66 US Lawmakers Urge Trump Administration to Halt Planned Deportation of Afghans

A group of 66 lawmakers in the United States has written to the administration of President Donald Trump asking it to halt a planned mass deportation of Afghans, including some who worked alongside coalition forces in Afghanistan before the military withdrawal in 2021.

In Monday's letter, the lawmakers cited advocacy group reports that at least 150 Afghans were scheduled to be deported from Tuesday — flown from detention facilities in Louisiana to Pakistan, and on to Afghanistan.

The Associated Press news agency also reported that Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officials had said in court filings that they eventually planned on returning some of the Afghans to their home country.

The United States does not have diplomatic relations with Afghanistan, which has been governed by the Taliban since US troops withdrew in August 2021.

In the letter, addressed to Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin, the lawmakers wrote: 'Sending dozens of people back to one of the most dangerous countries on earth, and where they are likely to be targeted for their or their family's suspected support of the US government or criticism of the Taliban, is a death sentence.'

The letter continued: 'Our country made a promise never to abandon the Afghans who sacrificed their own and their family's safety to stand with American service members.'

As part of its crackdown on immigration, the Trump administration has made agreements with at least 35 countries to take in third-country nationals, in many cases because it cannot send them back to their home countries for fear they would be tortured, killed or otherwise persecuted.

Critics of the practice say it undermines decades of global humanitarian norms around asylum seeker and refugee protection. They say deportees often end up in countries with a record of human rights abuses, or places so dangerous that the US tells its own citizens not to travel there.

The Trump administration has forcibly sent at least 25,000 people to third countries, according to a tally by the nonprofits Refugees International and Human Rights First. Human Rights First said it has confirmed that a flight carrying some of the Afghans from Alexandria, Louisiana, to Pakistan is scheduled for Tuesday.

Rights advocates say the batch of deportations to Pakistan may also include Iranians, small numbers of whom the Trump administration has previously sent to third countries to eventually be returned to Iran. Pakistan has deported millions of Afghans to Afghanistan in recent years, as relations with the Taliban have deteriorated.

Shawn VanDiver, founder and president of the AfghanEvac advocacy group, said most of the Afghans scheduled for deportation did not have the opportunity to properly fight their removal in court. 'They were placed into removal proceedings because they didn't have attorneys to fight,' he said.

VanDiver said he spoke on Monday to a former police officer in the Afghan government toppled by the Taliban, who expected to be deported and feared for his life if he ended up back in Afghanistan. Others, VanDiver said, had also either worked in the Afghan government or with the US, or had family that did so, and would be in danger in Afghanistan.

More than 120,000 Afghans were evacuated from Afghanistan in 2021 after the chaotic withdrawal of US forces. Some ended up in facilities abroad, such as in Qatar; this September, the US granted a nine-month extension for Camp As Sayliyah, a facility in Qatar housing more than 1,000 Afghans who assisted US forces.

Afghans evacuated to the US were initially granted humanitarian parole, allowing them to stay in the country. In 2022, the Biden administration granted them Temporary Protected Status for 18 months, allowing them to live and work legally while their immigration status was resolved. But since then, few have been able to move their applications for asylum or other special protection through the 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.

Trump ordered a halt to processing applications from Afghans after a man from Afghanistan allegedly shot two National Guardsmen in Washington, DC, in November 2025, and the administration also included Afghan nationals in a blanket visa ban earlier this year; both policies were challenged in court. Advocates have been pushing for new legislation to protect Afghans, including a bill co-sponsored by both Republican and Democratic lawmakers that would grant many of them Temporary Protected Status after the Trump administration withdrew it.