A federal judge in New York has temporarily blocked the Trump administration from deporting detained Afghan nationals to Pakistan or Afghanistan, grounding a charter flight that had been scheduled to leave Louisiana on Election Day, Nov. 3.
U.S. District Judge Valerie Caproni of the Southern District of New York issued the order on Tuesday, Nov. 3, after Project Rousseau, a New York nonprofit providing legal services to immigrants, sued the administration on Monday. The judge wrote that the government had “effectively represented that no Afghanistan nationals will be deported from the United States to Afghanistan or Pakistan this week,” and barred such deportations through Nov. 7, according to USA TODAY’s account of the order.
The order covers a group of about 150 Afghans who were expected to be put on a flight from Alexandria, Louisiana, bound for Pakistan, according to reporting by The New York Times, USA TODAY and Bloomberg Law. From Pakistan, advocates and court filings said, the passengers would have been taken across the border and handed to the Taliban authorities in Afghanistan — a government the United States does not recognise.
Who was on the planned flight?
Advocates said the would-be passengers included women, LGBTQ+ people and members of religious and ethnic minorities, as well as people with ties to the U.S. military effort in Afghanistan. AfghanEvac, a coalition that helps resettle Afghans who aided U.S. forces, said at least one man slated for the flight had served alongside American troops and about 15 others had relatives who did, though it cautioned the numbers could change.
One man whose case was described in court records fled Afghanistan after Taliban fighters detained and beat him for helping their enemies, according to USA TODAY, which withheld his name because he could face reprisals. He told an immigration court that Taliban fighters had threatened to kill him if he returned.
The Department of Homeland Security said it “does not comment on prospective removal operations, including flight schedules, passenger manifests, destinations, or individual case details.”
Why the flight drew an outcry
In the days before the scheduled departure, veterans who had served alongside Afghans, advocates and lawmakers pressed the administration to cancel it. More than 900 people flooded officials with calls and letters, USA TODAY reported, and 66 Democratic members of Congress urged the administration to ground the flight, warning that the United States is bound not to return anyone to a country where they would face torture.
“Our nation made a promise to stand by the Afghans who risked their lives and their family safety for us,” Representative Scott Peters, the California Democrat who led the letter, said at a news conference on Nov. 3. “Sending them to the Taliban breaks that promise.”
In a Manhattan courtroom hours before the flight’s scheduled 7 p.m. departure, a government lawyer relayed word from a senior Immigration and Customs Enforcement official that the agency had “no planned or confirmed chartered or commercial flights” for Afghans this week, and that such flights take weeks to arrange. The government agreed to be held to that promise, according to court records cited by USA TODAY.
That account sat uneasily with the government’s own earlier filings. Just last month, ICE officials and federal prosecutors told courts in Texas and Oklahoma that Afghan detainees had been scheduled for a flight departing in the first week of November, and an ICE supervisor in Virginia swore its final destination would be Pakistan, with “further transport onward to Afghanistan.”
What the order does — and does not — do
The order is temporary. It does not cancel the deportation plan permanently, and it does not decide whether returning the Afghans would breach U.S. law against sending people to countries where they would most likely face persecution or torture. Judge Caproni did not weigh in on that question, according to a summary of the ruling.
The government is due to respond to the lawsuit on Nov. 5. Advocates fear the reprieve may be brief: AfghanEvac said the plan to route Afghans through Pakistan has not been withdrawn, and that ICE has told some detainees the flight will now leave in a week or two.
The Taliban’s foreign ministry said on Nov. 2 it had “serious concern” about reports the United States would send Afghans to Pakistan, where they have no legal status, and warned that third countries “should not bargain over the fate of another country’s nationals.”
What happens next?
The key dates are Nov. 5, when the government must respond to the lawsuit, and Nov. 7, when the current bar expires. Whether the flight is rescheduled, challenged further, or abandoned will depend on the government’s response and any further court orders. For now, the roughly 150 people who were due to board on Nov. 3 remain in the United States.
FILE PHOTO: The U.S. Capitol in Washington. This is a file photo, not a photograph of the Nov. 3 flight or court hearing.
FAQ
Did the judge permanently stop Afghan deportations? No. The Nov. 3 order is temporary and bars deportations to Pakistan or Afghanistan through Nov. 7.
How many people were due on the flight? About 150 Afghans, according to The New York Times and USA TODAY reporting.
Why Pakistan? The plan, as described in court filings and by advocates, was to fly the Afghans to Pakistan, from where they would be taken across the border to Afghanistan.
Sources
- USA TODAY, Nov. 3, 2026: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2026/11/03/afghan-ice-deportation-flight-via-pakistan-could-hand-us-allies-to-taliban/92579382007/
- Bloomberg Law, Nov. 3, 2026: https://news.bloomberglaw.com/us-law-week/federal-judge-blocks-deportation-flight-of-afghans-to-pakistan
- DNYUZ, Nov. 3, 2026: https://dnyuz.com/2026/11/03/deportation-of-dozens-of-afghans-blocked-by-federal-court-for-now/
- The Washington Sun, Nov. 3, 2026: https://www.washingtonsun.com/immigration/federal-judge-blocks-deportation-afghans-to-pakistan-afghanistan
Related on Emadan News: US Supreme Court Declines to Restore Immigration Judges’ Power to Pause Deportation Cases and Trump Noncitizen Voting Crackdown Hits Court Setback.
