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1. Embed this notice
   Nonilex (nonilex@masto.ai)'s status on Monday, 04-Aug-2025 06:38:21 JST Nonilex

   #ICE crackdown imperils #Afghans who aided #US war effort
   
2 former #Afghan #interpreters for US forces face #deportation despite following #immigration processes, acc/to attorneys for the men.

   One former interpreter for US forces in #Afghanistan was detained by ICE 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.

   #law #Trump
   https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2025/08/03/afghanistan-immigrants-trump-deportations/

   • Embed this notice
     Nonilex (nonilex@masto.ai)'s status on Monday, 04-Aug-2025 06:38:17 JST Nonilex

     in reply to

     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.

     #immigration #law #USmilitary #betrayal

     Steve's Place repeated this.
   • Embed this notice
     Nonilex (nonilex@masto.ai)'s status on Monday, 04-Aug-2025 06:38:18 JST Nonilex

     in reply to

     Attys for #DHS had moved to dismiss Sayed Naser’s asylum claim, with the agency claiming on social media [not in court] there is no record he assisted the US government in any capacity.

     An #asylum officer determined in July that Sayed Naser faces a credible fear of persecution or torture if deported, acc/to McGoldrick, & made him eligible to reapply for asylum. He remains in #ICE custody at the Otay Mesa Detention Center in San Diego.

     #Trump #immigration #law #USmilitary #betrayal

     Steve's Place repeated this.
   • Embed this notice
     Nonilex (nonilex@masto.ai)'s status on Monday, 04-Aug-2025 06:38:18 JST Nonilex

     in reply to

     “To the American government: I believed in you. I worked with you. I helped you for years, side by side. I trusted your words & 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.”

     #Trump #immigration #law #USmilitary #betrayal

     Steve's Place repeated this.
   • Embed this notice
     Nonilex (nonilex@masto.ai)'s status on Monday, 04-Aug-2025 06:38:19 JST Nonilex

     in reply to

     After obtaining a #visa to enter Iran, Sayed Naser flew to Brazil & then traveled to Mexico. He was allowed to enter the #US in July 2024 after receiving #humanitarian parole. He has a pending #SIV application & 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.

     #Trump #immigration #law #USmilitary #betrayal

   • Embed this notice
     Nonilex (nonilex@masto.ai)'s status on Monday, 04-Aug-2025 06:38:20 JST Nonilex

     in reply to

     Sayed Naser said he faced “numerous threats & attacks” for his work: “over 7 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 & a legitimate target.”

     #Trump #immigration #law #USmilitary #betrayal

   • Embed this notice
     Nonilex (nonilex@masto.ai)'s status on Monday, 04-Aug-2025 06:38:20 JST Nonilex

     in reply to

     He & his family went into hiding in 2021, after #Taliban fighters stormed a relative’s wedding in Kabul looking for him, acc/to his atty, Brian McGoldrick. Unable to find the man, the Taliban instead killed Sayed Naser’s brother & took his father into custody, Sayed Naser wrote in his #asylum declaration.

     #Trump #immigration #law #USmilitary #betrayal

   • Embed this notice
     Nonilex (nonilex@masto.ai)'s status on Monday, 04-Aug-2025 06:38:21 JST Nonilex

     in reply to

     Sayed Naser is in a similar situation.
     
According to his #asylum declaration, Sayed Naser worked as an #interpreter for #US troops at a training center in Kabul from 2011 until 2013, before co-founding a logistics company that contracted with the #USmilitary to provide transportation, support demining missions & lease heavy machinery.

     #Trump #immigration #law #betrayal

   • Embed this notice
     Nonilex (nonilex@masto.ai)'s status on Monday, 04-Aug-2025 06:38:22 JST Nonilex

     in reply to

     Zia, who as of July 31 was being held at Plymouth County Correctional Facility in Massachusetts, has filed a #HabeasCorpus 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. [they think all #Muslims are threats].

     #Trump #immigration #law #USmilitary #betrayal

   • Embed this notice
     Nonilex (nonilex@masto.ai)'s status on Monday, 04-Aug-2025 06:38:23 JST Nonilex

     in reply to

     The father of 5 fled to Pakistan with his family in 2021. There, Zia applied for an #SIV, while his youngest brother—already a US citizen—applied for #humanitarian parole on Zia’s behalf.
     
In April 2024, the #State Dept approved Zia’s SIV application, acc/to a letter from the US Embassy in Kabul. He also received humanitarian parole that year, which temporarily granted him & his family entry into the #US.

     #Trump #immigration #law #USmilitary #betrayal

   • Embed this notice
     Nonilex (nonilex@masto.ai)'s status on Monday, 04-Aug-2025 06:38:23 JST Nonilex

     in reply to

     Zia & his family flew to NY in Oct, eventually resettling in Connecticut, &…applied for a green card….

     “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 & given an expedited-removal order…. #DHS said Zia is under investigation for a “serious criminal allegation,” but Petersen said…that her client does not have a criminal record.

     #Trump #law #USmilitary

   • Embed this notice
     Nonilex (nonilex@masto.ai)'s status on Monday, 04-Aug-2025 06:38:24 JST Nonilex

     in reply to

     Zia worked as an #interpreter & 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 & continues to suffer threats to the life & property of himself & his family members by enemy forces & criminal elements,” says a recommendation letter from a supervisor who oversaw Zia’s interpreter work.

     #Trump #immigration #law #USmilitary #betrayal

   • Embed this notice
     Nonilex (nonilex@masto.ai)'s status on Monday, 04-Aug-2025 06:38:25 JST Nonilex

     in reply to

     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.”

     #Trump #law #USmilitary

   • Embed this notice
     Nonilex (nonilex@masto.ai)'s status on Monday, 04-Aug-2025 06:38:25 JST Nonilex

     in reply to

     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.”

     #law #USmilitary #betrayal

   • Embed this notice
     Nonilex (nonilex@masto.ai)'s status on Monday, 04-Aug-2025 06:38:26 JST Nonilex

     in reply to

     After #Kabul fell to the #Taliban in August 2021, President Joe #Biden’s admin moved to resettle #Afghans who had worked for the #US government through the Special Immigrant #Visa (#SIV) program, which grants lawful permanent resident status & a pathway to US #citizenship. As of April, about 25k Afghans had received an SIV, & another 160k had pending applications, said Adam Bates, an attorney with the International #Refugee Assistance Program who analyzed #State Dept data.

     #immigration #law

   • Embed this notice
     Nonilex (nonilex@masto.ai)'s status on Monday, 04-Aug-2025 06:38:26 JST Nonilex

     in reply to

     But the #Trump admin is rolling back programs created to assist >250k #Afghans — including the #allies who worked for #US forces & other #refugees who fled after the #Taliban takeover. And while admin officials say #SIV processing *will continue*, advocates for Afghans who served with US troops fear the curtailment of programs they depend on, along with Trump’s ambitious #deportation plan, jeopardizes those still vying for SIV protection.

     #immigration #law #USmilitary #betrayal

   • Embed this notice
     Nonilex (nonilex@masto.ai)'s status on Monday, 04-Aug-2025 06:38:27 JST Nonilex

     in reply to

     As the admin seeks to fulfill #Trump’s pledge to carry out the largest #deportation op in #US history, attys for the men say their clients — #Afghans who fear retribution from the #Taliban for their work assisting the US in its 20-yr war in #Afghanistan — have found themselves in the crosshairs of #ICE. The attys provided WaPo with #military #contracts & certificates, #asylum & #visa applications, recommendation letters & other records that described both men’s work on behalf of #USmilitary….

   • Embed this notice
     Nonilex (nonilex@masto.ai)'s status on Monday, 04-Aug-2025 06:38:41 JST Nonilex

     in reply to

     Andrew Sullivan, exec dir of No One Left Behind, said the crackdown is another #betrayal from an admin that also eliminated temporary protected status [#TPS] for #Afghans.
     
“We stayed there & put troops at risk to try & 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.”

   • Embed this notice
     Vassil Nikolov | Васил Николов (vnikolov@ieji.de)'s status on Monday, 04-Aug-2025 06:39:43 JST Vassil Nikolov | Васил Николов

     in reply to

     @Nonilex wrote:
     > ... noted that the #Trump administration wants #ICE to make a minimum of 3,000 arrests a day

     Like Stalin's regime, which set targets for the number of foreign spies arrested...
     🙁