Trump Administration Plans to Deport More Than 150 Afghans by Way of Pakistan

The Trump administration is preparing to deport more than 150 Afghan immigrants to Afghanistan by way of Pakistan, a United States official and a coalition of veterans and advocacy groups said on Friday. The plan, first reported by The New York Times, would be one of the largest single expulsions of Afghans from the United States.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement has moved Afghan detainees from facilities across the country to Louisiana in recent days, the Times reported. A chartered flight is expected to leave as soon as Monday, November 2. Three United States officials told the newspaper that the deportation is, in effect, to Afghanistan, and that detainees have been told the same.

Why the flight goes through Pakistan

Washington cannot arrange deportations directly to Afghanistan because it has no diplomatic ties with the Taliban, a United States official said. The detainees would instead be flown to Pakistan, which would then expel the group across the border into Afghanistan.

That last step is what alarms advocates most. Pakistan has expelled more than 2 million Afghan nationals to Afghanistan since 2023, according to Reuters, and Afghans sent back by Pakistan cross into a country that has been run by the Taliban since the American withdrawal in 2021.

Brothers and sons of men who served

Shawn VanDiver, the head of #AfghanEvac, a coalition that works with Afghans who assisted the United States, said many of the people facing removal fled Afghanistan after the Taliban takeover and the American withdrawal in 2021. Some facing deportation are, in his words, "brothers and sons of men who served alongside US forces, families the Taliban already has every reason to target."

Reporting by the Times, cited by advocacy groups on Friday, also placed a gay man in the group. Under Taliban rule, he could face severe persecution if he is sent back. VanDiver urged Congress to pass legislation granting Afghans in the United States temporary protected status so they cannot be deported.

"Charter one back"

Krish O'Mara Vignarajah, the president and chief executive of Global Refuge, called on the administration to halt or reverse the plan before the flight leaves. "Five years ago, Americans watched Afghans cling to planes to escape the Taliban," she said. "On Monday, our government plans to charter one back to their persecutors' hands."

Global Refuge said the flight would mark an escalation of the administration's third country removals, which have already sent deportees to countries such as South Sudan and the Central African Republic.

What the government says

The administration has not announced the plan. The Department of Homeland Security would not confirm future removal operations, citing operational security, and declined to comment on the reported flight. President Donald Trump has said his immigration crackdown and deportation drive aim to improve domestic security.

No passenger list has been made public, and it was not clear on Friday how many of the detainees held in Louisiana have final orders of removal or cases still moving through the courts. The first test of the plan comes on Monday, November 2, when the chartered flight is expected to depart.