be returned, there is no way that the Taliban would allow them to survive,” she predicted. “It would not be a quick death. It will be significant torture, and they will die.”
The Afghan Christians who attend Church of the Apostles are “at different stages” in the process of “applying for asylum or appealing asylum rulings or waiting for green cards to be processed,” Tisdale said.
“All of them continue to take the next steps in the legal process to try to get their status secured so that they do not face a threat of deportation,” she explained. “There are multiple different statuses that these folks are under. So, it is not one blanket thing that applies to all of them. There are a small number that either already have green cards or are waiting for those to arrive, like literally waiting for them to arrive in the mail. So, some are further along, some are under temporary protected status.”
The church is trying to ensure that the refugees have adequate legal representation.
“Lawyers are very expensive,” she said, “and so we’re trying to make sure that they have good legal counsel and we’re helping with those fees.”
“We just continue to advocate and support financially and provide practical assistance and continue to be very concerned.”
Church members assist the refugees in many other ways, such as picking their children up from school if necessary and “helping with some of the financial burden.”
Franklin Graham, who heads the North Carolina-based Evangelical humanitarian organization Samaritan’s Purse and is the son of legendary evangelist Billy Graham, has also connected with leaders in Washington.
He previously told CP that he is not “aware of any Afghan Christians that have been deported at this point, and I know this is being discussed in Washington at the highest levels.”
“I spoke with Senator Lindsey Graham about it, and I know that other leaders are discussing the issue with the President,” Graham said in an April statement. “I have been told that the deadline has been pushed back in order for cases to be reviewed. We believe this will be resolved, and I appreciate the efforts to try and help Afghan Christians.”
Ryan Foley is a reporter for The Christian Post. He can be reached at: ryan.foley@christianpost.com
