A video taken in the halls of federal court in San Diego and shared with NBC 7 shows a man being detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement while saying he worked for the U.S. military in Afghanistan.
In a video captured on Thursday, a man is heard calmly telling agents he was an interpreter for the U.S. military in Afghanistan.
The man’s attorney, Brian McGoldrick, requested NBC 7 not use his client’s name. He said the man came to the U.S. within the last two years, after he was unable to airlift out of Afghanistan during the U.S. withdrawal. His client used the now-defunct CBP One app to ask for asylum at the San Ysidro Port of Entry. He was granted parole and was in the process of applying for a Special Immigrant Visa.
“While he was in Afghanistan, he was threatened repeatedly. His family was threatened repeatedly,” McGoldrick said. “He believes that if he returns, he’ll be detained, probably tortured and possibly even killed.”
NBC 7 contacted ICE for comment on the incident but did not receive a response.
“They want to deny him even the opportunity to have his asylum case heard by having his case dismissed, putting him into expedited removal and trying to spirit him out of the country,” McGoldrick said.
The video is particularly chilling for James Seddon, a 21-year Navy veteran who served in Afghanistan and works with #AfghanEvac to legally resettle those who aided the U.S. during its longest war. He is concerned about the message this sends to potential allies in future conflicts.
“I don’t know, based on how we’re currently treating our wartime allies, how anybody in the future would consider working with us,” Seddon said. “We’re supposed to have due process. We’re supposed to give people their day in court. And what we saw on that clip was an example that runs counter to all of that. And it’s difficult for me to reconcile that with the America that I thought I served.”
McGoldrick said his client is still in custody as of Friday afternoon. In the video, the man can be heard saying he came to the U.S. to “make a better life” and that he “worked in a very dangerous part of Afghanistan.”
“He just came here trying to get asylum for what he did for our country, and this is how we’re treating him,” McGoldrick said.
Several videos showing ICE detaining people in the halls of the federal courthouse have surfaced in recent weeks.