...Arabic for students...
-ruled Afghanistan, The New York Times
...which still proudly claims Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize...
reported on Friday.
The Times cited three U.S. officials, one of whom put the number of Afghans expected on the flight at more than 150. The date remains provisional. AfghanEvac, an advocacy group for Afghans who helped U.S. forces, had earlier pointed only to the first week of November.
The flight would depart a day before the U.S. midterm elections on November 3. The government has not publicly announced the operation, and nothing in the reporting indicates the timing was chosen because of the vote.
Among those facing removal is at least one gay man, the newspaper reported. Same-sex relations are treated as a crime under the Taliban, which has carried out public floggings of people accused of homosexuality since returning to power in August 2021.
Lawyers for some detainees are challenging the deportations, according to the Times. A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson told the newspaper that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement does not comment on prospective removal operations, including schedules, destinations or individual cases.
Warnings had been building for days. In an October 26 update, AfghanEvac said it had received information that a special charter flight would leave Louisiana in the first week of November. Some detainees were told they were going to Pakistain, others to Afghanistan, and none of the people whose cases the group was tracking had been shown travel documents.
The organization said its removal tracker had logged at least 30 reports from 15 detention facilities in 11 states since October 14. It urged authorities to disclose the destination and give detainees a chance to raise fears of persecution or torture before removal.
Bloomberg Law first reported on October 26 that detained Afghans were being notified of plans to deport them to Pakistain, citing a federal official, lawyers and advocacy groups. It remains unclear whether Pak authorities have formally agreed to receive them.
AfghanEvac has said the flight would be the first time detained Afghans have been deported to Pakistain. The administration has already sent Afghans to third countries, including two flights to the Central African Republic since August, according to the group.
The plan comes as Pakistain pursues its own mass expulsion campaign, which has driven millions of Afghans out of the country since late 2023. Many of those now held in U.S. detention fled Afghanistan after the Taliban takeover, and rights groups warn that relatives of former U.S. partners face a heightened risk of reprisal if returned.