An Afghan national was detained on the fourth floor of the San Diego Immigration Court Thursday after attending a routine hearing.
“I came here to make a better life,” said the man during his arrest, captured on video. “I didn’t know that this would happen … I worked with the U.S. military. I worked in a very dangerous part of Afghanistan with the U.S. military.”
He was at the courthouse for a master calendar hearing — the first stage of a removal proceeding in immigration court. Not attending a master calendar hearing is grounds for deportation.
The federal government made a motion to dismiss his case, according to his attorney Brian McGoldrick. The motion was not granted by the judge, who instead scheduled a merits hearing — or the main hearing in which the government and respondents present their arguments for or against being deported — for a few months from now.
Footage reviewed by Times of San Diego shows what happened next as McGoldrick and his client came upon authorities with Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Two masked agents wearing jackets that said “Police ICE” waiting in a courthouse hallway asked McGoldrick for documentation or a court order, which he did not provide.
“Yeah, get him,” said one unidentified agent to another. “Take him. Go ahead, take him.”
Both ICE agents held McGoldrick’s client, after which they repeatedly asked him for his name. Neither McGoldrick nor the client complied with their requests.
McGoldrick requested anonymity for the man for safety reasons and because, post-detention, he hadn’t been allowed to consult with his client.
Despite handcuffing the man, ICE agents did not provide a warrant for the arrest. After repeated requests from observers to do so, they stated that they would show the warrant “in the elevator.”
McGoldrick said that he was only able to view a copy of the warrant after his client was placed in a secure detention area. The warrant, according to McGoldrick, only bore his client’s name.
“There was nothing else that I could do at that point,” McGoldrick said. “It was pretty devastating. You know, it’s gut-wrenching to watch your client get put against the wall and have himself handcuffed.”
McGoldrick said that the man at one point had worked with the U.S. Army, providing logistical support and serving as an interpreter. The detainee, during his arrest, said he had done so for three years.
He entered the United States legally and received an appointment through the government-administered app CBP One at a port of entry and was paroled into the country, according to his attorney.
Just six weeks ago, McGoldrick said, his client’s brother was granted asylum in an immigration court in Texas.
“What is the government doing, that one brother is being granted asylum and the other brother has to be treated like a criminal to be thrown out of the country?” McGoldrick said.
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