WASHINGTON — The Trump administration is preparing to deport more than 100 Afghan immigrants and asylum-seekers to Pakistan, marking an unprecedented removal operation that critics warn will deliver vulnerable people directly back into Taliban hands, according to rights advocates and federal officials.
A chartered flight scheduled to leave Louisiana could depart as soon as Monday, Nov. 2, according to reports from NBC News and advocacy groups. Because Washington maintains no formal diplomatic ties with the Taliban regime governing Afghanistan, federal authorities are routing the deportation through Pakistan, where deportees are expected to be quickly expelled across the border.
Detainees gathered in Louisiana
Advocacy group AfghanEvac confirmed that authorities recently transferred at least 80 Afghans from 34 detention centers across the nation to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Louisiana, NBC News reported. Shawn VanDiver, the head of AfghanEvac, noted that 19 of those individuals were moved without legal counsel.
The manifest includes relatives of individuals who assisted the U.S. armed forces during the two-decade war in Afghanistan, as well as at least one LGBTQ+ person, The Independent reported. The administration official told NBC News that those slated for removal include individuals whose temporary protected status had been stripped, those with active deportation orders, and people denied asylum. Some pending applicants had crossed into the U.S. from Mexico.
Human rights organizations and refugee advocates have warned that returnees face severe peril under Taliban rule, including the risk of arbitrary detention, torture, or death. In Afghanistan, the United Nations has extensively documented retaliatory killings of former officials and security forces, alongside sweeping decrees barring women and girls from public education and employment.
VanDiver told NBC News that officials understand the deportees will likely be sent across the border immediately, saying, “You don’t have to be that smart to figure out that they’re sending them to Pakistan so that Pakistan will finish the job.”
Administration defends border enforcement
A senior administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity to NBC News, said that the potential dangers awaiting deportees do not alter White House policy, stating that the administration takes the view that “these individuals do not have status in our country, therefore we don’t really care what happens to them.”
The Department of Homeland Security told outlets including The Independent that it could not discuss upcoming removal flights due to “operational security reasons.” A State Department spokesperson reaffirmed that Washington supports the right of sovereign nations to enforce their immigration rules to safeguard citizens, noting that the agency had no immediate announcements to provide.
Rights advocates emphasize that Pakistan offers no protection for arriving deportees. Islamabad has forcibly expelled or pressured more than 2.7 million Afghans to leave since 2023 amid rising border tensions with Kabul. “Pakistan is patently unsafe for Afghans,” Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, head of Global Refuge, said in a statement, calling the deportation plan “a deliberate decision to put them in harm’s way.”
Uncertain legal horizon
The operation represents an expansion of third-country deportation arrangements used by the Trump administration, in which individuals are transferred to nations other than their native countries. Legal scholars argue that such measures circumvent international principles barring governments from returning refugees to territories where they face persecution.
Advocates have urged lawmakers to intervene by providing legislative protections for Afghan evacuees. Whether federal courts will step in to block the deportation flight before its scheduled departure remains unclear, as the U.S. Supreme Court is set to review the legality of third-country removal policies in December.
