Trump Administration Plans to Deport Afghans via Pakistan as 66 Lawmakers Urge a Halt
The Trump administration is moving to deport Afghans detained in the U.S. back to their home country by way of Pakistan, despite a letter from 66 members of Congress urging it to stop.
At least 150 Afghans were scheduled to be flown from detention facilities in Louisiana to Pakistan starting Tuesday, according to advocacy group reports cited in the lawmakers’ letter, Al Jazeera reported.
Human Rights First, which tracks deportation flights, said it had confirmed a flight carrying Afghans from Alexandria, Louisiana, to Pakistan scheduled for Tuesday. It was not immediately clear whether the flight had left.
U.S. officials confirmed the plan in court documents. In a filing in federal court in Virginia, a senior ICE official said one Afghan was set for a charter flight to Pakistan “with further transport onward to Afghanistan,” the Associated Press reported.
The U.S. has no diplomatic relations with the Taliban, which took over Afghanistan after American troops withdrew in August 2021.
The Department of Homeland Security declined to discuss the flights, citing operational security, but defended its third-country removals. “Illegal aliens being sent to a third country receive notice and assurances prior to their removal,” a spokesperson told CBS News.
The spokesperson said ICE receives diplomatic assurances that deportees will be safe. “When an individual is no longer in ICE custody, ICE is no longer responsible for them,” the spokesperson added.
DHS did not say whether Pakistan had given such assurances. When reporters asked Secretary of State Marco Rubio about the flights on Oct. 31, he referred the question to DHS, CBS reported.
Lawmakers and Courts
The lawmakers’ letter to Rubio and DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin called the removals “a death sentence” for people likely to be targeted for supporting the U.S. government. The letter also asked the administration to cancel flights of Iranians.
Shawn VanDiver, a Navy veteran who leads the group #AfghanEvac, said many of those scheduled for removal lacked lawyers to fight their cases. Some worked with the former Afghan government or U.S. forces, he said.
Federal judges in Texas and Louisiana denied emergency requests from two Afghan detainees to halt their removals last month, CBS reported. A Virginia man was taken off the flight list and released after a judge ruled his detention violated due process.
Even the Taliban-led Foreign Ministry raised concerns, urging that Afghans’ “rights and dignity” be respected and warning third countries not to “bargain over the transfer of another country’s nationals.”
Trump paused Biden-era Afghan resettlement programs early in his second term. He halted processing of Afghan applications after an Afghan man allegedly shot two National Guard members in Washington in November 2025.
The administration has sent at least 25,000 people to third countries, according to a tally by Refugees International and Human Rights First.
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