US lawmakers ask Trump administration to stop deportation of Afghans

At least 150 Afghans are facing deportation to Pakistan and on to Afghanistan.

Families evacuated from Kabul, Afghanistan, walk through the terminal after arriving at Washington Dulles International airport, in Chantilly, Virginia, on September 3, 2021 [Jose Luis Magana/AP]

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.

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

“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 in the letter addressed to Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin.

“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.”

Third-country deportations

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 have said 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 that are so dangerous 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 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, despite the ongoing war the US is waging on the country.

Pakistan has deported millions of Afghans to Afghanistan in recent years, as relations with the Taliban have deteriorated.

Afghans in US left in limbo

Most of the Afghans scheduled for deportation did not have the opportunity to properly fight their removal in court, Shawn VanDiver, founder and president of the AfghanEvac advocacy group, said.

“They were placed into removal proceedings because they didn’t have attorneys to fight,” he said.

VanDiver said he spoke to one man on Monday, 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.

Since taking office, Trump has attempted to put an end to resettlement programmes for Afghans started by former President Joe Biden. More than 120,000 Afghans were evacuated from Afghanistan in 2021 after the chaotic withdrawal of US forces.

Some ended up in facilities abroad, like 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 in Afghanistan.

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 in the US after their parole period expired, and while their immigration status was resolved.

But since then, few Afghans in the US have been able to move their applications for asylum, or other special protected status relating to their work with coalition forces, 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.

The Trump administration has instituted record-low quotas for asylum applications globally. However, he made an exception for white Afrikaners from South Africa, giving them sanctuary after alleging they had faced racial discrimination against white people.

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. The Trump administration also included Afghan nationals in a blanket visa ban earlier this year, saying it would review immigration applications filed by anyone from the country. Both policies were challenged in court.

VanDiver said he and other advocates have been pushing for new legislation that would provide Afghans protection in the US, including a bill – co-sponsored by both Republican and Democratic lawmakers – that would grant many Temporary Protected Status after the Trump administration withdrew it.

至少有150名阿富汗人面临被遣返回巴基斯坦，然后再被遣返回阿富汗。

2021年9月3日，从阿富汗喀布尔撤离的家庭抵达弗吉尼亚州尚蒂伊的华盛顿杜勒斯国际机场后，走过航站楼。[Jose Luis Magana/AP]

美国 66 名议员联名致信唐纳德·特朗普总统的政府，要求其停止计划中的大规模驱逐阿富汗人行动，其中包括一些在 2021 年美军撤离阿富汗之前曾与联军并肩作战的阿富汗人。

在周一的信中，议员们援引倡导组织的报告称，至少有 150 名阿富汗人计划从周二开始被驱逐出境——从路易斯安那州的拘留设施被空运到巴基斯坦。

列表 1/3：曾与美军并肩作战的阿富汗寻求庇护者在移民及海关执法局（ICE）拘留期间死亡，引发众怒

拜登政府保护在美阿富汗人免遭驱逐出境（共3条，此为第2条）

阿富汗调整法案（共 3 项）：这对美国的难民意味着什么？

美联社新闻社还报道称，国土安全部 (DHS) 官员在法庭文件中表示，他们最终计划将一些阿富汗人遣返回国。

美国与阿富汗没有外交关系，自美军于 2021 年 8 月撤离以来，阿富汗一直由塔利班统治。

“将数十人送回地球上最危险的国家之一，在那里他们很可能因为自己或家人涉嫌支持美国政府或批评塔利班而成为攻击目标，这无异于判处死刑，”议员们在致国务卿马可·卢比奥和国土安全部长马克韦恩·穆林的信中写道。

“我国承诺永远不会抛弃那些为了与美国军人并肩作战而牺牲自己和家人安全的阿富汗人民。”

第三国遣返

作为打击移民行动的一部分，特朗普政府已与至少 35 个国家达成协议，接收第三国国民，在许多情况下，这是因为担心他们被遣返回国后会遭受酷刑、杀害或其他迫害，所以不能将他们遣返回国。

批评人士指出，这种做法破坏了数十年来围绕寻求庇护者和难民保护而形成的全球人道主义准则。他们表示，被驱逐者最终往往被送往人权记录恶劣的国家，或是那些美国甚至告诫本国公民不要前往的危险之地。

据非营利组织“国际难民组织”和“人权第一”统计，特朗普政府已强行将至少 25,000 人送往第三国。

人权第一组织表示，已确认一架载有部分阿富汗人从路易斯安那州亚历山大飞往巴基斯坦的航班定于周二起飞。

人权倡导者表示，这批被遣返回巴基斯坦的人可能也包括伊朗人，尽管美国正在对伊朗发动战争，但特朗普政府此前已将少量伊朗人送往第三国，最终将他们遣返回伊朗。

近年来，随着巴基斯坦与塔利班关系恶化，巴基斯坦已将数百万阿富汗人遣返回阿富汗。

身处美国的阿富汗人处境尴尬

阿富汗撤离倡导组织 AfghanEvac 的创始人兼主席肖恩·范迪弗表示，大多数被列入遣返名单的阿富汗人没有机会在法庭上好好地为自己争取权益。

他说：“他们被启动遣返程序是因为他们没有律师为他们辩护。”

范迪弗说，他周一与一名男子交谈过，此人曾是阿富汗政府的一名警官，该政府已被塔利班推翻。此人预计自己会被遣返，并担心如果最终回到阿富汗，自己的生命会受到威胁。范迪弗还说，其他人也曾在阿富汗政府或美国工作过，或者有家人在阿富汗政府或美国工作，他们如果回到阿富汗将会面临危险。

自上任以来，特朗普一直试图终止前总统乔·拜登启动的阿富汗难民安置计划。2021年，在美军混乱撤离阿富汗之后，超过12万阿富汗人被迫撤离。

一些人最终被安置在国外的设施中，例如卡塔尔。今年9月，美国批准将位于卡塔尔的阿斯赛利亚营地（Camp As Sayliyah）的期限延长9个月，该营地收容了1000多名曾在阿富汗协助美军的阿富汗人。

撤离到美国的阿富汗人最初获得人道主义假释，允许他们留在美国。2022年，拜登政府授予他们为期18个月的临时保护身份，允许他们在假释期满后、移民身份问题解决期间在美国合法居住和工作。

但自那以后，在美国的阿富汗人很少能够通过严重积压的移民系统，提交庇护申请或其他与他们为联军工作相关的特殊保护身份申请。

“这些人处境非常糟糕；他们已经陷入这种进退两难的境地五年了，一直在等待永久居留权，等待绿卡，等待得知自己的身份，”范迪弗说。

特朗普政府在全球范围内实施了创纪录的最低庇护申请配额。然而，他却对来自南非的白人阿非利卡人破例，以他们遭受种族歧视为由，给予他们庇护。

2025年11月，一名阿富汗男子涉嫌在华盛顿特区枪击两名国民警卫队队员后，特朗普下令停止处理阿富汗公民的移民申请。今年早些时候，特朗普政府还将阿富汗国民纳入全面签证禁令，并表示将审查所有来自阿富汗的移民申请。这两项政策均在法庭上受到挑战。

范迪弗表示，他和一些倡导者一直在推动新的立法，为在美国的阿富汗人提供保护，其中包括一项由共和党和民主党议员共同发起的法案，该法案将在特朗普政府撤销临时保护身份后，给予许多人临时保护身份。