SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — On a recent afternoon, Giselle Garcia, a volunteer who has been helping an Afghan family resettle, drove the father to a check-in with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. She warned him and his family to prepare for the worst.
The moment the father stepped into the ICE office in California’s capital city, he was arrested.
Coming just days after the shooting of two National Guard troops by an Afghan national suspect, federal authorities have carried out increased arrests of Afghans in the U.S., immigration lawyers say as Afghans both in and outside the country have come under intense scrutiny by immigration officials.
Garcia said the family she helped had reported to all their appointments and were following all legal requirements.
“He was trying to be strong for his wife and kids in the car, but the anxiety and fear were palpable,” she said. “His wife was trying to hold back tears, but I could see her in the rearview mirror silently crying.”
They had fled Afghanistan under threat by the Taliban because the wife’s father had assisted the U.S. military, and they had asked for asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border, Garcia said. She is not identifying him or his family for fear other members could be arrested.
Afghan men arrested in wake of shooting
Since the Nov. 26 Guard shooting, The Associated Press has tracked roughly two dozen arrests of Afghan immigrants, most of which happened in Northern California. In Sacramento, home to one of the nation’s largest Afghan communities, volunteers monitoring ICE activities say they witnessed at least nine arrests at the federal building last week after Afghan men received calls to check in there.
Many of those detained had requested asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border in the last two years. Others were among the 76,000 Afghans brought to the U.S. under Operation Allies Welcome, created by former President Joe Biden’s administration after the chaotic withdrawal of the U.S. from their country.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Dec. 1 that the Trump administration is “actively reexamining” all the Afghan nationals who entered the U.S. during Biden’s administration.
The AP couldn’t independently determine each of the Afghans’ immigration statuses or the reasons put forward by authorities for their arrests. In one case, the man had been arrested twice on suspicion of domestic violence, according to the government.
Tricia McLaughlin, a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland, said in an email that the agency “has been going full throttle on identifying and arresting known or suspected terrorists and criminal illegal aliens that came in through Biden’s fraudulent parole programs and working to get the criminals and public safety threats OUT of our country.”
Rahmanullah Lakanwal, the 29-year-old Afghan suspect in the shooting, was granted asylum earlier this year, according to advocate group #AfghanEvac.
Critics say Afghans paying price for one bad actor
Since the shooting, the U.S. government introduced sweeping immigration changes, including pausing asylum applications and requiring increased vetting for immigrants from certain countries. The administration also took steps specifically targeted at Afghans, including pausing all their immigration-related applications and visas for Afghans who closely helped the war effort.
Those who work with Afghans say the stepped-up enforcement amounts to the collective punishment of a population, many of whom risked their lives to protect U.S. troops.
“Not to discount the horrific killing that happened, but that was one bad actor who should be prosecuted by the full extent of the law,” Democratic Rep. Ami Bera, whose California district includes Sacramento, said of Lakanwal. “A lot of these people kept our troops safe and served side by side with our soldiers for two decades in Afghanistan.”
Cuffed after reporting to ICE
In Sacramento, Afghan men arrived one by one to the ICE office Dec. 1 after being asked to immediately report there, drawing the attention of volunteers who have been at the federal building for more than six months to monitor ICE activities and alert immigrants.
As each man entered the office, agents handcuffed them, said Garcia, a volunteer with NorCal Resist.
“What we saw on Monday was an influx of Afghan immigrants called randomly starting at 6 a.m. and asked to do a check-in and report immediately,” Garcia said. “Most of these Afghan men already had ankle monitors on them.”
Her organization’s volunteers witnessed ICE arrest six Afghans that day.
Arrests and cancellations cause fear
In Des Moines, Iowa, Ann Naffier, with the Iowa Migrant Movement for Justice, said her Afghan client was detained Dec. 2 on the way to work by agents who called him a “terrorist.” He was held for two hours before he was released with an apology.
Wahida Noorzad is an immigration attorney in Northern California who has two Afghan clients who were arrested last week by ICE. Both entered the U.S. in recent years through the southern border. One used the app set up by the Biden administration to make an appointment to request asylum at the border.
Noorzad felt both had strong cases to eventually be granted asylum in the U.S. She also said she found no criminal records for them.
Spojmie Nasiri, another immigration attorney in Northern California, said she’s received numerous calls from worried Afghans, including a man who called her terrified as agents stood outside his home. He put her on speaker phone so she could tell them that her client was a U.S. citizen.
Iqbal Wafa, an Afghan immigration consultant in Sacramento, said officials told his client when he went to his appointment last week that that interviews for Afghans are canceled, and he observed interviews for other Afghan immigrants were canceled as well inside a federal building in Sacramento.
A family left crying
Garcia said she listened through the wall of the waiting room at the ICE office and heard agents handcuff the father of the family she was helping.
“I’m screaming his rights through the wall so he could hear me. ‘Remain silent! Please don’t sign anything!’” she said. She left after security approached.
When she walked out of the building without him, she said his wife broke down sobbing.
Their daughter tried to console her, telling her, “Mommy, don’t cry. Everything will be OK when daddy comes.”
Bellisle reported from Seattle, Watson reported from San Diego and Santana reported from Washington.
