Afghan Deportations via Pakistan: ICE Filing, Taliban Reply

Afghan deportations through Pakistan are no longer just a plan described by unnamed officials. A senior ICE official has acknowledged in a sworn federal court filing that an Afghan immigrant was booked on a charter from Alexandria, Louisiana, to Pakistan “with further transport onward to Afghanistan,” the Associated Press reported, and on Monday the Taliban’s foreign ministry responded by calling for direct coordination with Kabul. The people most exposed are Afghans with final removal orders, including former Temporary Protected Status holders, whose cases could now turn on a single question: where the flight really ends.

That question is legal, not logistical. Protection under U.S. removal law is tied to a specific country, so an admission that Pakistan is a waypoint and Afghanistan the destination reshapes the emergency stay arguments lawyers can make this week. The planned Afghan deportation flight first surfaced on Oct. 30 through press accounts and advocates; the new filings put the government’s own words on the record.

What the court filings say about Afghan deportations

According to the AP, which obtained sealed court documents, the ICE declaration was filed Friday, Oct. 30, in federal court in Virginia, in the case of an Afghan immigrant who is not in custody and is challenging his removal. In a separate federal case in Oklahoma, prosecutors filed a document on Monday, Oct. 26, saying another Afghan was scheduled to be deported to Afghanistan “sometime next week,” the AP reported.

Timing is unsettled. The AP said the first flights could leave Louisiana as early as Monday, while Human Rights First told the AP on Saturday that it had confirmed a flight to Pakistan scheduled for Tuesday. The New York Times has reported that more than 150 Afghans are expected to be removed; the government has not confirmed that figure. A DHS spokesperson told the AP that ICE does not comment on future removal operations, citing operational security. The AP added that it was not clear whether any of the Afghans designated for return hold protective orders against being sent to Afghanistan, and that gap is the heart of the matter.

Why the route through Pakistan matters in court

Withholding of removal under the Immigration and Nationality Act, and protection under the Convention Against Torture, bar return to the country where a person faces persecution or torture. They do not bar removal to a different country. An Afghan whose removal order names Afghanistan and who has no country-specific protection can be flown through any transit point, and the stop in Pakistan is simply logistics. An Afghan who won withholding or CAT protection as to Afghanistan cannot lawfully be sent there, by any route.

The ICE declaration makes it harder to call Pakistan a genuine third-country removal for anyone in the second group. A sworn statement that transport continues “onward to Afghanistan” is evidence a judge can weigh in deciding whether a transfer is, in practice, a return to the protected-against country. The Supreme Court let third-country removals resume in June 2025 while litigation over notice continues, but that order did not authorize sending people where an immigration judge found they would be harmed.

Most Afghans at risk never had that protection. DHS ended Afghanistan’s TPS designation effective July 14, 2025; its Federal Register notice estimated that about 11,700 Afghans held TPS, about 3,600 of whom had been approved for permanent residence as of April 7, 2025. Some of the rest have parole or pending asylum or Special Immigrant Visa cases, which block removal while they last, and Afghanistan sits within a wider wave of TPS terminations.

Kabul asks for a seat at the table

The Taliban’s response, reported Monday by Reuters and by the German news agency DPA, was neither a refusal nor an acceptance. DPA said foreign ministry spokesman Abdul Qahar Balkhi expressed “serious concern” and called for a “clear bilateral understanding” and “necessary coordination.” Reuters quoted the ministry as saying the Afghan side was prepared to “engage constructively,” while warning that “third countries should not treat the citizens of another country as a matter of bargaining,” an apparent reference to Pakistan’s role.

That position has practical weight. A removal only works if the receiving country lets the person in, and the United States has no diplomatic relations with the Taliban. A Kabul that wants direct talks has leverage over whether deportees move on from Pakistan, where, Reuters has reported, authorities have expelled more than 2 million Afghans since 2023. The open question is whether the Pakistan route becomes a lasting channel or pushes Washington into some contact with the Taliban.

Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, a New Hampshire Democrat, wrote on X that the administration plans to deport “hundreds of Afghans, including women, children and those who supported U.S. forces,” according to the AP.

The next signals will come from individual stay requests in federal court and at the Board of Immigration Appeals, which will show how many passengers have country-specific protection. Afghans who are not detained but lack status have reason to confirm that any asylum, SIV or re-parole request is still pending. A recent order to return a man deported to the Central African Republic shows courts will scrutinize unexpected destinations, though often after the plane has landed.

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

Sources

Vasanth Vaidyanathan, Esq.

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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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