66 U.S. Lawmakers Call on Trump Administration to Halt Afghan Deportations

A bipartisan group of 66 U.S. lawmakers has sent a letter to the Trump administration urging it to stop a planned mass deportation of Afghans, including former Afghan staff who supported U.S. coalition forces before the 2021 military withdrawal.

In the letter dated Monday, the legislators cited advocacy‑group reports that at least 150 Afghans were scheduled for removal beginning Tuesday, with flights from a Louisiana detention facility bound for Pakistan.

Third-country deportations

As part of its broader immigration crackdown, the Trump administration has entered agreements with at least 35 countries to accept third‑country nationals, often because the United States cannot return them to their home nations due to concerns about torture, death, or persecution.

Critics argue that these arrangements erode decades‑old humanitarian norms governing asylum seekers and refugees, noting that deportees frequently end up in nations with poor human‑rights records or environments so hazardous that the U.S. warns its own citizens against travel.

According to a tally by the nonprofits Refugees International and Human Rights First, the administration has already forced at least 25,000 people into third‑country resettlement.

Human Rights First confirmed that a flight carrying some of the Afghans from Alexandria, Louisiana, to Pakistan was set to depart on Tuesday.

Advocacy groups also reported that the deportation batch to Pakistan may include a small number of Iranians, whom the administration has previously sent to third countries with the intention of eventually returning them to Iran despite the ongoing U.S. conflict there.

Pakistan has deported millions of Afghans to Afghanistan in recent years as its relationship with the Taliban has deteriorated.

Afghans in U.S. left in limbo

Most of the Afghans slated for deportation were denied the opportunity to mount an effective legal challenge, said Shawn VanDiver, founder and president of the AfghanEvac advocacy group.

“They were placed into removal proceedings because they didn’t have attorneys to fight,” he explained.

VanDiver said he spoke on Monday with a former Afghan police officer who expected deportation and feared for his life if returned to Afghanistan. Others, he added, had either served in the Afghan government or worked with U.S. forces, or had family members who did, putting them at risk.

Since taking office, President Trump has sought to end resettlement programs for Afghans established under former President Joe Biden. Over 120,000 Afghans were evacuated from Afghanistan in 2021 following the chaotic U.S. troop withdrawal.

Some evacuees were placed in facilities abroad, such as Camp As Sayliyah in Qatar, which houses more than 1,000 Afghans who assisted U.S. forces. In September, the United States granted a nine‑month extension for that camp.

Afghans initially admitted to the U.S. were given humanitarian parole, allowing them to remain in the country. In 2022, the Biden administration granted them Temporary Protected Status for 18 months, enabling them to live and work legally while their immigration cases were processed.

However, few have been able to advance their asylum or special protected‑status applications through a severely backlogged immigration system.

“These people are in dire straits; they have been stuck in this limbo for five years, waiting for permanency, waiting for green cards, waiting to hear about their status,” VanDiver said.

The Trump administration has set record‑low quotas for global asylum applications, yet made an exception for white Afrikaners from South Africa, granting them sanctuary after alleging racial discrimination.

Trump ordered a halt to Afghan application processing in November 2025 following an alleged shooting by an Afghan national of two National Guardsmen in Washington, D.C. The administration also placed Afghan nationals under a blanket visa ban earlier this year, stating it would review all immigration petitions from citizens of that country. Both policies have been challenged in court.

VanDiver and other advocates are pushing for new legislation that would provide protection for Afghans in the U.S., including a bipartisan bill aimed at restoring Temporary Protected Status after the Trump administration withdrew it.

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