Former Afghan soldier arrested at home by ICE, stripped of asylum protections
The soldier is one of at least 20,000 Afghans seeking asylum nationwide, having fled Afghanistan after aiding the U.S. military during the two-decades-long war there.
Andrew Schneider | Posted onJune 3, 2025, 3:08 PM
A former Afghan National Army soldier in the process of applying for asylum in the U.S. was arrested last month by federal immigration agents at his Houston-area home, according to his attorney, who said the man and most of his family are being threatened with deportation.
"He has eight kids. Two of those kids were born in the U.S. during the last four years," said immigration attorney Ali Zakaria, who declined to provide his client's name, citing safety concerns. "He was brought to the U.S. by the U.S. armed forces in 2021 when (the) Taliban took over Afghanistan. He had previously been employed as part of what’s called Kandahar Strike Force, which I believe is a part of the Afghan armed forces. And his job was to basically guard a base where Americans and Afghan soldiers worked."
Zakaria said his client's application for asylum should have protected him, but added that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents disregarded it.
"He does not have a criminal record. He has not been charged with any crimes, and he has never been arrested in the U.S. before," Zakaria said. "He was just seized and taken away. He tried to explain that he had proper parole status when he entered the U.S. and that that parole is still valid ’til the end of the year, or almost to the end of the year, but the ICE officer said, ‘We have canceled everything, and you’re out of status.' And the charging document that has been filed with the court simply says that he’s in the United States without any status" ...
https://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/articles/news/politics/immigration/2025/06/03/523004/former-afghan-soldier-arrested-at-houston-area-home-by-ice-stripped-of-asylum-protections/
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