Key facts
- More than 150 Afghans are in the group the government intended to remove, the New York Times reported.
- The AP previously reported the federal government intends to route the detainees home via Pakistan.
- DHS said the agency complies with all lawful court orders and that ICE does not confirm prospective removal operations.
- More than 60 lawmakers signed a letter to DHS and the State Department seeking cancellation of deportation flights of Afghans or Iranians.
- Representative Gregory Meeks and Senator Jeanne Shaheen urged Pakistan's ambassador not to collaborate in any such operation.
- #AfghanEvac is pushing a drafted bipartisan bill granting temporary protected status through July 2029.
The Trump administration appeared to put on hold plans to deport a group of more than 150 detained Afghans, after at least one man on the original flight manifest no longer had a specified departure date issued by the US government as of late Tuesday, November 10, 2026. A flight scheduled to leave on election day earlier in November stayed grounded after a federal judge issued a court order temporarily blocking departure to Afghanistan or neighboring Pakistan.
When the temporary order expired, immigration advocates feared the detainees could be removed during the week of November 16, based on a rescheduled removal date given for at least one Afghan man in ICE detention. Some immigration lawyers also reported their Afghan clients had been moved from staging facilities to long-term detention facilities.
Shawn VanDiver, founder and president of the nonprofit coalition #AfghanEvac, said "fragile relief" had descended on those involved. "In a matter of days, these allies were told they were being sent through Pakistan into the hands of the Taliban, then told they were safe, then told that nobody knows," he said. "That isn't immigration policy. It's whiplash inflicted on people who already survived a war."
The Department of Homeland Security said the agency complies with all lawful court orders and that ICE does not comment on or confirm prospective removal operations for operational security and officer safety. Human Rights First warned of "grave, systematic dangers" for Afghans returned to Afghanistan, citing arbitrary detentions, executions, public flogging and retaliatory violence.
More than 60 lawmakers signed a letter to DHS and the State Department calling for cancellation of deportation flights of Afghans or Iranians to their home countries, directly or via another country. Representative Gregory Meeks and Senator Jeanne Shaheen wrote to Pakistan's ambassador urging the government not to collaborate in any operation to fly Afghans to Pakistan and then expel them over the border. The Pakistani embassy did not respond to a request for comment.
#AfghanEvac is pressing the incoming Democratic-controlled Congress to pass a drafted bipartisan bill granting Afghans already in the US temporary protected status through July 2029 with a vetting process. The Supreme Court in June allowed the administration to strip such protections, including from Afghans.