That of President Donald Trump The administration is considering deporting Afghans detained in the United States back to their home countries via Pakistan, according to court documents obtained by The Associated Press — a move that advocacy groups say could put their lives at risk.
Immigrant rights organizations say those deported could face reprisals from authorities. Taliban. Thousands of people fled persecution and feared for their lives after helping the U.S. military and aid groups in Afghanistan.
“This is absolutely unconscionable,” said Shawn VanDiver, a U.S. Navy veteran and president of the advocacy group #AfghanEvac. “There seems to be no limit to their willingness to break the law and violate people’s human rights. »
The United States plans to initially expel Afghan immigrants as early as Monday aboard flights from Louisiana, where the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency has immigration detention and processing facilities, to Pakistan, according to court documents.
The plan to deport Afghans to Pakistan was first reported by Bloomberg on Monday. On Friday, the New York Times reported that the immigrants would be sent to Afghanistan after arriving in Pakistan.
A spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security said in an email to the AP on Saturday that ICE would not comment on future immigrant deportation operations, citing operational security and personnel safety. Officials at the Pakistani embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to email messages.
Afghans caught in Trump’s immigration crackdown
U.S. officials confirmed the Afghan expulsions in sealed court documents obtained by the AP.
In a document filed Friday in a Virginia federal court, a senior ICE official acknowledged that an Afghan immigrant was scheduled to board an upcoming charter flight from Alexandria, Louisiana, to Pakistan, “with onward transportation to Afghanistan.” The document was filed in the case of an immigrant who is not in detention and is challenging efforts to deport him.
In another case in federal court in Oklahoma, federal prosecutors filed a document Monday revealing that another Afghan immigrant was scheduled to be deported to Afghanistan next week.
The Trump administration has deported thousands of immigrants to countries other than their own. They have done this in some cases when they are unable to send them to their own countries because the United States does not have formal relations, such as with the Taliban government in Afghanistan. In other cases, it has been used for deterrent purposes.
In many cases, a U.S. immigration judge has determined that their lives would be in danger if they were returned to their home country. It was not immediately clear whether those designated to return to Afghanistan had protective orders against being sent there.
Immigrant groups, Democrats denounce deportation plan
Human Rights First, a refugee and asylum-seeker advocacy group that tracks U.S. deportation flights, said Saturday that it confirmed a scheduled flight from Louisiana to Pakistan carrying Afghan immigrants on Tuesday.
“It is beyond egregious that this administration is considering an unprecedented mass deportation of Afghans, sending them forcibly through Pakistan and into the hands of the Taliban,” Savitri Arvey, director of policy, refugee and immigrant rights for Human Rights First, said in an email to the AP.
“This follows previous impermissible deportation flights we have tracked under this administration, including Iranian Christian converts and political dissidents deported via Qatar and Kuwait to Iran, as well as a Russian political dissident deported via Egypt to Russia,” Arvey said.
Some Democratic members of Congress took to social media to criticize the Afghan expulsions after seeing the Times article Friday.
“It is reprehensible that the Trump administration is considering deporting hundreds of Afghans, including women, children and those who supported U.S. forces, to Pakistan – who then risk being returned to the hands of the Taliban. Congress must oppose this,” Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire posted on X.
Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut added in his own message
Thousands have fled war and persecution in Afghanistan
In September, the Trump administration finalized a last minute reprieve to avoid the closure of a camp in Qatar which houses more than 1,000 people Afghans who contributed to the American war effort or are relatives of American military personnel. The administration extended the life of Camp As Sayliyah by nine months, which was scheduled to close on September 30, at the end of the U.S. fiscal year.
At the start of his second term, Trump, a Republican, suspended the term of his Democratic predecessor. Afghan Resettlement Program as part of a series of decrees repressing immigrationincluding radically changing refugee admissions to focus on white South Africans.
The refugee changes has left thousands of people who fled war and persecution – and who underwent years-long screening procedures to start a new life in America – stranded around the world, including on the Qatar base.
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