At least two Afghan refugees have been detained by the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in the Sacramento area of California, sparking concern among refugee advocacy organizations and the Afghan community. These detentions come amid a federal plan initiated under the previous US administration led by Donald Trump, aiming to deport nearly 150 Afghans held in immigration detention centers. Court documents reveal a plan to transfer these individuals to Pakistan and then to Afghanistan. Human rights groups have warned that returning them to a country controlled by the Taliban regime poses risks of retaliation and torture, especially for those who collaborated with US forces or Western entities.<\/p>\n
Over 60 members of the US Congress have jointly sent a letter to the Secretary of State and Acting Secretary of Homeland Security, urging the cancellation of deportation flights targeting Afghan and Iranian refugees, including those deported through third countries. They emphasized that sending these individuals back to Afghanistan could result in abuse, torture, or even death.<\/p>\n
Shawn VanDiver, head of the Afghan Evacuation organization, noted that this deportation plan includes individuals who served alongside US forces and trusted America. Democratic representative Doris Matsui expressed concern that Afghan families who supported US forces are among those at risk of deportation, with some losing their legal protections under new government policies.<\/p>\n
Nazar Ahmad, a former translator for US forces and member of the Afghan-American coalition, also expressed dismay over the plan, warning that anyone on these flights could be personally at risk. He fears that Afghans who came to the US seeking security might be handed over to those who previously opposed US forces.<\/p>\n
A federal court ruling in New York in early November has temporarily halted immediate deportations to Afghanistan or Pakistan and ordered that certain individuals must be notified prior to any deportations to these or other countries. However, this ruling does not constitute a general ban on ICE detentions or investigations, and it remains unclear whether the detainees in Sacramento are included in this protected group.<\/p>\n
US Immigration and the Department of Homeland Security have told the media that they respect all legal orders. No additional information has been disclosed regarding the identity, immigration status, or current location of the two detained Afghan refugees in Sacramento.<\/p>\n
These developments unfold as Afghanistan, under Taliban rule, faces extensive security and human rights threats, and forced returns of refugees could endanger their lives.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
US immigration authorities have detained Afghan refugees in California amid deportation plans that raise serious human rights concerns under Taliban rule.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25625,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25626","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-important-news","category-migrant-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25626","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25626"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25626\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25625"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25626"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25626"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25626"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}