Immigration lawyers say Afghan Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrests are on the rise after National Guard attack in D.C

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — On a recent afternoon, Giselle Garcia, a volunteer who was helping an Afghan family resettle, drove the father to a check-in point with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. She warned him and his family to prepare for the worst.

The moment the father entered the ICE office in the California capital, he was arrested.

Just days after two National Guard troops were shot by a suspected Afghan national, federal authorities have carried out increased arrests of Afghans in the United States, immigration lawyers say, as Afghans inside and outside the country are under intense scrutiny by immigration officials.

Garcia said the family she helped attended all of her appointments and followed all legal requirements.

“He was trying to be strong for his wife and children in the car, but the anxiety and fear were palpable,” she said. He added: “His wife was trying to hold back her tears, but I could see her in the rearview mirror crying silently.”

Garcia said they fled Afghanistan under threat from the Taliban because the wife’s father was helping the US military, and they sought asylum at the US-Mexico border. He or his family were not identified for fear of arresting other members.

Afghan men arrested following the shooting

Since the November 26 shooting of the Guard, the Associated Press has tracked nearly two dozen arrests of Afghan immigrants, most of which occurred in Northern California. And in Sacramento, home to one of the country’s largest Afghan communities, volunteers who monitor ICE activities say they witnessed at least nine arrests at the federal building last week after Afghan men received calls checking on their presence there.

Many of the detainees have requested asylum at the US-Mexico border in the past two years. Others were among 76,000 Afghans brought to the United States as part of Operation Welcoming Allies, established by former President Joe Biden’s administration after the chaotic US withdrawal from their country.

White House press secretary Carolyn Leavitt said on December 1 that the Trump administration was “rescreening” all Afghan nationals who entered the United States during the Biden administration.

The AP was unable to independently determine the immigration status of each of the Afghans or the reasons authorities gave for their arrest. In one case, the man was arrested twice on suspicion of domestic violence, according to the government.

Tricia McLaughlin, a spokeswoman for the Interior Department, said in an email that the agency is “making every effort to identify and arrest known or suspected terrorists and illegal aliens who entered through Biden’s fraudulent parole programs and are working to remove criminals and public safety threats from our country.”

Rahmanullah Lakhanwal, the 29-year-old Afghan suspect in the shooting, was granted asylum earlier this year, according to the advocacy group #AfghanEvac.

Critics say Afghans are paying the price for one bad actor

Since the shooting, the US government has made sweeping changes to immigration, including temporarily halting asylum claims and requiring greater vetting of immigrants from certain countries. The administration has also taken steps specifically targeting Afghans, including temporarily halting all immigration and visa applications for Afghans who have closely assisted in the war effort.

Those who work with Afghans say tougher law enforcement amounts to collective punishment of residents, many of whom have risked their lives to protect American forces.

“We don’t discount the horrific murder that occurred, but this was a bad actor who should be prosecuted under the full law,” Democratic Rep. Ami Bera, whose district includes Sacramento, California, said of Lacanwal. “Many of these people have kept our forces safe and served alongside our Soldiers for two decades in Afghanistan.”

He was handcuffed after notifying ICE

In Sacramento, the Afghan men arrived one by one at an ICE office on December 1 after being told to report there immediately, drawing the attention of volunteers who had been at the federal building for more than six months monitoring ICE activities and alerting migrants.

As each man entered the office, agents handcuffed them, said Garcia, the NorCal Resist volunteer.

“What we saw on Monday was an influx of Afghan migrants who were called randomly starting at 6 a.m. and asked to check in and report immediately,” Garcia said. “Most of these Afghan men already had monitors on their ankles.”

Her organization’s volunteers witnessed ICE arrest six Afghans that day.

Arrests and cancellations spark fear

In Des Moines, Iowa, Anne Navier, of Immigrants for Justice Iowa, said her Afghan client was arrested on December 2 on his way to work by agents who described him as a “terrorist.” He was detained for two hours before being released with an apology.

Waheeda Noorzad is an immigration attorney in Northern California who has two Afghan clients who were arrested last week by ICE. Both entered the United States in recent years via the southern border. One of them used the app created by the Biden administration to schedule an asylum request at the border.

Noorzad felt they had strong cases for eventual asylum in the United States, and also said she could not find any criminal records for them.

Spogmi Nasiri, another immigration attorney in Northern California, said she received numerous calls from worried Afghans, including a man who called her in a panic while agents stood outside his home. He puts her on speakerphone so she can tell them that her client is an American citizen.

Iqbal Wafa, an Afghan immigration consultant in Sacramento, said officials told his client when he went to his appointment last week that interviews with the Afghans had been cancelled, and he noticed that interviews with other Afghan immigrants were also canceled inside the federal building in Sacramento.

His client, who asked to be identified only by his last name, Mohammadi, for fear that his comments would affect the safety of his relatives in Afghanistan, said he came to the United States with his family in 2017 after working as a security guard for both the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the U.S. Embassy in Afghanistan for 12 years. He said that last week he saw other people who were not Afghans going to their interviews before they learned that his interview had been cancelled.

“I started thinking: ‘I didn’t do anything,’” Mohammadi said. He said he felt betrayed after the hard work that led to the interview for US citizenship. “What will happen to our future?”

Ruhollah R., 30, wondered the same thing. He worked at an animal shelter in Kabul, Afghanistan, and came to the United States in 2024 after being sponsored by Animal Welfare in New York. He did not want his last name used for fear it would hurt his case. He said the pause in the green card application process “created a lot of challenges” and for many Afghans like him, “their morale is low.”

A family was left crying

Garcia said she listened through the wall of the ICE office’s waiting room and heard agents handcuffing the father of the family she was helping.

“I’m screaming his rights through the wall so he can hear me,” she said. “Stay silent! Please don’t sign anything!” She left after security approached.

When she left the building without him, she said his wife broke down in tears.

Their daughter tried to console her, telling her: “Mom, don’t cry. Everything will be fine when dad comes.”

Belisle reported from Seattle, Watson reported from San Diego, and Santana reported from Washington.