US District Judge Valerie Caproni issued the emergency order on Tuesday at the request of attorneys representing Afghan nationals who were set to be deported to Pakistan and then expelled into Afghanistan. Under the order, they cannot be removed to either country until at least Sunday, November 8.
Source: Washington Sun (AP reporting)
The ruling follows the plan reported earlier this week: more than 150 Afghans held in Louisiana were to be flown to Pakistan and then transported overland into Afghanistan, because the United States has no diplomatic relations with the Taliban government and cannot easily deport people directly to Kabul. An ICE officer's sworn court declaration had confirmed Pakistan would be the charter's destination. That plan is now on hold for the people covered by Judge Caproni's order. Read the earlier report on the Pakistan-route deportation plan
The lawsuit: a transfer between two warring parties
The order came a day after Project Rousseau, a New York City nonprofit providing immigrant legal services, sued the Trump administration, saying its Afghan clients' deportations could take place as early as Tuesday and that the clients would be in danger if sent back to Afghanistan either directly or via Pakistan. “Even if the removal from Pakistan to Taliban-controlled Afghanistan does happen, it will be a transfer between two warring parties,” the complaint states. “This creates additional grave risk of persecution, torture, and death.” Attorneys for the Afghan immigrants said their clients risk torture and death in their native country.
Source: Washington Sun (AP reporting)
Government attorneys, for their part, told the court on Tuesday that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) did not have planned or confirmed deportation flights to send Afghan nationals to Afghanistan or Pakistan this week, according to the judge's order — a statement that sits alongside advocates' confirmation, reported a day earlier, that a flight from Alexandria, Louisiana, to Pakistan had been scheduled for Tuesday.
Congress and the Taliban both objected on Monday
The court order caps two days of pressure. On Monday, 66 members of Congress, in a letter led by Representative Scott Peters of California, demanded the immediate cancellation of any deportation flights carrying Afghans and Iranians, whether sent directly or through another country, and raised alarm over a reported separate mass deportation flight of Iranians — which would be the first since the US launched its military conflict against Iran. “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 lawmakers wrote, adding: “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.” Afghanistan is listed by the State Department as a Level 4 “Do Not Travel” country.
Source: Rep. Scott Peters' office; AP via Winneba News
The Taliban authorities also said on Monday that they were seriously concerned about the reported US plans, with foreign ministry spokesperson Abdul Qahar Balkhi saying the Islamic Emirate objected to deporting Afghan refugees to Pakistan who had not obtained legal residency there. In the Sadat v. Mullin case that first exposed the Pakistan route, the named plaintiff, Said Mansor Sadat, a 30-year-old Afghan national, has since been removed from the flight list and released from ICE custody after a judge ruled his continued detention violated his due process rights, his attorney said, according to CBS News reporting of the case.
Source: CBS News via NewsTalk 98.5; Al Jazeera via Winneba News
A second court order the same day: the Akbari case
Also on Tuesday, a federal judge in the District of New Mexico blocked ICE from putting Sardar Akbari, an Afghan national, on an ICE charter flight headed to Pakistan on November 3 without any notice or opportunity to present a claim of fear of persecution or torture in Pakistan. The court barred the government from removing Akbari from the United States for 14 days and until it is satisfied the government has put adequate safeguards in place to protect him against the risk of suicide, after what his lawyers described as an acute mental health crisis when he learned of the intended removal; it also directed the government to transfer him back to the District of New Mexico. Akbari, who has been in ICE custody since late 2024, is detained at the Camp East Montana detention facility in El Paso, Texas, and is represented by the University of New Mexico Law School's Clinical Law Program and the ACLU of New Mexico. The case is Akbari v. Mullin, No. 1:26-cv-03573-KG-DLM.
Source: ACLU of New Mexico
Advocates say the stakes go beyond the named plaintiffs. “The consequences could be prison, torture, or worse,” said Krish O'Mara Vignarajah, president and CEO of the refugee advocacy group Global Refuge, following reports of the planned deportations. “For their families, some of whom served alongside US service members, it means losing a loved one, without knowing whether they'll ever hear from them again.” The Trump administration has used third-country removals to deport people who hold legal protections against return to the countries they fled, and has forcibly sent at least 25,000 people to third countries, according to a tally by the nonprofits Refugees International and Human Rights First reported by AP — yaani about twenty-five thousand people. The Department of Homeland Security has declined to address the planned removal flights, citing operational security, in statements to CBS News.
Source: Washington Sun (AP reporting); CBS News
What is solid
- Judge Valerie Caproni's emergency order of Tuesday bars removals of the covered Afghan nationals to Afghanistan or Pakistan until at least Sunday, November 8, and Project Rousseau's lawsuit was filed on Monday.
- Government attorneys told the court on Tuesday that ICE had no planned or confirmed deportation flights to Afghanistan or Pakistan this week, according to the order.
- A federal court in New Mexico separately barred Akbari's removal for 14 days on Tuesday (Akbari v. Mullin).
- 66 members of Congress wrote to Secretaries Rubio and Mullin on Monday demanding cancellation of the Afghan and Iranian deportation flights.
What is only claimed
- Whether any charter flight actually departed on Tuesday, and the final passenger lists, have not been confirmed: advocates said a Tuesday Alexandria-to-Pakistan flight was scheduled, while the government told the court no flights were planned or confirmed this week.
- The administration has not publicly confirmed the Pakistan-route plan; it rests on an ICE officer's sworn declaration in Sadat v. Mullin, US officials speaking to CBS News, and court filings reported by AP and the New York Times.
Judge Caproni's bar runs until at least Sunday, November 8; watch whether the administration seeks to lift it, whether any covered Afghan is removed after it expires, and whether the reported Iranian deportation flight draws its own court challenge. In New Mexico, the government must satisfy the court that suicide-risk safeguards are in place before Akbari can be removed, and a written order in his case is still forthcoming.