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Baltimore-based Global Refuge: “a crushing blow to Afghan allies who were promised U.S. protection”

Recent Afghan refugees including Suraya Qaderi, center, gather for a women's group on self-care, on Tuesday, April 8, 2025. Photo: Jessie Wardarski/AP
Jessie Wardarski/AP
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AP
Recent Afghan refugees including Suraya Qaderi, center, gather for a women's group on self-care, on Tuesday, April 8, 2025. Photo: Jessie Wardarski/AP

In less than three weeks, more than ten thousand Afghans who fled their country when the U.S. pulled its military forces out three years ago will lose the protections that allow them to live and work in the U.S. When the government announced it was revoking Temporary Protected Status, or TPS, the Baltimore-based nonprofit Global Refuge called it “a crushing blow to Afghan allies who were promised U.S. protection.”

Global Refuge is the new name for ‘Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service,' the 85-year-old faith-based nonprofit dedicated exclusively to serving refugee children and families. We talk with president and CEO Krish O’Mara Vignarajah about what’s going on with refugees in the Trump administration.

Sheilah Kast is the host of On The Record, Monday-Friday, 9:30-10:00 am.
Melissa Gerr is a Senior Producer for On the Record. She started in public media at Twin Cities Public Television in St. Paul, Minn., where she is from, and then worked as a field producer for Oregon Public Broadcasting in Portland. She made the jump to audio-lover in Baltimore as a digital media editor at Mid-Atlantic Media and Laureate Education, Inc. and as a field producer for "Out of the Blocks." Her beat is typically the off-beat with an emphasis on science, culture and things that make you say, 'Wait, what?'