Afghan Deportation Flight to Pakistan Could Leave Monday

A deportation flight carrying Afghans from Louisiana to Pakistan could leave as soon as Monday. The route lets the government send people toward Taliban-run Afghanistan without a direct removal agreement with Kabul.

The Trump administration is preparing an Afghan deportation flight that would carry detained Afghan nationals from Louisiana to Pakistan, with onward transfer to Afghanistan, according to Reuters, ABC News and The Independent. The New York Times reported that more than 150 Afghans are expected to be removed, Reuters said, describing it as one of the largest single expulsions of Afghans. The Department of Homeland Security has declined to confirm the operation, citing operational security.

The flight matters now for two reasons. It would be the first large-scale test of whether the United States can send Afghans home despite having no diplomatic relations with the Taliban, and it arrives more than a year after Afghanistan lost its Temporary Protected Status designation, the program that had shielded thousands of Afghans from removal.

Why the Afghan deportation flight goes through Pakistan

A U.S. official told Reuters that removals would be routed through Pakistan because Washington cannot arrange deportations to Afghanistan directly. ABC News said it reviewed a court filing in one detainee’s case listing Pakistan as the flight’s destination, “with further transport to Afghanistan.”

Accounts of the flight’s size differ. ABC News described “dozens” of Afghans expected to be deported early next week, while the Times figure cited by Reuters is above 150. The Independent noted that the administration has not publicly announced the flight, and that its outline comes from unnamed officials, court filings, lawyers and advocacy groups. Pakistan offers deportees little prospect of staying: Reuters noted it has expelled more than 2 million Afghans to Afghanistan since 2023.

The legal ground under these removals

Only Afghans with a final order of removal can be put on the plane; parole, asylum or a pending green card case blocks removal while it lasts. Temporary Protected Status was the broadest shield, and it is gone. DHS ended Afghanistan’s designation effective July 14, 2025. Its Federal Register notice estimated that about 11,700 Afghans held TPS and that roughly 3,600 of them had already been approved as permanent residents as of April 7, 2025. Based on those DHS figures, about 8,100 Afghan TPS holders had no green card when the program ended, though some may hold parole, pending asylum cases or other protection. The notice cited improved security and economic conditions and called keeping Afghans here “contrary to the national interest.” Afghanistan is now one of many countries in the administration’s wave of TPS terminations.

The Pakistan routing also touches a separate question about protection. Withholding of removal and protection under the Convention Against Torture apply to a specific country. They bar return to the place where a person would face persecution or torture, but not removal to somewhere else. In June 2025 the Supreme Court allowed DHS to resume third-country removals while litigation over required notice continues. A flight that lands in Pakistan but is understood to end in Afghanistan will invite the argument that it is a return to Afghanistan in practice. Lawyers for individual detainees are likely to press that point in emergency stay motions.

It is also important to note that relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan are at their lowest point in years. Border skirmishes between the two countries have become frequent, and cross-border trade has come to a halt. In this climate, there is no realistic prospect that Afghanistan will accept these deportees from Pakistan. Pakistan has also accused the Taliban of arming militants in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), an allegation the Taliban denies.

Pakistan is also in internal turmoil. The popular Chief Minister of KP was recently arrested, and Governor’s Rule has been imposed in the province. The country is under a de facto military rule led by the Chief of Army Staff, General Asim Munir. There is an elected Government but they are controlled by the military. Recently the constitution was amended giving unfettered power to General Asim Munir.

Against this backdrop, this deportation appears possible only because of the Trump administration’s close relationship with Pakistan’s military leadership. President Trump has publicly called General Munir his favorite general. The result is that these individuals are being sent to a country in open conflict with Afghanistan. It is reasonable to expect that they will not receive fair or humane treatment there. Removal to a country hostile to the deportees’ own nation should, in itself, be sufficient grounds for a stay.

Who is speaking for and against the flight

Advocates say the passenger list includes relatives of Afghans who served alongside U.S. forces. Shawn VanDiver, who leads the veterans’ group AfghanEvac, told Reuters that some are “brothers and sons of men who served alongside US forces.” Rep. Scott Peters, a California Democrat, said in a statement quoted by ABC News that Afghans are “being quietly loaded onto a plane to Pakistan.”

The government’s public position is procedural. A DHS spokesperson told The Independent that ICE does not comment on prospective removal operations, including destinations or individual cases. A State Department spokesperson repeated that all countries “must be able to manage their borders and immigration processes” to protect their citizens.

For Afghans who are not detained, the practical effect is that a removal route to Afghanistan now exists. Anyone whose TPS ended without another status, or whose parole has lapsed, has new reason to check whether an asylum application, a pending Special Immigrant Visa case or a re-parole request is still active. Refugees face separate pressure from the green card hold now being challenged in court.

What to watch

Departure: Reuters, citing the Times, reported the first flight could leave as soon as Monday, Nov. 2.
Emergency stays: Watch for federal court or BIA orders pulling individual detainees off the manifest.
Pakistan’s role: Watch whether Islamabad publicly confirms it will accept U.S. deportees and how quickly it moves them on to Afghanistan.
Congress: AfghanEvac’s VanDiver told Reuters he wants Congress to grant Afghans protected status by statute.

This article is for general information and is not legal advice.

Sources

Vasanth Vaidyanathan, Esq.

Administrator

Vasanth Vaidyanathan is an immigration attorney with over 20 years of experience focused exclusively on U.S. immigration and nationality law. He holds an LL.M. from California Western School of Law, San Diego and advises individuals and businesses on employment and family-based immigration matters, including H-1B, PERM, EB categories, and adjustment of status. He has also been a featured speaker at immigration seminars across the U.S. To reach Vasanth visit: https://www.vnathan.com/

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