A federal judge in New York has issued a temporary order preventing the U.S. government from deporting Afghan migrants to Pakistan. According to a report by ABC News, the ruling was issued on Tuesday, November 3, and will remain in effect until the upcoming Saturday.
The order was handed down by U.S. District Judge Valerie Caproni following reports that dozens of Afghan migrants were scheduled to be deported this week. The legal action came amid growing pressure from migrant advocacy groups and the families of those detained.
In court, government lawyers confirmed that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has no chartered or commercial flights scheduled to deport migrants to Afghanistan or Pakistan for the remainder of the week. This statement came after court filings had previously indicated a deportation flight was imminent.
Advocacy groups, including AfghanEvac, had raised alarms, expressing concern that the deportees could include relatives of Afghans who had worked alongside U.S. forces. They warned that deporting these individuals and handing them over to the Taliban could put their lives in grave danger.
It was previously reported that the U.S. government planned to fly 150 to 200 Afghan migrants from a detention center in Louisiana to Pakistan, from where they would be transferred overland to Afghanistan. Shawn VanDiver, president of AfghanEvac, called the judge's order a "eathing-room" and not a "final resolution."
He credited public pressure from veterans, migrant rights activists, and members of Congress for forcing the government to back down. "A week ago, the plane was chartered, but today the government told a federal judge no such flight exists," VanDiver stated. "That didn't happen by accident."
An ICE spokesperson declined to comment on the details of potential removal operations. The temporary injunction comes as the fate of thousands of Afghans who fled to the U.S. after the fall of Kabul remains uncertain, with many navigating a complex and backlogged immigration system.
Source: ABC News
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