Dozens of Afghans who are currently in the US but fear being deported back to Afghanistan along with a larger group and possibly killed by the Taliban are experiencing “fragile relief” this weekend after it appeared that the Trump administration had put on hold plans to remove them within days.
Members of Congress and advocates have repeatedly warned that the deportations could effectively be a death sentence.
A flight originally scheduled to transport the group out of the US on election day earlier this month had stayed grounded after a federal judge issued a court order temporarily blocking its departure to Afghanistan or neighboring Pakistan. The whole group numbers more than ۱۵۰ Afghans, the New York Times reported. And the AP previously reported that the federal government intends to route these detainees to their home country via Pakistan.
Then, as the temporary court order expired last weekend, immigration advocates battling to prevent the deportations talked of dreading that the detainees could be forced to leave the US during the week of ۱۶ November . This prospect was based on a rescheduled removal date given for at least one Afghan man currently in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention who was due to be on the flight.
As that date loomed, suddenly there was another development amid frantic advocacy efforts.
Late on Tuesday, it was learned that that detainee, along with a handful of other detained Afghans on the original flight manifest, now no longer had a specified departure date issued by the US government.
Some immigration lawyers also reported that their Afghan clients had been moved from staging facilities to long-term detention facilities, suggesting they would not be forced onto a deportation flight in the coming days after all.
Amid some confusion and often few details from the administration, Shawn VanDiver, founder and president of the US non-profit coalition #AfghanEvac, said that a sensation of “fragile relief” had descended on the people involved.
Some of the Afghans in the targeted group have relatives who assisted the US war on Afghanistan after the terrorist attacks on the US on ۱۱ September ۲۰۰۱ that drove out the Taliban, VanDiver said. He had already called Donald Trump’s efforts to remove Afghans from the US cruel and being done in “a heinous matter” as a scare tactic against others.
“In a matter of days, these allies were told they were being sent through Pakistan into the hands of the Taliban, then told they were safe, then told that nobody knows. That isn’t immigration policy. It’s whiplash inflicted on people who already survived a war,” he said. “These men and women kept their promise to America, and it’s time we kept ours by ending these removals for good.”
VanDiver has slammed any option to use Pakistan as a conduit for “forced rendition”.
Immigration advocates are hoping continued pressure will result in further delays and the ultimate cancellation of that flight and any others planned for the coming weeks. In the meantime, #AfghanEvac is pushing what will become the newly Democratic-controlled Congress in January to pass a bipartisan bill that has been drafted and would give Afghans who are already in the US temporary protected status (TPS) through July ۲۰۲۹, with a vetting process. The US supreme court in June allowed the Trump administration to strip such protections, including from Afghans.
Such legislation would “keep people we already vetted and brought here from being sent back to the Taliban while their cases are decided”, VanDiver said.
Among the passengers reported to be on the blocked flight were Afghans whose relatives helped American troops, women, at least one gay man and members of the minority ethnic Hazara group – some who have said they were previously beaten by the Taliban.
Human Rights First, the US-based human rights group, has warned about “grave, systematic dangers” for Afghans returned to Afghanistan. That includes “arbitrary detentions, executions, public flogging, and retaliatory violence”, as well as restrictions on basic freedoms for women and girls.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said in response to questions and a request for comment that the agency complies with all lawful court orders and that US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) does not comment on or confirm prospective removal operations, for operational security reasons, and the safety of its officers.
Sari Arvey, director of policy, refugee and immigrant rights at Human Rights First, said that the Trump administration’s targeting of Afghans reflects a broader trend of creating arrangements with other governments to send people back to war zones, security crises and countries that don’t have diplomatic relations with the US.
The US suspended relations with Afghanistan after the Taliban government took over in ۲۰۲۱, forcing a scrambled US evacuation.
The Trump administration has held secret talks with Iran about deporting Iranians via a third country, and last Sunday an attorney reported that the US deportation flight of Iranian nationals headed to Iran via Pakistan was abruptly canceled, according to the AP.
The Trump administration also is increasingly deporting immigrants to such “third countries”. The supreme court is still litigating in what circumstances the federal government can deport people to regions they have no connection to, though in late September, the court ruled on an emergency basis, allowing Trump to continue this practice.
Federal law is designed to prevent the US government from forcing someone to return to a country where they are likely to face torture.
The DHS said in a statement that immigrants sent to a third country “receive notice and an opportunity to challenge their removal unless the Department of State is given diplomatic assurances from destination countries” that they would be safe upon return.
More than ۶۰ concerned lawmakers in Congress signed a letter to the DHS and the state department, citing relevant law and also calling for the cancellation of any deportation flights of Afghans or Iranians to their home countries, either directly or through any other country. “The United States is also bound not to return anyone to a country where they would face torture, and that obligation does not disappear because a flight makes a stop along the way,” the letter stated.
In another letter, New York congressman Gregory Meeks and US senator Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, both Democrats, wrote to Pakistan’s ambassador to the US, urging the Pakistani government not to collaborate in any operation to fly Afghans to Pakistan and then expel them over the border to Afghanistan. The Pakistani embassy did not respond to a request for comment.
The Afghans targeted are believed to have final removal orders, which means the US can legally deport them. But the fact that an immigrant failed to get asylum or prove to the Trump administration that they have a credible fear about returning to their home country does not mean they don’t face serious risks in their native country, critics argue.
The US state department advises Americans: “Do not travel to Afghanistan for any reason,” warning of “civil unrest, crime, terrorism, risk of wrongful detention, kidnapping, natural disasters, and limited health facilities”. The risks for returning Afghans are seen as much greater.
“We are talking about people who’ve already been tortured, people who came with evidence – some of the most compelling claims – and the idea that they could find themselves on this flight is pretty horrifying,” said Sarah Mehta, deputy director of immigration policy at the ACLU. “Why would we send Iranians to a war zone or Afghans to one of the most repressive regimes in the world knowing, indeed, that they are going to be targeted because of the very vulnerabilities that led them to flee in the first place?”
One Afghan national expected to be on any deportation flight, who has been detained in ICE custody since late ۲۰۲۴, fears returning because his wife is a former member of Afghanistan’s military before the Taliban took over, according to court documents. He is also part of the Hazara Shia group and said he has previously been severely beaten by the Taliban while they searched for his wife.
Shaw Drake, assistant professor of law at the University of New Mexico School of Law and co-counsel for the man, said the immigration judge’s not being swayed by these risk factors was “absolutely absurd”. Drake argues that his client had no notice or opportunity to present a claim of fear of persecution or torture in Pakistan.
The man’s mental health deteriorated when he was transferred to detention in El Paso, Texas, so much so that a federal court in New Mexico issued a stay for ۱۴ days to ensure the government had enacted safeguards to protect him from the risk of suicide.
Another Afghan who could be put on a flight is a Hazara man who testified to immigration officials that he worried about being killed by the Taliban because he reported them to the police when they killed his father, according to US government documents. He said that a few years ago, he was captured, detained, tortured and threatened with death by the Taliban, whose members electrocuted him and beat him with sticks. US federal asylum officers acknowledged the detainee’s testimony but concluded there was insufficient evidence to show the Taliban would inflict severe mental or physical harm towards him if he were sent back.
Madhavi Narayanan, a lawyer at Human Rights First, who represents him, said: “It’s another confirmation that our immigration system is not equipped to help those who are fleeing persecution and genuinely seeking safety.”
