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On a recent afternoon, Giselle Garcia, a volunteer who has been helping Afghan The family’s relocation took the father to check-in with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. She warned him and his family to prepare for the worst.
As soon as the father stepped into the ICE office in the California capital, he was arrested.
Coming just a few days after the shooting of Do National Guard Federal authorities have expanded the arrests of an Afghan suspect afghan In the US, immigration lawyers say Afghans have come under intense scrutiny by immigration authorities both inside and outside the country.
Garcia said the family he helped had reported all of their appointments and was following all legal requirements.
“He was trying to be strong for his wife and children in the car, but the anxiety and fear were obvious,” she said. “His wife was trying to hold back her tears, but I could see him crying quietly in the rearview mirror.”
They had fled Afghanistan because of Taliban threats because the wife’s father had assisted U.S. forces and sought asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border, Garcia said. She is not identifying him or his family out of fear that the other members will be arrested.
Afghan people were arrested after the firing
Since the Nov. 26 guard shootings, The Associated Press has tracked nearly two dozen arrests of Afghan immigrants, the majority of whom Northern CaliforniaIn Sacramento, home to one of the country’s largest Afghan communities, volunteers monitoring ICE activities say they saw at least nine arrests at the federal building last week after receiving calls to investigate Afghan men there,
Many of those detained had requested asylum at the US-Mexico border in the past two years. Others were among the 76,000 Afghans brought to the US under Operation Ally’s Welcome, created by former President Joe BidenAdministration after America’s chaotic withdrawal from their country.
White House press secretary Carolyn Leavitt said on December 1 that the Trump administration was “actively re-vetting” all Afghan nationals who entered the US during Biden’s administration.
The AP could not independently determine the immigration status of each Afghan or the reasons given by authorities for their arrests. In one case, the man was arrested twice on suspicion of domestic violence, according to the government.
Homeland Department spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin said in an email that the agency is “working vigorously to identify and arrest known or suspected terrorists and criminal illegal aliens who came through Biden’s fraudulent parole programs and to expel criminals and public safety threats from our country.”
The 29-year-old Afghan suspect in the shooting, Rahmanullah Lakanwal, was granted asylum earlier this year, according to the advocacy group #AfghanEvac.
Critics say Afghans are paying the price of a bad actor
Since the shootings, the US government introduced sweeping immigration changes, including freezing asylum applications and requiring increased vetting for immigrants from certain countries. The administration also took steps specifically targeting Afghans, including halting all immigration-related applications and visas for Afghans who closely helped the war effort.
Those working with Afghans say the increase in enforcement amounts to mass punishment of a population, many of whom risked their lives to protect American troops.
Democratic Representative Ami Bera, whose California district includes Sacramento, said of Lacanval, “The horrific murder that occurred cannot be ignored, but he was a bad actor who should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.” “Many of these people kept our troops safe and served shoulder to shoulder with our troops for two decades in Afghanistan.”
Ruckus was created after reporting to ICE
In Sacramento, Afghan men arrived at the ICE office one by one on Dec. 1, told to report there immediately, 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 who were called randomly at 6 a.m. and told to check-in and report immediately,” Garcia said. “Most of these Afghan men already had ankle monitors.”
Volunteers with her organization witnessed six Afghans being arrested by ICE that day.
Arrests and cancellations create fear
In Des Moines, Iowa, Ann Naftier, with the Iowa Migrant Movement for Justice, said her Afghan client was detained while walking to work on Dec. 2 by agents who called him a “terrorist.” He was detained for two hours before being released after apologizing.
Waheeda Noorzad is an immigration attorney in Northern California who has two Afghan clients who were arrested by ICE last week. Both entered the US through the southern border in recent years. One used an app set up by the Biden administration to make an appointment to request asylum at the border.
Noorzad felt both had strong cases to ultimately be granted asylum in the US. They also said that they could not find any criminal record for him.
Spojmi Nasiri, another immigration lawyer in Northern California, said she has received several calls from worried Afghans, including one man who described them as frightened because agents were standing outside his home. He put her on speaker phone so he could tell them that his client was a US citizen.
Iqbal Wafa, an Afghan immigration consultant in Sacramento, said officials told his client that interviews for Afghans had been canceled when he went to his appointment last week, and he noticed that interviews for other Afghan immigrants inside a federal building in Sacramento had also been canceled.
A family left crying
Garcia said she listened through the wall of the waiting room of the ICE office and heard agents handcuffing the father of the family she was helping.
“I’m yelling through the wall about his rights so he can hear me. ‘Shut up! Please don’t sign anything!'” she said. She left after coming in contact with the security personnel.
When she left the building without him, he said his wife started crying.
Her daughter consoled her and said, “Mummy, don’t cry. Everything will be fine when Papa comes.”
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Belisle reported from Seattle, Watson from San Diego and Santana from Washington.