Former Afghan interpreter detained in East Hartford, attorney says

A former Aghan interpreter living here in Connecticut has been taken away by immigration agents.

That’s according to the man’s attorney, who says he was here legally with his wife and children.

“So my reaction – horror. Fury,” Maggie Mitchell Salem, of Integrated Refugee and Immigrant Services, said.

That concern follows what reportedly happened at the Citizenship and Immigration Service office in East Hartford on Wednesday.

Attorney Lauren Cundick Petersen said the man – identified as Zia – went there as part of the process to get a green card for him and his family based on his service as an interpreter for U.S. troops in Afghanistan.

That’s when she said he was surrounded by immigration agents and taken away to a facility in Massachusetts.

“He’s been in combat situations. He’s been in a war-torn country. This is the kind of thing that I think he thought he totally left behind. You know, people in balaclava shoving you into a van, carrying weapons, right?” Petersen said.

Petersen said on Thursday, a court issued an emergency order that he cannot be removed from the country for now.

And a hearing in a couple of weeks is expected for the government to explain its actions.

If he were to be deported, it’s not certain where he’d go.

Petersen said Zia came here legally last year and lives in the New Haven area with his wife and five children.

The family had received support from the New Haven-based Integrated Refugee and Immigrant Services, or IRIS.

“I can’t even imagine being in their shoes right now. And then the fear that they must have if he can be picked up like this what about the rest of the family? What about others?” Maggie Mitchell Salem, of IRIS, said.

IRIS saic there are hundreds of people – potentially thousands, including families – who have resettled in Connecticut from Afghanistan.

And they are concerned about how many others might be in jeopardy after a Trump administrative order takes a closer look at those who have entered the country since January 2021.

We reached out to Immigration and Customs Enforcement for comment but have not yet heard back.