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.