Federal courts in New Mexico, New York temporarily block ICE deportations of Afghans

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A federal court in New York on Tuesday blocked the Trump administration’s plans to deport Afghans to their Taliban-controlled country of origin through Pakistan in a temporary order that expires Saturday.

The decision came the day after a federal judge in New Mexico prohibited the removal of Sardar Akbari, 31, an Afghan national who had been held at the Torrance County Detention Facility in Estancia. That order also was temporary, pausing the deportation for 14 days, “until the Court is satisfied that the government has put in place adequate safeguards to protect Akbari against the risk of suicide,” according to a statement from the American Civil Liberties Union of New Mexico.

After learning of the federal government’s plans to send him to Pakistan, Akbari suffered an “acute mental health crisis,” the ACLU of New Mexico said in the statement.

Deportation flights for Afghans were set to go through Pakistan because the U.S. has no diplomatic relations with the Taliban government to arrange flights to Afghanistan. The State Department also places Afghanistan under a “Level 4 — Do not travel” advisory “due to civil unrest, crime, terrorism, risk of wrongful detention, kidnapping, natural disasters, and limited health facilities.”

New York Judge Valerie Caproni’s order on Tuesday does not put an end to deportations through Pakistan. But it prevents the flights from taking off until Sunday.

Akbari is represented by the Clinical Law Program of the University of New Mexico Law School and the ACLU in his habeas proceedings, in which he is challenging the legality of his detention.

He has been in the custody of the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement since late 2024 and was transported from the Torrance County facility to El Paso’s Camp East Montana — the nation’s largest immigrant detention center — Oct. 27. The move was to prepare him for deportation, according to court documents.

“Mr. Akbari’s case is a window into the abject horrors of our immigration system, and the government’s ‘third country removals’ in particular,” said Shaw Drake, assistant professor of Law at the UNM School of Law, in a statement. “If ICE is able to deport vulnerable immigrants like Mr. Akbari to a country other than his own without any notice or opportunity to claim fear, the fundamental due process safeguards to which we are all entitled are rendered virtually meaningless.”

Camp East Montana is plagued with controversies, including allegations of life-threatening medical neglect, coercive removals, inhumane confinement, three detainee deaths and an alleged riot, according to a July report from the ACLU.

The El Paso City Council voted unanimously Oct. 27 to draft a resolution calling for the detention center’s closure, though the decision ultimately falls to the federal government.

Julia Gentin is a reporter for The Las Cruces New Mexican, The Santa Fe New Mexican and Searchlight New Mexico through a partnership with Report for America, a national service program that places journalists into local newsrooms. She covers the Southern New Mexico region. Learn more about Report for America at reportforamerica.org.

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