2026-02-13T06:00:46.762Z / 美国有线电视新闻网（CNN）
当美国陆军退伍军人赛义德·努尔（Said Noor）在12月2日接到一个电话时，他立刻意识到情况不对劲。
他的弟弟拉尔（Lal）在得克萨斯州拉雷多，距离他们位于奥斯汀的家有几个小时的车程。拉尔紧张地解释说，他驾驶的商用卡车在海关与边境保护局的检查站被拦下。
当特工询问他是否是美国公民时，28岁的拉尔诚实地回答：他不是。他、他的母亲以及五个兄弟姐妹在美国撤军后逃离了阿富汗，目前他正在等待多年前提交的庇护申请的决定。
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赛义德在电话中与弟弟交谈时，能听到有人在激烈地询问拉尔给谁打的电话以及原因。赛义德告诉拉尔提供官员需要的任何信息以便他离开，但弟弟听起来很担心，于是赛义德让他把电话交给特工。
他试图安抚特工，他告诉CNN：
“我告诉他‘先生，我们就像成年人一样交谈，好吗？’我接着说，‘你是一名官员，你宣誓捍卫宪法。’我说，‘我也做过同样的事，我曾在军队服役，现在是一名退伍军人。’”
赛义德回忆说，这似乎在一定程度上缓和了局势，但该男子一直重复说拉尔“不被允许留在美国”。赛义德试图解释，拉尔与一名美国公民结婚，是通过美国军方从阿富汗撤离行动合法来到美国的，该行动主要是为了保护像他这样与美军合作并面临塔利班威胁的家庭。他试图解释拉尔正在等待的庇护案件，以及拉尔与另外8万名逃离该国、同样希望在美国建立新家园的阿富汗国民一起，正在通过法律程序争取永久居留身份。
但很快，电话被交给了第二名特工。他被告知，他们正在核实拉尔的身份。
阿富汗庇护案件曾获得两党支持，直到11月一名阿富汗难民在华盛顿特区开枪打死两名国民警卫队成员后，双方态度发生了急剧转变，而拉尔正是在检查站被拦下的前几天。
几个小时过去了，赛义德继续与弟弟沟通，而特工们则等待国土安全部的回应。但随后通讯中断了。赛义德仍然可以在Life360应用程序上看到拉尔的位置，但无法与他取得联系，当他致电附近的边境巡逻站时，似乎没有人能找到他。
赛义德告诉CNN，两天来他一直找不到弟弟——他拨打了几个边境检查站，但陷入了被转接电话的循环。
一名官员甚至告诉赛义德联系阿富汗驻美大使馆；当他解释说由于塔利班控制阿富汗，美国没有阿富汗大使馆时，该官员让他联系塔利班，而赛义德告诉CNN，塔利班在2020年曾在他家附近引爆炸弹，造成数人死亡，正是为了报复他为美军工作。
最终，赛义德找到了拉尔——他被关押在移民和海关执法局（ICE）运营的韦伯县拘留中心。
“我是合法来到美国的，”拉尔在1月份于拉雷多拘留中心接受CNN采访时说，他和家人只是希望有机会“过上好日子”。
国土安全部发言人特里西娅·麦克劳克林（Tricia McLaughlin）证实，拉尔于12月1日被拘留，此前他在一个边境入境点被移交接受二次检查。麦克劳克林称拉尔是“有犯罪记录的非法移民”，其“犯罪历史包括先前因袭击和故意损坏财产被逮捕”。
然而，拉尔家人分享的法庭文件显示，2023年对拉尔提出的“刑事恶作剧”指控被得克萨斯州加尔维斯顿的一名法官驳回，没有定罪或有罪认定。赛义德告诉CNN，这起事件据称涉及拉尔损坏他人手机，而拉尔否认了这一点。驳回动议称，由于没有证人，该指控被驳回，而家人表示这是拉尔唯一一次与执法部门发生冲突。
麦克劳克林还说，拉尔在12月被要求停车是因为他的工作许可已过期，但赛义德解释说他已经申请了延期。拉尔于2025年8月在得克萨斯州获得了商业驾驶执照，有效期至2034年。
麦克劳克林没有回应关于被驳回指控或工作许可延期的后续问题。
虽然拉尔原定于2月12日进行最后的法庭听证会，但他的律师请求推迟听证会并获得批准，因为他们试图在法庭外解决问题。如果未能达成协议，拉尔将于3月10日得知自己是否会被驱逐回近5年前与家人逃离的那个国家。
拉尔和他的家人是2021年8月塔利班接管阿富汗时被带到美国的数千名阿富汗人之一。逃离的恐慌在几天内演变成混乱、疯狂的时期，男男女女和儿童恳求美国及盟军军事伙伴让他们登上任何飞机离开该国。在喀布尔哈米德·卡尔扎伊国际机场，孩子们被从铁丝网下递交给美军，以绝望的方式寻求安全。
空军后来表示，将平民撤离该国的艰巨任务——主要针对与美国政府和军队合作的阿富汗人及其直系亲属——导致超过124,000人被撤离。这项行动被称为“盟军难民行动”（Operation Allies Refuge），是美国历史上最大规模的非战斗人员撤离行动。
拉尔一家是由地面军人组织的大胆营救行动的受益者，该行动与民主党众议员塞思·莫尔顿（Seth Moulton）协调，莫尔顿是一名海军陆战队退伍军人，在撤军期间与共和党众议员彼得·迈耶（Peter Meijer）一起前往阿富汗。
与许多人一样，这个家庭面临着特殊的危险，因为赛义德曾作为平民翻译为美军服务，后来成为一名士兵。赛义德2014年移居美国，2016年加入美国陆军，并于2020年8月光荣退伍。
在美军撤离时以及之后的几年里，对于那些在阿富汗20年行动中帮助过美国的阿富汗家庭获得难民身份，存在两党强烈支持。
2022年，现任美国驻联合国大使迈克·沃尔茨（Mike Waltz）批评拜登政府“抛弃”阿富汗盟友，并呼吁追究官员对“未兑现的安全承诺”的责任。共和党参议员汤姆·科顿（Tom Cotton）——一名陆军退伍军人——呼吁前总统乔·拜登继续在阿富汗驻军“直到我们救出每一名美国公民以及那些为美军冒着生命危险的阿富汗人”。2021年8月，由55名参议员组成的两党团体在一封信中敦促拜登加快撤离阿富汗特别移民签证获得者及其家属的速度。
但这种支持已经减弱，特别是在11月发生两名国民警卫队成员在华盛顿特区被枪杀事件之后。一名士兵斯佩茨·萨拉·贝克斯崔姆（Spc. Sarah Beckstrom）死亡。嫌疑人被确认为一名29岁的阿富汗男子，他是在美国从阿富汗撤军后来到美国的，这进一步加剧了特朗普政府官员对难民审查的批评。
CNN此前报道称，该男子拉赫曼拉·拉坎沃尔（Rahmanullah Lakanwal）自2011年起就与美军和情报机构合作，经历了多轮审查。他最终在去年被特朗普政府批准获得永久庇护。
枪击事件后，特朗普政府宣布“无限期停止所有阿富汗移民的移民案件处理，等待进一步审查”。
当时美国总统唐纳德·特朗普表示，他计划“长时间暂停庇护申请”。
“我们不想要那些人，”特朗普在空军一号上说道。
在11月枪击事件后，针对阿富汗移民的拘留和行动“明显加强”，拉尔的律师、Atlas移民法律事务所的乔丹·温伯格（Jordan Weinberg）告诉CNN。
“我们看到阿富汗人面临的困难要大得多，”温伯格说。
袭击事件后，美国公民和移民服务局宣布将对来自19个“关注国家”（包括阿富汗）的人员的绿卡进行“全面、严格的重新审查”。
麦克劳克林此前在一份声明中称，国土安全部“无限期”暂停处理所有与阿富汗国民相关的移民申请，包括拜登政府批准的庇护案件。
麦克劳克林本周告诉CNN，“盟军欢迎行动”和“盟军难民行动”“让数千名未经审查的阿富汗国民，包括恐怖分子、性犯罪者、恋童癖者、家庭暴力施暴者和绑架犯进入我们国家”。
“国土安全部副部长（克里斯蒂·诺姆）正在全力识别和逮捕通过拜登欺诈性假释项目进入美国的已知或涉嫌恐怖分子和犯罪非法移民，并努力将这些罪犯和公共安全威胁赶出我们国家，”麦克劳克林说。
在帮助家人逃离的前一年，赛义德正在阿富汗霍斯特省的家中探望他们。他刚刚以中士身份离开美军，决定退役，因为他作为一名休假的美国士兵无权前往阿富汗，他说，并且他想帮助家人处理移民文件。
他说，甚至在赛义德搬到美国并参军之前，他的家人就已遭到塔利班的目标袭击。他作为平民翻译为美军工作的经历并未被这个激进组织忽视，他一直希望把家人带到美国寻求安全。
他在阿富汗家中待了大约一周后，家人在他家举行聚会，他有机会与多年未见的朋友和家人交谈：学校的朋友、表亲、其他远房亲戚和邻居。
赛义德回忆说，他注意到门外有一辆摩托车；他和其他人以为是某位客人的。当赛义德送一些朋友出门时，摩托车爆炸了。
尘土飞扬，呼吸困难，赛义德和拉尔回忆说。窗户破碎，受伤的幸存者呼喊求助，被爆炸撕碎的朋友尸体散落在地上。
拉尔当时正在屋顶上。爆炸“真的把他掀起来扔到地上”，赛义德说。家人以为他死了。当拉尔恢复意识时，他以为自己在做梦，直到他看到那些尸体。
“我睡不着，睡觉时会做噩梦，”他在得州拘留中心通过电话告诉CNN，声音哽咽。“那些人，他们死在我面前，死在我们家里。”
拉尔于2022年提交的庇护申请文件显示，有6人死亡，另有10多人受伤。赛义德告诉CNN，塔利班最终声称对此次袭击负责。
赛义德认为，家人遭到袭击是因为他的服务，无论是他作为平民在阿富汗协助美军，还是后来穿上美军制服。
“他们没有未来，没有安全。塔利班根本没有丝毫怜悯之心，”赛义德谈到家人面临的威胁时说。“拉尔的恐惧不是凭空想象的，而是源于记忆。”
拉尔和赛义德的父亲和姐夫近年来曾被塔利班拘留，兄弟俩告诉CNN，这让现在在美国的母亲承受了巨大压力。
赛义德说，他强烈支持美国，认为美国“相信人权”，并且他会“不惜一切代价”帮助美国人取得胜利。
官方军事记录显示，赛义德于2016年10月入伍，担任翻译，2018年以士兵身份部署回阿富汗8个月。在那里服役期间，他与高级军官合作，甚至与当地媒体合作，他回忆道——这份工作让塔利班认出了他。他作为翻译参加了与美国官员的高级别会议，并出现在包括现已退休的前驻阿富汗美军及北约部队最高指挥官奥斯汀·“斯科特”·米勒将军在内的阿富汗和美国高级官员的合影中。
拉尔和赛义德有一个弟弟目前正在美国陆军服役，还有一个妹妹想加入美国空军，赛义德说。他描述他们的家庭是一个深爱服役的美军家庭，只是希望为自己和家人寻求更安全的生活。
“我们相信这个国家，对吗？”赛义德告诉CNN。“我为这个国家冒着生命危险。我从未想过有一天我会在这里恳求，只为让我弟弟活下去，而他并没有做错任何事。”
在提供给拉尔的官方国土安全部文件中，关于他被拘留的原因以及他被驱逐出境的理由，文件中列出的指控仅称他不是美国公民，并且在通过“盟军难民行动”抵达美国后，未持有有效的移民签证、再入境许可、边境过境身份证或其他法律规定的有效入境文件。
“你是一名移民，但未持有《移民与国籍法》要求的有效移民签证、再入境许可、边境过境身份证或其他有效入境文件，”文件中写道。
拉尔被拘留发生在11月枪击事件之后，当时特朗普政府正在迅速关闭阿富汗难民留在美国的途径。
2025年，特朗普政府撤销了85,000份各类签证，以限制进入美国的人员范围。上个月，该政府无限期暂停了来自75个国家（包括阿富汗）的人员的移民签证处理。国会议员也就阿富汗人签证问题展开激烈辩论，本月国会还拒绝为曾为美军工作的阿富汗人额外授权特殊移民签证。
白宫高级助手斯蒂芬·米勒（Stephen Miller）本月早些时候在社交平台X上抨击南部边境的庇护申请者，称存在一个“数十亿美元的欺诈行业”来提交“虚假庇护申请”。
“联邦法律要求非法移民在听证前被拘留，以处理其（虚假）庇护申请，”米勒说。
美国移民律师协会（AILA）政策与实践法律顾问希瑟·霍根（Heather Hogan）表示，米勒关于必须拘留等待庇护申请的移民的说法“绝对不准确”。
“过去，庇护申请者大多被允许继续处理案件、工作和生活，他们的孩子可以在等待案件处理期间上学，因为拘留他们有什么作用呢？”霍根说。“当他们本可以并且希望通过工作和参与社区来谋生并为家人提供支持时，为什么要拘留他们？”
霍根还表示，AILA的律师报告称，政府对阿富汗人采取了更“激进”的立场，特别是那些此前在阿富汗为美国政府工作的人。
人权组织称，与美国合作并仍在阿富汗的人面临塔利班的报复性杀害。例如，大赦国际报告称，塔利班官员殴打、杀害或失踪了与前政府合作或在阿富汗国家安全部队服役的阿富汗人。在美国撤军后的几周内，人权观察组织也报告称至少有47名前阿富汗国家安全部队成员被杀害或失踪。
拉尔为在美国开始新生活已经付出了非凡的努力。
他和妹妹带着她的五个孩子前往喀布尔机场的大门，加入了试图逃离的绝望人群，当时自杀式炸弹袭击了阿比门（Abbey Gate），造成13名美军士兵和约170名阿富汗平民死亡。
赛义德回忆说，袭击后他立即给弟弟打电话，问他是否确定仍然想带着全家尝试逃离，明知他们会面临何种危险。
“拉尔明确说，‘是的，宁愿死在这里也不愿落入塔利班手中，’”赛义德告诉CNN。“你想想——你亲眼目睹了人们在你面前死亡，但你仍然愿意为了让整个家庭进入基地、来到美国而冒这个险。拉尔不想放弃。”
His family fled Afghanistan facing threats for supporting US troops. Now he sits in ICE custody at risk of being sent back
2026-02-13T06:00:46.762Z / CNN
When Said Noor, a US Army veteran, picked up a phone call on December 2, he immediately knew something was wrong.
His brother Lal was in Laredo, Texas, several hours west of their home in Austin, nervously explaining that the commercial truck he drove had been stopped at a Customs and Border Protection checkpoint.
When the agents asked if he was a US citizen, Lal, 28, answered honestly: He isn’t. He, his mother and five of his brothers and sisters had fled Afghanistan in the wake of the US’ military withdrawal, and he is currently awaiting a decision on an asylum claim he submitted years ago.
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As Said stayed on the line with his younger brother, Said could hear someone aggressively demanding to know who Lal had called and why. Said told Lal to provide whatever the officials needed so he could go, but his brother sounded worried, so Said told him to pass the phone to the agent.
He tried to calm the agent down, he told CNN.
“I told him ‘sir, let’s just talk to each other as adults, right?’ I was like, ‘you’re an officer and you took an oath to defend the Constitution.’ I said, ‘I have done the same thing, I was in the Army, I’m a veteran right now,’” he said.
That seemed to defuse the situation somewhat, Said recalled, but the man kept repeating that Lal is “not allowed to be here” in the US. Said tried to explain that Lal, who is married to a US citizen, was brought to the US legally through the US military’s evacuation of Afghanistan, an effort largely aimed at protecting families like his who had worked with American troops and faced threats from the Taliban. He tried to explain Lal’s pending asylum case, the legal process through which Lal was trying to gain permanent status in the US along with 80,000 other Afghan nationals who fled the country and have similarly looked to create new homes in America.
But soon the phone was handed to a second agent. He was told that they were working to verify Lal’s status.
Afghan asylum cases had received bipartisan support until a sharp shift in tone after an Afghan refugee shot two members of the National Guard in Washington, DC in November days before Lal was stopped at the checkpoint.
Hours passed, with Said continuing to communicate with his brother while the agents waited for a response from the Department of Homeland Security. But then the communication stopped. Said could still see Lal’s location on the app Life360, but he couldn’t get in touch with him, and when he called a nearby border patrol station, no one seemed to be able to find him.
For two days, Said told CNN he couldn’t find his brother — he called several border checkpoints but found himself trapped in a cycle of transferred calls.
One officer even told Said to call the Afghan embassy; when he explained there was no Afghan embassy in the US because the Taliban was in control of the country, the officer said to call the Taliban, the same group that Said told CNN had detonated a bomb just outside of his family’s home in 2020, killing several people, in retaliation for his work with US troops.
Finally, Said found Lal – he was being held at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement-run Webb County Detention Facility.
“I came to America a legal way,” Lal told CNN from the detention facility in Laredo during a January interview, saying he and his family just want the chance to “live a good life.”
Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin confirmed Lal was detained on December 1, after he’d been referred for secondary inspection at a border patrol point of entry. McLaughlin called Lal a “criminal illegal alien” whose “criminal history includes previous arrests for assault and damage to property.”
Court documents shared by Lal’s family, however, show that a charge of “criminal mischief” against Lal, brought in 2023, was dismissed by a judge in Galveston, Texas, resulting in no conviction or finding of guilt. Said told CNN the incident revolved around an allegation that Lal had broken another person’s phone, which Lal denied. The charge was dismissed due to there being no witnesses, the motion to dismiss said, and the family said that it was Lal’s only run in with law enforcement.
McLaughlin also said Lal was told to pull over in December because his work authorization had expired, but Said explained that he had already applied for a renewal. Lal was issued a commercial driver’s license in Texas in August 2025, which expires in 2034.
McLaughlin did not respond to follow-up questions regarding the dismissed charge or his work authorization renewal.
While Lal expected to have his final court hearing on February 12, a request by his lawyer to delay the hearing was granted as they seek to resolve the issue outside of court. Without an agreement, Lal will find out on March 10 if he is being deported back to the country he’d fled with his family nearly five years ago.
Lal and his family are among thousands of Afghans who were brought to the US as the country fell to Taliban rule in August 2021. The panic to flee materialized in a chaotic, frantic period of days as men, women, and children begged US and allied military partners to get them on a plane — any plane — out of the country. Children were handed over barbed wire at Hamid Karzai International Airport to US troops in desperate attempts to get them to safety.
The monumental task of getting civilians out of the country — primarily focused on Afghans who worked with the US government and military, and their immediate family members — resulted in the evacuation of more than 124,000 people, the Air Force later said. Dubbed Operation Allies Refuge, it was the largest non-combatant evacuation in US history.
Lal’s family was evacuated in a daring rescue organized by service members on the ground in coordination with Democrat Rep. Seth Moulton, a Marine veteran who traveled to Afghanistan with Republican Rep. Peter Meijer amid the withdrawal.
Like many, the family was facing particular danger given Said’s work with the US military as a civilian interpreter and later service as a soldier. Said moved to the US in 2014, joined the US Army in 2016, and was honorably discharged in August 2020.
At the time of the US evacuation, and for several years afterwards, there was strong bipartisan support for providing refugee status for Afghan families that had aided the US during the twenty years of operations in that country.
In 2022, now-Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz criticized the Biden administration for “abandoning” Afghan allies and called for officials to be held accountable for the “unkept promises of security for their safety.” Republican Sen. Tom Cotton, an Army veteran, called on former President Joe Biden to keep troops in Afghanistan “until we have rescued every American citizen and those Afghans who risked their lives for American troops.” In August 2021, a bipartisan group of 55 senators urged Biden in a letter to expedite the evacuation of Afghan Special Immigrant Visa recipients and their families.
But that support has faded, especially in the wake of a November shooting of two National Guard members in Washington, DC. One soldier, Spc. Sarah Beckstrom, died. The suspect was identified as a 29-year-old Afghan man who came to the US in the wake of the US withdrawal from Afghanistan, further fueling criticism from Trump administration officials about vetting of refugees.
CNN previously reported that the man, Rahmanullah Lakanwal, underwent numerous rounds of vetting starting in 2011 as he worked with US military and intelligence agencies. He was ultimately approved for permanent asylum by the Trump administration last year.
In the wake of the shooting, the Trump administration announced that the processing of all immigration cases for Afghan immigrants was being “stopped indefinitely” pending further review.
President Donald Trump said at the time that he planned to pause asylum applications for “a long time.”
“We don’t want those people,” Trump said aboard Air Force One.
In the wake of November’s shooting, detentions and efforts against Afghan immigrants have “definitely ramped up,” Jordan Weinberg, Lal’s attorney at Atlas Immigration Law, told CNN.
“We are seeing a much higher difficulty for Afghans,” Weinberg said.
After the attack, US Citizenship and Immigration Services announced it would be undertaking a “full scale, rigorous reexamination” of green cards issued to people from 19 countries “of concern,” including Afghanistan.
McLaughlin previously said in a statement that DHS was “indefinitely” stopping the processing of all immigration requests related to Afghan nationals “pending further review,” including asylum cases approved under the Biden administration.
McLaughlin told CNN this week that Operation Allies Welcome and Operation Allies Refuge “let thousands of unvetted Afghan nationals including terrorists, sexual predators, pedophiles, domestic abusers, and kidnappers into our country.”
“Under Secretary (Kristi) Noem, DHS has been going full throttle on identifying and arresting known or suspected terrorists and criminal illegal aliens that came in through Biden’s fraudulent parole programs and working to get the criminals and public safety threats OUT of our country,” McLaughlin said.
The year before he helped his family flee, Said was visiting them at their family home in Khost Province in Afghanistan. He’d just left the US Army as a sergeant, deciding to depart the service because he was not authorized to travel to Afghanistan as an off-duty US soldier, he said, and he wanted to help them with their immigration paperwork.
For years, even before Said moved to the US and joined the military, his family had been targeted by the Taliban, he said. His work with the US as a civilian interpreter had not gone unnoticed by the militant group, and he’d hoped to bring his family to the safety of the US.
He’d been home in Afghanistan for roughly a week when his family held a gathering at their home, giving him a chance to talk to friends and family he hadn’t been able to see in years: school friends, cousins, other distant relatives and neighbors that he’d missed after moving to the US.
Said recalled noticing a motorcycle outside the door to his family’s home; he and others assumed it belonged to one of the guests. Said was walking some friends out the front door when the motorcycle detonated.
Dust was everywhere, making it difficult to breath, Said and Lal recalled. Windows were shattered, injured survivors were calling out for help, and the dead bodies of friends torn apart by the blast were now strewn across the ground.
Lal had been on the roof of the house. The blast “literally picked him up and threw him onto the ground,” Said said. The family thought he’d been killed. When Lal regained consciousness, he thought he was dreaming, he told CNN from the detention facility in Texas, until he saw the dead.
“I can’t sleep, I get nightmares when I’m sleeping,” he told CNN, his voice cracking. “The people there, they died in front of me, in our home.”
Lal’s asylum claim paperwork, submitted in 2022, says six people were killed and more than a dozen others injured. The Taliban ultimately claimed responsibility, Said told CNN.
The family had been targeted because of his service, Said believes, both for helping the American forces while he was a civilian in Afghanistan and later when he put on the US Army uniform.
“There’s no future for them, no safety. There’s no mercy at all from the Taliban,” Said said of the threats against his family. “Lal’s fear is not based on imagination; his fear is based on memories.”
Lal and Said’s father and brother-in-law have faced detention by the Taliban in recent years, both brothers told CNN, weighing heavily on their mother who is now in the US.
Said felt strongly about supporting the US, he said, feeling that America “believed in human rights,” and that he would do “whatever it takes” to help the Americans prevail.
Official military records show Said joined the US military in October 2016 and served as an interpreter, deploying back to Afghanistan as a soldier for eight months in 2018. While deployed there, Said worked with senior military officers and even worked with local media, he recalled — a job that made him recognizable to the Taliban. He attended senior-level meetings alongside US officials as a translator, and appeared in photos with senior Afghan and US officials, including now-retired Gen. Austin “Scott” Miller, the last senior commander overseeing US and NATO forces in Afghanistan.
Lal and Said have a brother currently serving in the US Army and a younger sister who wants to join the US Air Force, Said said. He describes theirs as a US military family who care deeply about service and simply wanted a safer life for themselves.
“We believed in this country, right?” Said told CNN. “I risked my life for this country. I never imagined that I would be begging one day just to keep my brother alive, here in America, while he hasn’t done anything wrong.”
On the official DHS document provided to Lal, outlining the reason for his detention and saying he is subject to removal from the US, the allegations listed say only that he is not a citizen of the US and that he was paroled into the US after arriving through Operation Allies Refuge.
“You are immigrant not in possession of a valid immigrant visa, reentry permit, border crossing identification card, or other valid entry document as required by the Immigration and Nationality Act,” the document says.
Lal’s detention happened just days after the November shooting, as the Trump administration was rapidly closing doors for Afghan refugees — and refugees from several other countries — to find ways to stay in the US.
In 2025, the Trump administration revoked 85,000 visas of all categories as part of a broader attempt to limit who can come to the US. Last month, the administration instituted an indefinite suspension of immigrant visa processing for people from 75 countries, including Afghanistan. Lawmakers have also fiercely debated the topic of visas for Afghans, and just this month Congress declined to authorize any additional special immigrants visas for Afghans who worked with the US.
Top White House aide Stephen Miller railed against asylum seekers at the southern border in a post on X earlier this month, saying there is a “multibillion dollar fraudulent industry” to file “fake asylum applications.”
“Federal law requires illegal aliens to be detained pending a hearing for their (fake) asylum claim,” Miller said.
Heather Hogan, policy and practice counsel at American Immigration Lawyers Association, said Miller’s assertion that it is required to detain immigrants awaiting their asylum claim is “definitely not accurate.”
“In the past, asylum seekers were largely left to pursue their cases and work and live, and their kids could go to school while they were going through the motions of their cases because what is the utility of detaining them?” Hogan said. “When they could otherwise be and want to be working and participating in their communities and providing for their families and themselves?”
Hogan also said lawyers with AILA have reported seeing a more “aggressive” stance from the government toward Afghans in particular, including those who previously worked with the US government in Afghanistan.
People who worked with the US and are still in Afghanistan have faced revenge killings by the Taliban, according to human rights groups. Amnesty International, for example, reported Taliban officials beating, killing or disappearing Afghans who worked with the former government or served in the Afghan National Security Forces. In the weeks after the US’ withdrawal, Human Rights Watch also reported the killing or disappearance of at least 47 former members of the ANSF.
Lal has already gone to extraordinary lengths for a chance at a new life in the US.
He and his sister were shepherding her five young children to the gates of the Kabul airport, part of the desperate crowd attempting to flee, when a suicide bomber attacked Abbey Gate, killing 13 US troops and roughly 170 Afghan civilians.
Said recalled speaking to his brother right after the attack, asking him if he was sure he still wanted to try to escape with their family, knowing what danger they could face.
“Lal clearly said, ‘Yes, (it would be) better to die here than be in the hands of the Taliban,’” Said told CNN. “Just think about it — you saw people die in front of you, but you still want to take that risk for your entire family to get into the base, to come to the United States. Lal did not want to give up.”