Weeks after U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents seized a San Diego Afghan man after an asylum hearing, the agency has again arrested an Afghan who worked with the U.S. military during its 20-year occupation of Afghanistan, advocates said.
Zia, a 35-year-old father of five, was in the U.S. after he and his family were granted humanitarian parole last year, according to the nonprofit #AfghanEvac, which helps resettle Afghans in the U.S.
KPBS is only using Zia's first name because he fears for his family's safety.
He lives in Connecticut, has an approved application for a Special Immigrant Visa, and a pending green card application. It was after a biometrics appointment related to that application that masked ICE agents arrested him, his attorney said at a news conference Tuesday.
"Zia has done everything right," said Lauren Petersen, Zia's attorney. "He's followed the rules. He has no criminal history. Zia was approved for humanitarian parole in 2024 due to direct Taliban threats. He's ... absolutely terrified he'll be sent back to Afghanistan."
Documents provided to KPBS by #AfghanEvac show Zia worked with U.S. forces. They include reference letters from U.S. Army officers and Certificates of Appreciation from U.S. units deployed to Afghanistan.
ICE did not respond to a request for comment on Zia's case.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., said (Americans) should be "ashamed and disgraced" by what's happened to him.
"He actually worked and risked his life in Afghanistan to uphold the values and rights that is central to democracy," Blumenthal told reporters at Tuesday's news conference. "And for now, him to be in effect violated in his rights when he has fought for those rights here is completely disgraceful."
Since January, the Trump administration has shifted U.S. policy toward Afghan resettlement — effectively grinding it to a halt, said Shawn VanDiver, co-founder of #AfghanEvac.
The administration halted all refugee travel, even for those already vetted and approved to settle in the U.S. In May, the State Department informed Congress it was closing the Office of the Coordinator for Afghan Relocation Efforts, or CARE.
This month, it ended Temporary Protected Status for Afghans.
In an email, a U.S. State Department spokesperson told KPBS the department is reorganizing to be more efficient and focus on an "America First" foreign policy.
VanDiver said Afghans legally in the U.S. are now living in fear.
"They arrived on parole, they have the parole protection and the protection of a pending asylum case or pending immigration action," he said. "The administration keeps taking away those protections ... and now they just feel targeted."
Jessica Bradley Rushing worked in the State Department's CARE office during the Biden administration. She now works with #AfghanEvac.
She told KPBS that since the fall of Kabul to the Taliban in 2021, Afghan refugees have undergone rigorous screening before ever being resettled in the U.S.
"We know who they are," she said. "We worked alongside them over the course of 20 years of war. There is no immigrant population that is more well known to the (government). There is no immigrant population in our history that is more well-vetted before they arrived."
Sayed Naser, the Afghan interpreter arrested at an asylum hearing in San Diego last month, passed a credible fear interview with an immigration agent, his attorney said Tuesday.
He remains in ICE custody in Otay Mesa while he begins the asylum process over again.
