November 01 2025, 08:15 
Former Transportation Secretary and Afghanistan military veteran Pete Buttigieg called out Donald Trump’s latest “betrayal” of key allies a “disgrace.”
The Trump administration is currently trying to deport an Afghan man who is worried that if he goes back to his home country, the Taliban will kill him. The man has not been identified in the media out of fear that his extended family, still in Afghanistan, could face retaliation.
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The man supported the U.S. while living in Afghanistan, helping a U.S. nonprofit organization that taught teens to use computers. He escaped the country on a U.S. military plane and applied for asylum in the U.S. while living with his brother – a naturalized U.S. citizen – and his wife and their two children, who are also U.S. citizens.
The Trump administration doesn’t accuse him of being a criminal or a terrorist. Instead, he was in the U.S. on humanitarian parole this past July when Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrested him, canceling his parole at the same time, which instantly made him an undocumented immigrant. He has been in federal custody ever since, fighting deportation because he is worried about the Taliban’s documented history of retaliating against Afghan people who helped the U.S. government and American organizations during the Afghanistan War.
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Buttigieg called out the administration for not standing up for the man, who is one of around 250,000 Afghan refugees in the U.S.
“When we were deployed, some Afghans risked their lives to help us,” Buttigieg posted to social media. “Now Trump wants to send them out to be killed by the Taliban. It’s a disgrace, a betrayal, and a decision that endangers future US troops.”
When we were deployed, some Afghans risked their lives to help us. Now Trump wants to send them out to be killed by the Taliban. It’s a disgrace, a betrayal, and a decision that endangers future US troops.
— Pete Buttigieg (@petebuttigieg.bsky.social) 2025-10-30T23:13:45.818Z
The Trump administration is arguing that it’s totally safe for him to return to Afghanistan, which experts say isn’t true.
“That is absolutely not evidence that he would be safe,” Ashley Jackson of the Centre on Armed Groups told the Washington Post. “Non-governmental organization [NGO] workers or people who are formerly affiliated with NGOs face a lot of threats and suspicion. … They’re coerced. They’re pressured. They’re threatened. They’re beaten.”
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