U.S. Prepares Charter Flight to Send Afghan Detainees to Pakistan

The U.S. government is preparing to fly dozens of Afghan immigrants and asylum seekers to Pakistan on a charter flight that could depart as early as Monday. A senior administration official told NBC News that the move has not yet been publicly announced, though rights advocates and families of detainees say they have been briefed on the timeline.

The flight represents a new destination for the Trump administration, which has previously deported thousands of people to African nations to bypass international laws against returning asylum seekers to their home countries. The legality of these third-country deportation agreements is scheduled for review by the Supreme Court in December. It is unclear what formal agreement exists between the U.S. and Pakistan, but the official stated the U.S. charter could not land without the Pakistani government's knowledge and approval.

Shawn VanDiver, president of the advocacy group AfghanEvac, confirmed that at least 80 Afghans were moved to Louisiana from 34 other ICE facilities in recent days. Nineteen of these individuals arrived without legal representation. VanDiver said it is possible that hundreds of Afghans are now housed at the Central Louisiana ICE Processing Center, a known hub for pre-deportation detainees.

Afghans facing deportation include relatives of those who worked with the U.S. military during its 20-year war in Afghanistan, as well as individuals whose temporary protected status was terminated or whose asylum claims were denied. Many of the detainees originally entered the U.S. from Mexico and have pending asylum cases. The administration’s position, according to the senior official, is that these individuals lack status in the U.S. and therefore the government does not prioritize their future status in Pakistan.

Critics warn that Pakistan is likely to return these individuals to Afghanistan, where the Taliban has held power since 2021. Pakistan launched a sweeping crackdown in 2023, pressuring hundreds of thousands of Afghan refugees to leave and forcibly deporting others. They are currently arriving in a country facing widespread malnutrition, an ongoing military conflict with Pakistan, and strict policies that have rolled back women's rights.

Charlotte, a U.S. citizen whose Afghan husband has been in ICE detention since early 2025, said her spouse was moved from Pennsylvania to Louisiana this month. She learned he would be deported in early November. Charlotte, who declined to use her full name to protect her husband from Taliban scrutiny, said she sold their Illinois home and moved to Maryland to visit him at a processing center about 100 miles away.

For 20 months, Charlotte and their six-year-old son visited their father through plexiglass partitions. "They never let him hug him one time," Charlotte said. "We just sat there and cried every time." Now that her husband is over 1,200 miles away in Louisiana, she cannot visit him. He has been growing his beard to comply with Taliban rules for men's facial hair.

Charlotte believes her husband was targeted for deportation due to a resolved nonviolent criminal conviction. "I'm just terrified that he's not going to be safe," she said. "He's completely devastated and traumatized," she added regarding their son, who wants to protest and speak directly to President Trump.

The preparations follow a shooting in Washington that killed one National Guard member and injured another, an incident that led to tightened immigration restrictions. The suspect was an Afghan national who had been granted asylum. VanDiver said the Pakistan flight may serve as a test case for Camp As Sayliyah in Qatar, where more than 1,000 Afghans have been stranded since last year.

AfghanEvac stated in a Friday release that the administration is planning the flight while the country is distracted by next week's midterm election. "The government won't say where these flights land, because it knows what happens to the people on them when they do," VanDiver said. The State Department and Department of Homeland Security declined to confirm the removal operations for operational security reasons, while Pakistan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not respond to requests for comment.