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.
I think there are people in the federal gov who wrongly arrest innocent immigrants to serve their narrative that Trump and Ice are the problem.
Didn’t another Afghani who claimed he was sorry he helped the U.S., and came here on a military plane after Biden got 13 Marines murdered at the airport, recently opened fire on cops in Fairfax, Va., that had stopped him for a traffic violation, and ended up getting shot to death for his actions?
Easy to verify if true but if he came in illegally then gtfo.
Okay, so where is the documentation? His lawyer need only call the Army for verification of his assistance, and call the CBP for his appointment. It all sounds bogus to me.
McGoldrick talks like a political operative.
He is not representing his client’s interest, but I doubt that is his goal.
A better process of selective arrests and detentions by ICE needs to be put in place, and that is more important than detention quotas from the WH just to meet political objectives to be able to say “we detained and removed Xxxx people in xx days”. Some arrests and detentions will have negative political consequences and the process (for now) should try to avoid them or lose public approval of the process.
Why does it seem like there are 50,000 so-called interpreters from Afghanistan? Calling BS on this one?
“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?”
Any number of things, Mr. McGoldrick, all of them based on individual behavior. So what has your client been up to?
Yup- claimed to have helped out for three years, knows crackdowns on illegals were coming and happening yet did nothing to head of the situation???
One of the great benefits of the MIC’s quest to turn the US into an Empire it was never designed to be, is that we get to permanently adopt every interpreter, truck driver and dishwasher that the US Army happens to employ when it tries to occupy hostile territory on the other side of the world.
Our military needs to go back to having 100% of its own logistical staff and equipment. But then there wouldn’t be any money in that for the connected.
Do you know if he even had papers to be here, or if those papers hadn't expired? He obviously came here when Biden withdrew from Afghanistan, so God knows what kind of checks, or security procedures were made prior to bringing them all here. He was at his first hearing for removal. I don't believe he'd be at a removal hearing if he had papers that hadn't expired. He's likely been here since 2021, and this was his first removal hearing? So he's been wandering around for almost four years doing what? When approached by agents who asked McGoldrick, the man's lawyer for documentation or a court order, which he did not provide, they went ahead and detained him. They had a warrant for him. In the end, it could all turn out in his favor, since his brother in Texas recently got asylum. This problem was created by Biden's autopen, and now it's being cleared up a little at a time. The wheels of justice run slowly. He'll just have to be patient until his time comes.
So far, every narrative cooked up by MSM has turned out to have a lot more to the story.
There is a reason ICE was looking for him at his appointment. Seriously doubt this was random.
This is also bringing out the paid trolls on FR.. especially the noob (retreads).
ICE isn't in business to spare people's feelings. The only ones bitching are the people who don't want them to be deported at all. And since the left-wing Judges have been doing everything they can to thwart deportation of illegals, I highly doubt the majority of the people who support deportation, which is higher than those who are against it, will be upset by the way illegals are being detained. Most of us believe it should be done no matter where you find them. The quickest and easiest way of attaining that, is to get them where you know they will be at a given date and time.
Sorry, forgot to ping one of the noob retreads..
SHOW US THE CORRECT PAPERWORK HE USED TO ENTER THE USA.
They had a warrant for him. He's been here for four years, and this was his first hearing for removal, so the motions of his removal were already in place. The government wanted his hearing dismissed so I'm assuming they planned to deport him. That's the process ICE has been using for all illegals with court hearings. The Judge refused to dismiss the case, and ordered a merits hearing so both sides could present their arguments. That will be months in the future. In the meantime, the guy's lawyer couldn't or wouldn't present paperwork, or court order for their client, as to why they shouldn't detain him...so they did. There's still no info regarding what paperwork he was given when he left Afghanistan or when he got here, no expiration date provided.
“”I think a lot of government employees are authoritarian idiots that make stupid decisions and act poorly.””
I think anyone with that kind of authority can and does abuse it.
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