The Taliban’s former ambassador to Spain was detained by U.S. immigration officers whereas getting into the USA on Saturday, and remained in custody after a federal choose declined to order his launch on Monday.
The previous Afghan diplomat, Mohammad Rahim Wahidi, was detained at Washington Dulles Worldwide Airport below what his lawyer described as a weaponization of a part of the Immigration and Nationality Act. Underneath the legislation, the secretary of state can deport a noncitizen decided to be a nationwide safety danger.
Mr. Wahidi is a lawful everlasting resident and his spouse, Mary Shakeri-Wahidi, is a U.S. citizen, in accordance with a courtroom submitting from his lawyer, Hassan Ahmad.
The Trump administration has not too long ago cited comparable authorized justifications for canceling the visas of a whole lot of scholars whose participation in pro-Palestinian demonstrations has appeared to change into grounds for detention and deportation. In concentrating on pupil activists comparable to Mahmoud Khalil, Rumeysa Ozturk and Momodou Taal for deportation, the administration has tried to hyperlink their protests towards Israel to “hostile overseas coverage penalties” that will justify their elimination.
Mr. Wahidi’s case seems to be totally different.
In response to the submitting asking for his launch, Mr. Wahidi’s brother-in-law is needed by the USA in reference to a plot to assassinate an Iranian journalist that the Justice Division detailed in a information launch in November.
Mr. Wahidi was stripped of his title in Spain over accusations of sexual assault throughout his time there, however felony expenses had been by no means filed towards him and he was allowed to depart the nation, in accordance with the submitting.
Upon returning to the USA on a Turkish Airways flight on Saturday, Mr. Wahidi was detained for greater than 30 hours with out entry to a lawyer, in accordance with the submitting. He was then interrogated by “an unclear variety of officers” who gave the impression to be from the F.B.I., Mr. Ahmad wrote within the petition.
Mr. Ahmad has additionally represented Badar Khan Suri, a postdoctoral pupil at Georgetown College who was focused for deportation over his involvement in campus protests there.
After Mr. Wahidi’s petition was filed, Choose Leonie Brinkema of the U.S. District Court docket for the Jap District of Virginia blocked the federal government from transferring Mr. Wahidi out of the realm. In instances involving the coed activists, individuals have routinely been moved to Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facilities in Louisiana, a whole lot of miles from the place they had been initially arrested.
Neither Mr. Ahmad nor a spokesperson for Customs and Border Safety responded to requests for remark.
Choose Brinkema declined to instantly order Mr. Wahidi’s launch, saying that “at this level the courtroom can’t provide any reduction.”
Whereas the case proceeds, she ordered the federal government to “adjust to C.B.P. short-term detention requirements” and to not prohibit Mr. Wahidi from chatting with a lawyer.
