The Democratic wing of the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee has called the Trump administration's plan to deport Afghan asylum seekers "shameful," warning that returning these individuals to Afghanistan puts their lives and their families' lives at risk from the Taliban.
On Tuesday, November 3, the committee wrote in a post on the social media platform X: "Our Afghan allies fought and died alongside our troops. Now, the Trump Admin plans to send them & their families back to a place where they could face persecution or even death by the Taliban." The message emphasized, "This is shameful and goes against everything America stands for."
This sharp reaction followed a report in The New York Times. The report revealed that the Trump administration has detained at least 150 Afghan asylum seekers in Louisiana and intends to first deport them to Pakistan and then send them overland to Afghanistan.
Among those detained are reportedly relatives of individuals who had worked with U.S. forces during their presence in Afghanistan. These individuals had come to the U.S. through special immigrant visa programs or as asylum seekers after the fall of the previous government in 2021 and the Taliban's return to power.
Refugee advocacy groups have warned that returning these individuals to Afghanistan, given their history of collaboration with foreign forces, could have deadly consequences for them. Previously, a bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers had written a letter to the Secretaries of State and Homeland Security, demanding an immediate halt to this deportation plan.
Support for Afghan allies who stood with American forces during the two-decade war has traditionally been a point of agreement for both the Democratic and Republican parties. However, the Trump administration's hardline immigration policies have turned this issue into a major point of contention between the two parties, raising serious concerns about the fate of these asylum seekers.
Source: The New York Times
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