The Trump administration is preparing to deport dozens of Afghan immigrants and asylum seekers to Pakistan in what would mark the first charter flight of its kind, according to a senior administration official. The unannounced operation could proceed as early as Monday, rights advocates and family members of detainees warn, raising urgent concerns that the deportees could face severe retaliation if Pakistan subsequently returns them to Taliban-ruled Afghanistan.
The impending removal represents a major escalation in President Donald Trump’s immigration enforcement efforts. After returning to office last year, Trump halted admissions for refugees, including thousands of Afghans who fled their homeland following the chaotic U.S. withdrawal in 2021. The administration has since deported thousands of individuals to third countries rather than their homelands, a practice immigration attorneys argue is designed to bypass international legal protections for asylum seekers. The legality of these third-country agreements is scheduled for review by the U.S. Supreme Court in December.
While the exact terms of any formal agreement between Washington and Islamabad remain unclear, the senior administration official stated that the charter flight cannot land in Pakistan without the host government’s knowledge and approval. The deportation plan was initially reported by and , citing federal and administration sources.
Ahead of the planned flight, advocacy groups report a sweeping consolidation of detainees. Shawn VanDiver, president of the San Diego-based organization AfghanEvac, said at least 80 Afghans have been transferred in recent days to Louisiana from 34 immigration detention facilities nationwide, with 19 of those moved lacking legal representation. Many are being held at the Central Louisiana ICE Processing Center, which has served as a logistical hub for deportations.
Pakistan, which has hosted millions of Afghan refugees for decades, launched a sweeping crackdown in 2023 that led to the forced deportation and voluntary departure of hundreds of thousands of Afghans. Observers note that deportees arriving in Pakistan face a high probability of being pushed back across the border into an Afghanistan gripped by severe malnutrition, ongoing military conflict with Pakistan, and oppressive restrictions on women.
VanDiver asserted that U.S. officials are well aware of the dangers awaiting the deportees. “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,” he said, adding that the Taliban views anyone arriving from the United States with intense suspicion regardless of whether they aided the American military.
The senior administration official acknowledged that the White House has largely dismissed these concerns, stating anonymously due to a lack of authorization to speak publicly: “The administration’s position is, ‘These individuals do not have status in our country, therefore we don’t really care what happens to them.'” When asked if the administration weighed the potential long-term national security consequences of abandoning wartime allies, the official responded, “I don’t think they care.”
Federal agencies offered limited comment on the operation. The White House directed inquiries to the Department of Homeland Security, where a spokesperson cited operational security in declining to confirm removal operations. Immigration and Customs Enforcement did not respond to requests for comment, while a State Department spokesperson stated the agency had “no plans to announce” and reiterated that nations must manage their borders to ensure citizen security. Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and its Washington embassy also did not respond.
The targeted individuals include people facing final deportation orders, individuals denied asylum, and those whose Temporary Protected Status was revoked by the administration. VanDiver noted that many crossed into the U.S. from Mexico and have asylum claims still pending.
The human toll of the widening crackdown is acutely felt by families split apart by the detention system. Charlotte, a U.S. citizen whose Afghan husband has been detained since early 2025, described the sudden relocation of her partner from Pennsylvania to Louisiana this month and the warning that he could be deported in early November. Her husband, whose asylum case has been pending for nine years, was detained after a minor traffic stop in West Virginia while visiting family last year.
“When he was pulled over, the sheriff actually said, ‘I’m an ICE agent. You’re going to immigration custody. I don’t care if the charges are dismissed, or I don’t care if you have a five-year work permit or Social Security card. I don’t care if you’re legal. Trump’s administration just took over — you’re going directly to immigration custody,'” Charlotte recalled. To remain within visiting distance while he was held in Pennsylvania, she sold their Illinois home and relocated with their six-year-old son, enduring 20 months of visits separated by plexiglass.
Now that her husband has been transferred over 1,200 miles away to Louisiana, personal visits are impossible. With the threat of deportation to Pakistan or Afghanistan—where he has not lived since 2016—she fears for his safety and notes that he is already growing a beard to conform to strict Taliban grooming mandates. “I’m just terrified that he’s not going to be safe, or he’s going to be held in the jail and there’s nothing I can do,” she said.
The administration’s aggressive posture follows a deadly shooting in Washington last year that killed a National Guard member and injured another, perpetrated by an Afghan national who had been evacuated in 2021 and later granted asylum by the Trump administration. That incident prompted an immediate tightening of immigration controls.
Advocates suggest the Pakistan flight may also serve as a test case for handling individuals stranded at overseas facilities, such as Camp As Sayliyah in Qatar. More than 1,000 vetted Afghans slated for U.S. resettlement—including relatives of U.S. service members—have remained stranded there since Trump took office. The State Department extended the deadline for vacating the camp to late September, and reports indicate a further nine-month delay.
In a statement issued ahead of the midterms, AfghanEvac criticized the timing of the deportation flight. “The government won’t say where these flights land, because it knows what happens to the people on them when they do,” the group said. “A government confident in what it is doing does not hide it.”
