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The first flight could leave as early as November 2, with detainees being transferred to Pakistan before being sent across the border into Afghanistan.
The planned operation could mark one of the largest single deportations of Afghans from the US.
The Donald Trump administration is preparing to deport more than 150 Afghan immigrants detained across the United States by routing their removal through Pakistan, even as some of them could face persecution under Taliban rule, The New York Times reported.
The group includes relatives of people who worked with the US military and at least one gay man, who could face severe punishment if sent back to Afghanistan. The first flight could leave as early as November 2, with detainees being transferred to Pakistan before being sent across the border into Afghanistan, three US officials told the newspaper.
The planned operation could mark one of the largest single deportations of Afghans from the US. The Trump administration has not publicly announced the operation. However, officials told The New York Times that the deportations were effectively intended to send the detainees back to Afghanistan. Some immigrants have also been informed by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) that they are being sent there.
How US Deportation Plan Would Work
The route through Pakistan offers the US administration a way around the difficulty of deporting Afghans directly to their home country. Washington does not have diplomatic relations with the Taliban government and cannot arrange removals through normal diplomatic channels.
Some Afghans in the US have also secured legal protections from American courts on the grounds that they could face persecution if returned to Afghanistan.
According to the newspaper, detainees have been moved from immigration facilities across the US to detention centres in Louisiana in recent days. At least one Afghan immigrant has been named on the passenger list for a specially chartered flight scheduled to leave Alexandria, Louisiana, during the first week of November, court documents show.
Gay Afghan Man Fears Return To Taliban Rule
Among those facing deportation is Mohammad, a 47-year-old Afghan immigrant who has spent most of his life in the US. He told The New York Times that he was detained by federal agents last year while charging his electric car. He was initially held in Oklahoma before being transferred to a prison in Louisiana last week.
Mohammad said his family fled Afghanistan in 1981, when he was two, following the Soviet invasion. He grew up in the US but lost his permanent residency after two felony convictions in 2003 involving robbery and making threats against a school, according to government documents.
He spent around three years in prison and later rebuilt his life while regularly reporting to immigration authorities. He also said he had come to accept his sexuality and married an American man in 2020.
A return to Afghanistan could put his life at risk, as homosexuality is severely punished under Taliban rule.
Another Afghan man facing removal told a US court that the Taliban had arrested and tortured him in 2023 because of his wife’s association with Afghanistan’s previous government. She had served in the Afghan army and the women’s police force, both of which were targeted for retaliation after the Taliban returned to power.
The man entered the US illegally in 2024 and has remained in ICE custody since his arrest. His asylum application was rejected by a US judge, according to court documents shared with the newspaper by his lawyer.
Delhi, India, India
October 31, 2026, 11:52 IST
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