KATHMANDU, Sept 2: A total of 37 more Nepali citizens are likely to be deported from the United States to Nepal on Wednesday. With this, the total number of Nepali immigrants deported from the U.S. this year will reach 252.
Sources told Republica that the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is preparing to send them back on Wednesday via a chartered flight.
According to Ram Chandra Tiwari, Director General of the Department of Immigration, they have received information by email, although no official notice has been issued yet. “We have learned that a new group of Nepali immigrants will be sent on an Omni Air chartered flight, although it is not official yet,” Tiwari told Republica. The deportees are expected to be flown on ‘Flight No N828AX’.
Most of the deportees are believed to have entered the US by paying large sums of money to organized human trafficking networks. These migrants traveled through several countries, trekking for days through jungles and dangerous routes, often encountering rebel groups along the way.
Interestingly, most of those being deported are from western Nepal, particularly Dang, Rukum East, Rukum West, Rolpa, Dolpa, Baglung, Jajarkot, and Mustang. In total, Nepalis from 28 districts have already been deported.
This phase of deportation prioritizes undocumented immigrants who entered the US after June 24, 2015, and had already received removal orders.
After assuming office for his second term on January 20, 2025, President Donald Trump adopted a stricter policy to deport undocumented immigrants, including those from Nepal.
However, this is not the first time the US has deported Nepalis. A total of 35 were deported in 2021, 22 in 2022, 24 in 2023, and 52 in 2024. Most had entered the U.S. illegally by paying agents or human traffickers.
On August 21, a US federal appeals court sided with the Trump administration, allowing it to end Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for migrants from Nepal and two other countries. The ruling affected about 7,000 Nepalis whose TPS expired on August 5. Many Nepalis who entered the US after the devastating 2015 earthquake are now at risk of deportation.
TPS is granted by the Secretary of Homeland Security to prevent deportation and allow work permits when returning to a migrant’s home country is deemed unsafe due to disasters, political instability, or other dangers.
Later, on August 30, a US district judge blocked the Trump administration from massively expanding a procedure that allows authorities to swiftly deport migrants without a court hearing, dealing a blow to the president’s mass deportation plans.
The ruling, however, has not prevented the deportation of this latest group of Nepalis.
Number of Nepalis deported since January 2025:
January- 6
February-18
March- 32
April- 26
May- 58
June- 42
July- 17
August- 16
September (until today)- 37
