A deportation flight carrying roughly 70 foreign nationals departed for the Central African Republic on Friday, including a 24-year-old Afghan whose family aided U.S. forces, according to advocacy groups. The individual, identified only as Khalil, had been granted withholding of removal by an immigration judge after his lawyer, Alma David, demonstrated credible fear of persecution. Several of Khalil’s relatives, including a brother who served as a database administrator for the Afghan National Army and another brother killed fighting the Taliban in 2020, worked alongside U.S. military personnel.

Army Col. Zachary Schmidt, who supervised Khalil’s brother Najib, testified at the asylum hearing, citing Taliban threats. "I firmly believe that if this young man is forced to return to Afghanistan he will be killed," Schmidt said. Human Rights First reports that 23,000 people have been sent to third countries where they have no ties, with about 19,000 relocated to Mexico.

Sarah Mehta of the American Civil Liberties Union called the policy a "callous and deliberate strategy" to force people to abandon their claims. Friday’s flight marked the third such deportation to the Central African Republic since June, a nation currently enduring its own civil conflict.