The 19-year-old son of an Afghan interpreter who was arrested by immigration officers last year is now in federal custody.
A man identified as Zia who worked alongside American armed forces and legally entered the U.S. was arrested by several Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers last summer after he showed up for a routine appointment for his green card.
His case drew national attention and outrage from state officials and members of Congress who demanded his release from ICE custody. He spent nearly three months inside.
This week, ICE officers arrested his son.
Lawyers for a Connecticut high school student identified as Rihan filed a lawsuit for his release from federal custody after his arrest on April 6. A judge initially blocked his movement from an ICE detention center in the state while his legal battle continues, but agents later moved him to a correctional facility in Massachusetts, records show.
“I am appalled by ICE’s aggressive tactics in apprehending a teenager who is here in the U.S. because his family put their lives on the line to help our troops in Afghanistan,” Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut said in a statement.
After the Department of Homeland Security “tried and failed to send his father back to near certain death in Afghanistan,” the agency is now “targeting his children,” according to the senator, who is working with the teen’s family for his release.
“It’s disgusting and offensive,” Blumenthal said. “They deserve protection – not persecution.”
Zia, his wife and children entered the United States in 2024, when Rihan was still a minor, with temporary legal protections that were set to expire in October, according to the teen’s lawyers. The family was granted a form of protection called humanitarian parole following threats from the Taliban, according to the family’s legal team.
Rihan applied for a green card in June, which is still pending.
ICE agents arrested Zia outside a federal building in Hartford following an appointment about his green card application.
Government lawyers later said in a court filing that his arrest followed a tip from the FBI that his presence poses a national security risk, though court documents did not present any evidence or explanation. He was released in October after spending three months in custody.
“The family followed all the rules,” according to immigration attorney Lauren Peterson, who worked on Zia’s case. “It’s done everything right. It’s our government that is not following its own rules – or claiming that the rules have changed, or maybe claiming that there are no rules at all when it comes to immigrants.”
Jeff Solan, the superintendent of Cheshire Public Schools, sent a message to the school’s community about Rihan’s arrest.
“Our student’s family is working through the immigration process after supporting American troops in a war zone,” he wrote. “Being taken off the streets under these circumstances feels more like a miscarriage of justice than an enforcement of law. “
Cheshire city officials said in a statement that family’s ordeal “underscores the human impact of our immigration system and raises serious concerns about fairness, consistency, and compassion in its enforcement.”
“No young person, especially one pursuing an education and contributing to their community, should have their future thrown into uncertainty while awaiting a legal decision,” they said.
Governor Ned Lamont called Rihan’s arrest an “intimidation” tactic.
The Independent has requested comment from DHS.
President Donald Trump’s efforts to arrest and deport tens of thousands of people in a radically scaled-up anti-immigration campaign has increasingly targeted Afghans — including people granted humanitarian protections to live and work in the U.S. after working alongside American troops during the war in Afghanistan.
Last year, the administration announced plans to strip temporary protections for roughly 11,700 Afghans who fled the country following the U.S. withdrawal in 2021, which led to the evacuation of tens of thousands of people in the wake of the devastating years-long war.
Then-DHS Secretary Kristi Noem claimed that “Afghanistan has had an improved security situation, and its stabilizing economy no longer prevent [sic] them from returning to their home country.”
The administration directed ICE to target hundreds of Afghans with pending removal orders after an Afghan national fatally shot a National Guard service member in Washington, D.C. last November.
Those efforts have seen a dramatic spike in the number of Afghans in ICE custody.
An Afghan man who fought with U.S. forces and was legally evacuated to the U.S. after the fall of Kabul died in ICE custody last month — less than 24 hours after he was arrested.
Mohammad Nazeer Paktyawal, 41, was preparing to drive his kids to school in the Dallas area when agents in unmarked vehicles allegedly surrounded him and arrested him in front of his children.
Paktyawal, 41, had worked for the American military during its occupation of Afghanistan before moving to the U.S. in 2021. Federal law enforcement accused him of defrauding a federal food aid benefits program, though his case hadn’t been heard in court at the time of his death.
He was the father of six children, the youngest of them 18 months old.
His family is still searching for answers as to what led to his death.
“I’m nothing, just nothing without him,” his brother told The Independent last month. “He was everything for me. He was everything for his family, for my mom. For my entire family. They took everything from me, from his family, from those six kids and his wife.”
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