The Trump administration is reportedly preparing to put more than 150 Afghans on a flight to Pakistan, where they would then be transferred across the border into Taliban-ruled Afghanistan. AfghanEvac, a coalition advocating for Afghan allies, says some of those facing removal are the brothers and sons of men who served alongside U.S. forces. The first flight could leave as early as Monday, just one day before Election Day in the United States.
Because the United States cannot deport people directly to Afghanistan, it lacks official diplomatic relations with the Taliban regime; the plan routes them through Pakistan. Call it what it is: a deportation to the Taliban with a layover. Officials reportedly told The New York Times that the removal is, in effect, to Afghanistan, and detainees have been told the same. Pakistan’s role is to carry out the handoff.
What the layover adds is risk. Afghans would be moved through a third country and beyond any oversight, and placed in the hands of authorities who have no obligation to protect them. From there, they could be pushed across the border to a regime they fled and one that would seek to harm them. These are the people who escaped Taliban rule after August 15, 2021.
Pakistan is not safe for Afghans. Since 2023, the Pakistani government has expelled over 2.4 million Afghan refugees back to Afghanistan as relations with the Taliban have deteriorated. Earlier this year, Pakistani officials ordered law enforcement agencies nationwide to arrest Afghans without valid visas. This is part of a years-long campaign of forced returns that has sent millions of Afghans back to a country where many face homelessness and unemployment. Many of those Afghan refugees were born and raised in Pakistan.
The Taliban’s “amnesty” is empty words. It is not a guarantee of safety.
On its first day back in power in August 2021, the Taliban announced a general amnesty for Afghans who worked with Western-backed forces and the former republic government of Afghanistan. That promise was never kept. The United Nations has documented reports of extrajudicial killings, arbitrary detentions, and other abuses. The families of former U.S. partners have particular reason to fear for their safety.
The policy to return Afghans to Afghanistan also lends credibility to the Taliban.
When the United States sends people into Taliban-controlled Afghanistan, even through a middleman, it implies that returning is safe. It suggests that the United States is willing to rely on the assurances of a regime that has repeatedly broken its promises and violated fundamental rights. Deporting Afghans in this way serves the Taliban’s desire to be treated as a legitimate government and to establish normal relations with the Trump administration.
The Trump administration advanced a similar narrative last year in May, when it ended temporary protections for Afghans, claiming that “Afghanistan has had an improved security situation” despite clear evidence to the contrary.
Cooperating, even indirectly, with a regime that has barred half the population of Afghanistan – girls and women – from education and public life, and has violated every international and national law gains the United States nothing in return. It is neither smart nor logical. It would not serve the U.S. now or in the future. It adds to the humiliation of how the U.S. withdrew from Afghanistan and handed the country back to the Taliban, a terrorist group it fought for 20 years.
The United States gains nothing from this policy. It loses far more.
The cost of this policy lands on American credibility. The United States asked Afghans to translate, guard, drive, gather intelligence, cook, clean, implement the many projects, and fight beside its forces, and promised to stand by them. Abandoning those allies, or their families, breaks that promise and abandons its obligation to protect people who are in harm’s way because they supported the U.S. mission.
The damage goes beyond Afghanistan. Future partners in any other conflict will remember how the United States treated those who stood with it. This is not border security. These individuals have already undergone vetting. It does not make Americans safer. It uses federal resources to send people toward danger, and abandons those who trusted the United States.
63% of Americans do not want Afghans to be deported.
A bipartisan national poll by AfghanEvac and HIAS, designed and run by Lake Research Partners and The Tarrance Group, found that 84 percent of likely 2026 voters say America should keep its promise to Afghan wartime allies. By more than two to one, voters oppose deporting hundreds of Afghan refugees who assisted U.S. forces to third countries where they have no connection, and 63 percent oppose deporting Afghan allies to such countries. Seventy-six percent support restoring protection programs for Afghans whose resettlement cases were already approved. Support for admitting Afghan allies rises from 52 percent to 72 percent once voters learn who these partners are.
What you can do now:
Call your Member of Congress and your two senators. The Capitol switchboard is (202) 224-3121. Ask the operator to connect you with your Member’s office. Ask them to:
- Publicly oppose this deportation flight and press the administration to halt removals of Afghans from the U.S.
- Ask them to sign the discharge petition for the bipartisan Afghanistan TPS Act, which would protect Afghans already in the U.S.
- Keep the promises made to Afghans who stood with us.
A simple script: I’m a constituent. I’m calling to ask [Member’s name] to oppose deporting Afghans to the Taliban through Pakistan and to protect Afghans who are already in the United States. Keeping our word to our allies is not only the right thing to do, it’s also a smart thing to do. We must deliver on our promise.
The United States made a promise. For 20 years, Afghan allies delivered, risking their lives and putting their families in danger in support of the U.S. mission in Afghanistan. The American people continue to stand with the Afghans who are already in the U.S. They believe it’s the right thing to honor its commitments. Deporting Afghans is not a sound policy, does not advance U.S. interests, and will only undermine America’s credibility.
For more on Afghan deportation, follow AfghanEvac here and here.
Source: AfghanEvac; the New York Times; Amu TV; USCIS.