Posted on 06/17/2025 12:49:35 PM PDT by Miami Rebel
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.
“”Our military needs to go back to having 100% of its own logistical staff “”
And WHO does the interpreting for our troops?
Anyone who has ever been caught up in an innocent skirmish with law enforcement knows how much time/effort/money it takes to remedy the situation.
B.I.N.G.O
The term is “Afghan,” not “Afghani.”
“ICE isn’t in business to spare people’s feelings.”
That is not the exact point.
ICE resources are not unlimited. If they were unlimited then they could at once arrest 20-30 million illegals. They can’t. So they have to identify objectives and target their resources. That means picking and choosing their suspects. They have plenty of political support by GOP and Dim citizens when most of the arrests were for illegals who also were criminals by virtue of criminal acts like robbery, murder, sex-trafficking, rape, ect.
But it becomes politically less all around popular - among some of all three - GOP, Dims, independents, when non-criminals are arrested and detained. The issue is not anyone’s feelings. The issue is that the process, all acts of it, need broad political support or else it will not remain politically supported by a majority of Americans. Losing that popularity can be politically costly. It becomes an issue of how to win the battles and the war, by picking the right battles, as opposed to winning unpopular battles and losing the war. This administration needs a deportation process that remains politically sustainable.
I haven't heard President Trump give that order. He told them to target Blue sanctuary states and cities. He didn't delineate between criminals or visa overstays. Face it, they are all criminals having come here illegally, even if they didn't commit any crimes since they've been here. That's one of the reasons why the military has been given authority to detain illegals. The more the merrier.
HE WAS APPEARING FOR A COURT HEARING. [responding in caps for caps]
Why then the need to detain him in a courthouse? Was there a flight risk?
Bingo!
Let the process continue, but this business of detaining people WHO ARE VOLUNTARILY APPEARING IN COURT seems a cheap way to rack up detentions of people who represent zero risk to public safety. The bad guys aren’t taking their chances in a courtroom.
It looks bad and it’s why support for deportations is hemorrhaging.
You make my point. We need public support for arrest, detention and deportations. We may lose sufficient public support to keep backing the program if the ICE actions move too far off the “criminal” angle. Yes, we need to do something about the fact that about 20-30 million illegals have remained here for years by the fact that the administrations have not pursued them. The government at this point is as guilty as they are. We can most of all blame Clinton, GWBush, Obama and worst of all Biden. But it is by their government inaction that so many have been able to survive here illegally. So lets get the criminals out and then we can try to work out how we, without rancor, get people to self-deport. I think we have started in the recent proposed Medicaid changes, which will deny Medicaid to illegals. Then we have to work on employment and employment enforcement measures. And we ought to assist those who want to leave voluntarily, give them a plane ticket and a set time limit before they can apply to come back legally.
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