Latest news with #BrianMcGoldrick
NBC News
11 hours ago
- Politics
- NBC News
Video shows ICE detaining man in San Diego who says he helped U.S. in Afghan war
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.
Daily Mail
17 hours ago
- Daily Mail
Dramatic moment 'Afghan interpreter who helped US troops' is apprehended by ICE in San Diego
Chilling video footage has captured the moment an Afghan man who said he risked his life working as an interpreter for the US military was apprehended by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The video, obtained by NBC 7, showed the unnamed man calmly telling officers in San Diego that he served alongside American forces in one of the most 'dangerous parts' of Afghanistan. ICE agents placed him under arrest as he was taken into custody inside a San Diego federal courthouse. The interpreter's attorney, Brian McGoldrick, said the man fled Afghanistan in the chaotic aftermath of the US withdrawal and entered the US through the San Ysidro Port of Entry using the now-defunct CBP One app. He was granted humanitarian parole and is currently applying for a Special Immigrant Visa. 'While he was in Afghanistan, he was threatened repeatedly. His family was threatened repeatedly,' McGoldrick told the outlet. 'He believes that if he returns, he'll be detained, probably tortured and possibly even killed.' ICE is reportedly now trying to fast-track his deportation by dismissing his asylum case and placing him in expedited removal proceedings. 'They want to deny him even the opportunity to have his asylum case heard by having his case dismissed, McGoldrick said. '… Putting him into expedited removal and trying to spirit him out of the country.' The man remains in custody as of Friday, and his fate is unclear at this time. In the video, his voice is steady but somber as he tells agents: 'I came here to make a better life.' He said he worked in a 'very dangerous part of Afghanistan.' 'He just came here trying to get asylum for what he did for our country,' McGoldrick said. 'And this is how we're treating him.' In 2021, another Afghan interpreter who was living in Iowa claimed to be facing deportation and lost contact with the Department of Homeland Security for giving a piece of bread to the Taliban when he was a child. Zalmay Niazy served in the US military as an interpreter from 2007 to 2014 in Afghanistan before returning to the United States. Niazy has been living in Iowa since and was seeking asylum. He was asked about previous interactions with the Taliban during an asylum interview. I said, 'I can't hide that, I can't lie about it, and yes, I did,' Niazy said of the interview during comments on Tuesday on America's Newsroom. Niazy then claimed he received a letter from DHS, saying they would no longer speak to him because of his interaction with the Taliban all those years ago. He also says his asylum application was denied.
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Afghan man who worked as interpreter for US Army detained by ICE in San Diego
SAN DIEGO (FOX 5/KUSI) — An Afghan man who once helped the U.S. military abroad is being held in ICE detention after his arrest Thursday. It's part of a recent wave of federal courthouse arrests in San Diego and across the country. Cellphone video obtained by FOX 5/KUSI shows federal agents as they approached the asylum-seeker moments after his first hearing and repeatedly asked him for his name. The man, who was accompanied by his attorney, refused to answer and agents proceeded to handcuff the man in the hallway of the federal courthouse in downtown San Diego before producing a warrant. The man stated that he worked with the U.S. military in his home country and has documents to prove it. His attorney, Brian McGoldrick, confirmed his client was an interpreter for the U.S. Army for three years before the 2021 Taliban takeover. 'He and his brothers had a logistics company in Afghanistan, and they provided a lot of material,' McGoldrick said. Word of the arrest sent shockwaves through AfghanEvac, a local nonprofit organization dedicated to helping Afghan allies. 'Every message they're sending to Afghans is we don't want you here, get out, which is wild and especially considering how many Veterans care about this. Because if they get sent back, they're dead,' said Shawn VanDiver, President and Founder of AfghanEvac. VanDiver said the man's wife was previously threatened by the Taliban at a wedding where one of his brother's was murdered. 'So, he fled to Iran. Got to Brazil on a humanitarian visa and walked here from Brazil,' VanDiver added. 'The whole world is watching what's happening with these folks. How is anybody going to stand by us again?' VanDiver said. Meanwhile, McGoldrick is keeping his client's name confidential for safety reasons, but said he has a pending Special Immigrant visa, no criminal record and was legally paroled into the U.S. 'He finally got an appointment with CBP One and he presented himself at the San Ysidro Port of Entry, I think July 6 of 2024,' said Brian McGoldrick, immigration attorney for the Afghan asylum-seeker. He said a judge denied the government's motion to dismiss the case. 'The government simply used a statue that allows them to say that his Notice to Appear was improvidently issued,' McGoldrick said. 'That means that the Notice to Appear would've been mistakenly issued,' explained immigration attorney Saman Nasseri. He explained the approach is becoming more and more common in immigration court. 'The way that they've been justifying arresting people at these hearings is they're dismissing terminating the notices to appear, putting people in expedited removal proceedings,' Nasseri said. However, McGoldrick said when he asked for more information regarding the Notice to Appear and reasoning behind the request for case dismissal, the government's attorney refused to elaborate. McGoldrick said he hadn't been able to speak with his client while he's detained in Otay Mesa. He explained that he could remain in custody for months until his asylum hearing in September. 'It's really ICE's discretion to hold him or not,' he added. 'We don't have a relationship with Afghanistan that allows us to return immigrants. It's kind of scary to think that if he were put in expedited removal where would he go?' FOX 5/KUSI reached out to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security for comment but have not heard back. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
