U.S. Deportations of Nepalis Fall as No Charter Flights Have Operated for Four Months
Deported Nepali nationals arrive at Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu. Photo: Gopal Dahal/RSS
KATHMANDU — The number of Nepali citizens deported from the United States has fallen sharply in recent months, with eight people returned to Nepal in August, according to Nepal’s Department of Immigration.
The eight deportees included three women and five men, the department said.
Five Nepalis were deported in July, the lowest monthly total recorded so far this year. Four were men and one was a woman. In June, nine Nepalis — seven men and two women — were deported.
The August figure was three higher than July’s, but remained well below the numbers recorded earlier in the year, when the United States used charter flights to return large groups of Nepalis.
Nepal’s Immigration Department told NepYork that no charter flight carrying deported Nepalis has arrived in Nepal for about four months. The department said it did not know why the charter flights had stopped.
The department also said that no Nepali citizens had been returned from the United States to Nepal on charter flights since the war in the Middle East began. But officials cautioned that they could not establish that the conflict was responsible for the decline in deportations from the United States.
The recent drop in actual deportations comes as U.S. immigration courts have continued issuing removal orders to Nepali nationals at elevated levels.
Large Charter Flights Drove Early-2026 Deportations
The pattern was markedly different during the first months of 2026.
In January, 101 Nepalis were deported from the United States, including 80 people brought to Kathmandu on a single charter flight. The group included 79 men and one woman.
Another 130 Nepalis were deported in February, including 95 on a charter flight. In March, 43 Nepalis were returned.
In early April, U.S. authorities again used a charter flight to return 45 Nepalis to Kathmandu. The large-scale deportations generated concern within Nepal’s diaspora community at the time.
The pattern changed in May. No charter flight was used, and 15 Nepalis were returned on commercial flights.
Immigration Enforcement Has Intensified Under Trump
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, has been enforcing removal orders against immigrants who are subject to deportation, including people whose immigration applications have been denied or who have otherwise lost the legal basis to remain in the United States.
Some Nepali nationals have been among those facing removal after receiving final orders from immigration courts. Others have been detained after entering the United States without authorization or after falling out of lawful immigration status.
The end of Nepal’s Temporary Protected Status has also added uncertainty for thousands of Nepali immigrants. The Department of Homeland Security announced in August that TPS protection for Nepal was ending, after the country had been designated for the program following the 2015 earthquake.
The department’s data show that deported Nepalis in recent months have included people from districts such as Dang, Rukum, Salyan and Banke in western Nepal. Some had initially entered the United States without visas, according to immigration-related records cited by Nepali authorities.
Nepalis deported to Kathmandu are processed by Nepali immigration authorities and may be referred to the Nepal Police’s Anti-Human Trafficking Bureau for information about trafficking risks and investigations into brokers or networks involved in their journey to the United States.
Removal Orders Rose Sharply in 2025 and 2026
The number of Nepali nationals receiving removal orders in U.S. immigration courts has increased substantially during Trump’s second term.
According to data from the Executive Office for Immigration Review compiled by Syracuse University’s Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, or TRAC, U.S. immigration judges issued 1,162 removal orders to Nepali nationals between January 2025 and June 2026. That represents about one-quarter of all removal orders recorded for Nepalis since 1998.
The figure includes 783 removal orders issued in calendar year 2025 and another 379 during the first six months of 2026.
For comparison, immigration courts issued 644 removal orders to Nepali nationals during the four years of the Biden administration, from January 2021 through December 2024. During Trump’s first term, from January 2017 through December 2020, the courts issued 864 such orders.
When Trump’s two terms are combined, 2,006 removal orders have been issued against Nepali nationals, or about 43 percent of the 4,639 orders recorded in the TRAC data since 1998.
In fiscal year 2025, immigration judges heard 1,837 cases involving Nepali nationals. They issued 569 removal orders and granted relief in 378 cases. In the first nine months of fiscal year 2026, judges heard 941 cases, issuing 634 removal orders and granting relief in 72 cases.
The share of cases resulting in relief fell from 20.58 percent in fiscal 2025 to 7.65 percent during the first nine months of fiscal 2026.
A Long-Term Increase in Removal Orders
The increase is particularly pronounced when viewed against the historical record.
TRAC data show that U.S. immigration courts issued 28 removal orders against Nepali nationals in 1998, 42 in 1999 and 50 in 2000. The number reached 100 in 2008 and continued climbing during the following decade.
There were 122 orders in 2009, 129 in 2010, 237 in 2011, 180 in 2012, 183 in 2013, 187 in 2014, 127 in 2015, 107 in 2016, 139 in 2017, 218 in 2018 and 349 in 2019.
The number fell during the coronavirus pandemic, to 170 in 2020 and 48 in 2021, before rising to 163 in 2022, 204 in 2023 and 196 in 2024.
The 783 removal orders issued in 2025 were more than four times the 196 issued in 2024.
Photo: Erica Knight/ICE
ICE Arrested 388 Nepalis in 13 Months
Separate data compiled and processed by the Deportation Data Project from ICE records show that the agency arrested 388 Nepali nationals between February 2025 and February 2026.
Of those, 124 — about 31.9 percent — either had criminal convictions or were facing pending criminal charges. ICE records show that 53 had previous criminal convictions and 71 faced pending criminal charges.
The remaining 264 arrests were classified as involving immigration violations without a criminal conviction or pending criminal charge.
The monthly number of arrests ranged from five in April 2025 to 48 in November. There were 29 arrests in February 2025, 15 in March, 5 in April, 27 in May, 39 in June, 27 in July, 35 in August, 35 in September, 38 in October, 48 in November and 42 in December. ICE arrested 29 Nepalis in January 2026 and 19 in February.
Of the 388 people arrested, 370 were men, 17 were women and one was listed with an unknown gender.
ICE records showed that 174 had final removal orders, while 195 did not yet have final orders. The status of 19 was unknown. A total of 156 had been deported to Nepal by the time covered by the data.
The underlying ICE records were obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request and processed by the Deportation Data Project. Its latest public release includes ICE enforcement data through 2026.
Deportations Had Also Risen Late in 2025
The number of Nepalis actually deported to Nepal also increased sharply toward the end of 2025.
According to Nepal’s Immigration Department figures, 80 Nepalis were deported in November and 98 in December. On one December flight, 75 Nepalis were returned to Kathmandu, including 69 men and six women.
The monthly totals for 2025 were six deportations in January, 18 in February, 32 in March, 26 in April, 58 in May, 42 in June, 17 in July, 16 in August, 53 in September and 38 in October, followed by the sharp increases in November and December.
The subsequent decline in 2026 therefore represents a significant change in the number of Nepalis physically returned to Nepal, even as U.S. immigration courts have continued issuing removal orders at a high rate.
“The distinction is important: A removal order does not necessarily mean immediate deportation. A person can remain in the United States while pursuing an appeal or another form of legal protection, while others may be detained and removed later,” said New York-based immigration attorney Keshab Raj Seadie.