Daijiworld Media Network - Washington
Washington, Oct 31: The Trump administration is preparing to deport more than 150 Afghan immigrants detained across the United States by routing their removal through Pakistan, including individuals who could face persecution under Taliban rule, according to a report by The New York Times.
The proposed operation could become one of the largest single deportations of Afghans from the US. The group reportedly includes relatives of people who worked with the US military and at least one gay man who could face severe punishment if returned to Afghanistan.
Three US officials told the newspaper that the first flight could leave as early as November 2. The detainees would reportedly be transferred to Pakistan before being sent across the border into Afghanistan.
The proposed route could help the administration overcome the difficulty of deporting Afghans directly, as the US does not maintain diplomatic relations with the Taliban government. Some Afghan nationals have also secured legal protection from US courts on the grounds that they could face persecution if returned.
However, the officials said the plan was effectively intended to send the detainees back to Afghanistan. Some of the immigrants have also been informed by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) that they are being deported there.
The US government has not publicly announced the operation. According to The New York Times, which reconstructed the plan through interviews with lawyers and three US officials, detainees have recently been transferred from immigration facilities across the country to detention centres in Louisiana.
Court documents reportedly show that at least one Afghan immigrant has been included on the passenger list for a specially chartered flight scheduled to leave Alexandria, Louisiana, during the first week of November. Lawyers representing two other detainees also shared emails from federal officials indicating that their clients were due to be deported in early November.
The proposed arrangement has raised questions over legal protections against returning individuals to countries where they face persecution. US law prohibits deportation to countries where courts have determined that individuals would most likely face such risks. It remains unclear whether any of the Afghans included in the planned operation have secured these protections.
Among those facing removal is Mohammad, a 47-year-old Afghan immigrant who has spent most of his life in the US. He told the newspaper that federal agents detained him last year while he was charging his electric car. He was initially held in Oklahoma before being transferred to a prison in Louisiana last week.
Mohammad said his family fled Afghanistan in 1981, when he was two years old, following the Soviet invasion. Although he grew up in the US, he lost his permanent residency after two felony convictions in 2003 involving robbery and making threats against a school, according to government documents. He served around three years in prison and later rebuilt his life while regularly reporting to immigration authorities.
He also spoke about his sexuality, saying he had come to terms with being gay and married an American man in 2020. A return to Afghanistan could put his life at risk, given the severe restrictions and punishments imposed on gay people under Taliban rule.
Another Afghan man facing deportation told a US court that the Taliban had arrested and tortured him in 2023 because of his wife's association with Afghanistan's previous government. His wife had served in the Afghan army and women's police force, both of which faced retaliation after the Taliban returned to power. The man entered the US illegally in 2024 and has remained in ICE custody since his arrest. His asylum application was rejected by a US judge. His lawyer shared the court documents with the newspaper on condition of anonymity.
Pakistan's involvement is significant as the country is already conducting a major campaign against Afghan nationals. Since 2023, more than 2.7 million Afghans have been expelled or forced to return, with Islamabad citing national security concerns.
Pakistan has accused the Taliban of sheltering militant groups responsible for repeated attacks on its territory. The expulsions have become one of the measures Islamabad is using to pressure the Taliban government. Pakistan has also vowed to remove all Afghans, including those with legal status, with around 1.5 million still living in the country.
The campaign has affected not only refugees, traders and daily-wage workers but also Afghan health professionals who moved to Pakistan for specialised training. Visa cancellations and non-renewals have reportedly left hundreds of doctors without jobs and facing possible expulsion.
Previous US administrations have also deported Afghans through intermediary countries, but those operations involved relatively small numbers, generally individuals facing serious criminal charges, including terrorism-related offences.
Data from the Deportation Data Project, a research initiative involving the University of California, Berkeley and the University of California, Los Angeles, indicates that the US sent around 97 Afghans back over the previous four years.
The proposed November operation is considerably broader, involving people who entered the US both legally and illegally, including some with criminal records. It forms part of the Trump administration's wider drive to expand deportations.
Over the past two years, the administration has tightened immigration restrictions affecting Afghans who supported the US war effort, deported others to African countries and encouraged some Afghans stranded at a former US military facility in Qatar to return voluntarily.