What is planned
The administration is readying a removal flight that would carry a group of Afghans from the United States to Pakistan, according to a senior administration official who spoke to NBC News. The official described it as the first flight of its kind. Bloomberg and The New York Times had earlier reported on the plan, with the Times citing three U.S. officials.
The flight has not been announced. Rights advocates and relatives of detainees told NBC News it could depart as early as Monday. The official said those aboard could include people with removal orders, people whose asylum requests were denied, and people whose temporary protected status was ended by the administration.
The terms of any arrangement with Islamabad are unclear. The official said, however, that a U.S. charter could not land in Pakistan without the government's knowledge and approval. Pakistan's Foreign Ministry and its embassy in Washington did not respond to requests for comment.
Detainees moved to Louisiana
Shawn VanDiver, president of the San Diego-based group AfghanEvac, said the organization had confirmed that at least 80 Afghans were recently moved to Louisiana from 34 other ICE facilities. Nineteen of them have no lawyer, he said. He added that hundreds of Afghans might be held at the Central Louisiana ICE Processing Center, which has been used as a staging point for people about to be removed.
VanDiver said many of those facing removal asked for asylum after entering from Mexico, and that some of their cases remain undecided. Relatives of Afghans who assisted the U.S. military during its 20-year war against the Taliban are among those at risk of removal, according to advocates and families cited by NBC News.
Risks after arrival
Pakistan hosted millions of Afghan refugees for decades but began a broad crackdown in 2023. It pressed hundreds of thousands to leave and forcibly expelled others. Advocates therefore expect that Afghans deported there would not stay long before being sent across the border.
Afghanistan, now run by the Taliban, faces widespread malnutrition and other humanitarian crises. It is also in an ongoing military conflict with Pakistan, and the Taliban have sharply curtailed women's rights. VanDiver said the Taliban would view any Afghan flown from the U.S. with suspicion, whether or not the person worked with American forces, and that such returnees risk persecution, imprisonment or worse.
VanDiver said, “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.”
What officials and families are saying
The senior official, who spoke anonymously because they were not authorized to talk to the press, said the fate of the deportees is not a significant worry for the White House. “The administration’s position is, ‘These individuals do not have status in our country, therefore we don’t really care what happens to them,’” the official said. Asked whether the administration was concerned that such treatment could discourage future foreign partners from helping U.S. forces, the official said, “I don’t think they care.”
The White House directed questions to the Department of Homeland Security. A spokesperson said the agency could not confirm removal operations “for operational security reasons.” ICE did not respond. A State Department spokesperson said the agency had “no plans to announce.”
Charlotte, a U.S. citizen who asked that her full name be withheld, said her Afghan husband has been in ICE custody since early 2025 and was recently transferred from Pennsylvania to Louisiana. She said he was told he would be deported in early November. His asylum case has been pending for nine years, she said, and he has not been in Afghanistan since 2016. She said he is growing his beard to comply with Taliban rules. “I’m just terrified that he’s not going to be safe,” she said.
Legal and political backdrop
Afghans fleeing war and instability have long been welcomed in the U.S., including tens of thousands who left after the chaotic 2021 withdrawal of American-led forces. President Donald Trump stopped admissions of Afghans and other refugees after returning to office last year. His administration has deported thousands of people to countries other than their own, many in Africa. Immigration lawyers say this is meant to avoid legal bans on returning asylum-seekers to places they fled.
The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear arguments in December on whether such third-country agreements are lawful. The flight preparations also come nearly a year after a Washington shooting that killed one National Guard member and seriously wounded another. NBC News reported that the suspect was an Afghan national who served with U.S. troops, was evacuated in 2021, and had been granted asylum by the Trump administration.
