A federal judge temporarily blocked the Trump administration from deporting Afghan nationals to their country or Pakistan.
U.S. District Judge Valerie Caproni issued an emergency order Tuesday at the request of attorneys representing Afghan nationals set to be deported to Pakistan and expelled into Afghanistan. They cannot be removed to those countries until at least Sunday.
The order comes a day after Project Rousseau, a New York City nonprofit providing immigrant legal services, sued the Trump administration, claiming the deportations of their Afghan clients were set to take place as early as Tuesday. They said their clients could be in danger if they were 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.”
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Attorneys representing the government told the court Tuesday that Immigration and Customs Enforcement did not have planned or confirmed deportation flights to send Afghan nationals to Afghanistan or Pakistan this week, according to the order.
More than 150 Afghan immigrants face deportation to Afghanistan via expulsion from Pakistan, including family members of people who helped the U.S. military, The New York Times reported.
The Trump administration has used third-country removals to deport people who have legal protections from returning to countries they fled. In some cases, those deported to countries they’re not from are later expelled to their home countries.
“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 U.S. service members, it means losing a loved one, without knowing whether they’ll ever hear from them again.”
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