US Plans to Deport More Than 150 Afghans to Taliban-Ruled Afghanistan Via Pakistan

At least 80 Afghans have recently been moved into Louisiana, pulled from 34 different ICE detention facilities around the United States. According to Shawn VanDiver, president of the San Diego-based advocacy group AfghanEvac, 19 of them were transferred without legal representation. The movement, as NBC News reported it, is part of preparations to deport more than 150 Afghan immigrants and refugees to Taliban-controlled Afghanistan, with a first flight that could leave as early as Monday.

The route runs through Pakistan. The United States has no diplomatic relations with the Taliban government in Kabul, and the plan reportedly relies on Pakistan as the passage point for deportees. The Trump administration has not, in the account available here, been quoted on the operation on the record.

Many of those facing removal reportedly fled Afghanistan after the Taliban returned to power in 2021. Some have family ties to the two-decade war. VanDiver said that some of those facing deportation are brothers and sons of men who served alongside US forces, families he described as people the Taliban already has every reason to target. He warned that sending them back could expose them and their relatives to persecution and retaliation.

A senior administration official, speaking anonymously to NBC News, did not frame those risks as a significant worry for the White House. The official described the administration's position as being that these individuals have no status in the country, and therefore the administration does not really care what happens to them.

The proposed removals fit a wider pattern. Since returning to office, President Donald Trump has suspended refugee admissions, including for Afghans who sought protection in the United States after the 2021 withdrawal of US-led forces. That marks a turn away from earlier efforts to give refuge to Afghans fleeing Taliban rule and political instability. His administration has also pursued third-country deportations, sending migrants to countries other than their own.

Immigration lawyers and human rights advocates argue such arrangements could be used to get around international protections against returning asylum seekers to places where they may face persecution. The legality of these deportation policies is expected to reach the US Supreme Court in December.

VanDiver has urged Congress to step in by passing legislation that would grant eligible Afghans temporary protected status, which would shield them from deportation while conditions in Afghanistan remain dangerous.

Pakistan could face complications of its own if the deportations pass through its territory. Islamabad has already deported more than two million Afghan nationals since 2023. With a flight possibly days away and the Supreme Court not expected to take up the legal questions until December, the next several days may settle the fate of the first group before any court rules.