ICE crackdown imperils Afghans who aided U.S. war effort, lawyers say

Washington Post

2 days ago

One former interpreter for U.S. forces in Afghanistan was detained by immigration agents in Connecticut last month after he showed up for a routine green card appointment. A second was arrested in June, just minutes after attending his first asylum hearing in San Diego.
As the administration seeks to fulfill President Donald Trump's pledge to carry out the largest deportation operation in U.S. history, attorneys for the men say their clients — Afghans who fear retribution from the Taliban for their work assisting the United States in its 20-year war in Afghanistan — have found themselves in the crosshairs of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The attorneys provided The Washington Post with military contracts and certificates, asylum and visa applications, recommendation letters and other records that described both men's work on behalf of U.S. forces during the war.
After Kabul fell to the Taliban in August 2021, President Joe Biden's administration moved to resettle Afghans who had worked for the U.S. government through the Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) program, which grants lawful permanent resident status and a pathway to U.S. citizenship. As of April, about 25,000 Afghans had received an SIV, and another 160,000 had pending applications, said Adam Bates, an attorney with the International Refugee Assistance Program who analyzed State Department data.
But the Trump administration is rolling back programs created to assist more than 250,000 Afghans — including the allies who worked for U.S. forces and other refugees who fled after the Taliban takeover. And while administration officials say SIV processing will continue, advocates for Afghans who served with U.S. troops fear the curtailment of programs they depend on, along with Trump's ambitious deportation plan, jeopardizes those still vying for SIV protection.
They point to the arrests of Zia, 36, and Sayed Naser, 33, whose attorneys argue they followed proper immigration processes. The Post agreed to withhold the last names of both men because of the ongoing threats to their lives from the Taliban.
'Zia is not an outlier,' his attorney Lauren Cundick Petersen said during a news conference last month. 'We're witnessing the deliberate redefinition of legal entry as illegal for the purpose of meeting enforcement quotas.'
Matt Zeller, an Army veteran whose Afghan interpreter saved his life in a 2008 firefight, co-founded the nonprofit No One Left Behind to help resettle Afghans. He said he fears the immigration crackdown will unwind that effort.
'The Trump administration knows what's going to happen to these folks. They're not stupid. They understand that the Taliban is going to kill them when they get back to Afghanistan,' Zeller said. 'They just don't care.'
In response to questions from The Post, White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said the administration's top immigration enforcement priority is 'arresting and removing the dangerous violent, illegal criminal aliens that Joe Biden let flood across our Southern Border — of which there are many.'
'America is safer because of President Trump's immigration policies,' she said.
Zia worked as an interpreter and cultural adviser at Camp Mike Spann in Mazar-e Sharif, Afghanistan, from about 2005 until 2009, Petersen, his attorney, told The Post.
Because of his work, Zia 'suffered and continues to suffer threats to the life and property of himself and his family members by enemy forces and criminal elements,' says a recommendation letter from a supervisor who oversaw Zia's interpreter work.
The father of five fled to Pakistan with his family in 2021. There, Zia applied for an SIV, while his youngest brother — already a U.S. citizen — applied for humanitarian parole on Zia's behalf.
In April 2024, the State Department approved Zia's SIV application, according to a letter from the U.S. Embassy in Kabul. He also received humanitarian parole that year, which temporarily granted him and his family entry into the United States. Zia and his family flew to New York in October, eventually resettling in Connecticut, and was in the process of applying for a green card, Petersen said.
'He rented a home, he'd settled his kids into school, he'd found full-time employment,' Petersen said.
Zia was detained by ICE outside an immigration office in East Hartford on July 16 and given an expedited-removal order, Petersen said. The Department of Homeland Security has said Zia is under investigation for a 'serious criminal allegation,' but Petersen said during the news conference that her client does not have a criminal record.
Zia, who as of July 31 was being held at Plymouth County Correctional Facility in Massachusetts, has filed a habeas petition seeking his release from detention. On July 17, a federal judge temporarily blocked Zia's removal from the country.
In a court filing, DHS argued that Zia is a 'risk to the national security of the United States.' DHS declined to comment further on the allegations against Zia.
Sayed Naser is in a similar situation.
According to his asylum declaration, Sayed Naser worked as an interpreter for U.S. troops at a training center in Kabul from 2011 until 2013, before co-founding a logistics company that contracted with the U.S. military to provide transportation, support demining missions and lease heavy machinery.
Sayed Naser said he faced 'numerous threats and attacks' for his work: 'over seven of our vehicles were burned by the Taliban,' he wrote in the asylum declaration. 'To them, anyone or any company working with foreign forces is considered an infidel and a legitimate target.'
He and his family went into hiding in 2021, after Taliban fighters stormed a relative's wedding in Kabul looking for him, according to his attorney, Brian McGoldrick. Unable to find the man, the Taliban instead killed Sayed Naser's brother and took his father into custody, Sayed Naser wrote in his asylum declaration.
After obtaining a visa to enter Iran, Sayed Naser flew to Brazil and then traveled to Mexico. He was allowed to enter the United States in July 2024 after receiving humanitarian parole. He has a pending SIV application and has separately applied for asylum.
In June, Sayed Naser was detained by ICE in a San Diego courthouse just minutes after attending his first asylum hearing. Attorneys for DHS had moved to dismiss Sayed Naser's asylum claim, with the agency saying on social media there is no record he assisted the U.S. government in any capacity.
An asylum officer determined in July that Sayed Naser faces a credible fear of persecution or torture if deported, according to McGoldrick, and made him eligible to reapply for asylum. He remains in ICE custody at the Otay Mesa Detention Center in San Diego.
'To the American government: I believed in you. I worked with you. I helped you for years, side by side. I trusted your words and followed your rules,' Sayed Naser said in a June 29 statement to media. 'Now, I sit in detention — treated like a criminal for doing exactly what I was told to do.'
Jill Marie Bussey, director for legal affairs at Global Refuge, a resettlement agency that handles refugee placements across the United States, noted that the Trump administration wants ICE to make a minimum of 3,000 arrests a day.
'They don't intend to do this by actually targeting individuals with criminal backgrounds, but rather by stripping the legal protections,' Bussey said.
Andrew Sullivan, executive director of No One Left Behind, said the crackdown is another betrayal from an administration that also eliminated temporary protected status for Afghans.
'We stayed there and put troops at risk to try and get Afghan allies to safety,' said Sullivan, an Army veteran who served in Afghanistan. 'To now look at potentially sending folks back — I think that doesn't honor the sacrifice of the 13 Americans that were killed at Abbey Gate, keeping that airport open to save Afghan allies.'