The Taliban’s former ambassador to Spain was detained by U.S. immigration officers whereas getting into the US 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 underneath what his lawyer described as a weaponization of a part of the Immigration and Nationality Act. Below the legislation, the secretary of state can deport a noncitizen decided to be a nationwide safety threat.
Mr. Wahidi is a lawful everlasting resident and his spouse, Mary Shakeri-Wahidi, is a U.S. citizen, in accordance with a court docket submitting from his lawyer, Hassan Ahmad.
The Trump administration has not too long ago cited similar legal justifications for canceling the visas of lots of of scholars whose participation in pro-Palestinian demonstrations has appeared to change into grounds for detention and deportation. In concentrating on scholar activists similar to Mahmoud Khalil, Rumeysa Ozturk and Momodou Taal for deportation, the administration has tried to hyperlink their protests in opposition to Israel to “adversarial overseas coverage penalties” that may justify their removing.
Mr. Wahidi’s case seems to be totally different.
Based on the submitting asking for his launch, Mr. Wahidi’s brother-in-law is needed by the US in reference to a plot to assassinate an Iranian journalist that the Justice Division detailed in a news release in November.
Mr. Wahidi was stripped of his title in Spain over accusations of sexual assault throughout his time there, however legal fees have been by no means filed in opposition to him and he was allowed to depart the nation, in accordance with the submitting.
Upon returning to the US 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 seemed to be from the F.B.I., Mr. Ahmad wrote within the petition.
Mr. Ahmad has additionally represented Badar Khan Suri, a postdoctoral scholar 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 Courtroom for the Japanese District of Virginia blocked the federal government from transferring Mr. Wahidi out of the realm. In circumstances involving the scholar activists, folks have routinely been moved to Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facilities in Louisiana, lots of of miles from the place they have been initially arrested.
Neither Mr. Ahmad nor a spokesperson for Customs and Border Safety responded to requests for remark.
Choose Brinkema declined to immediately order Mr. Wahidi’s release, saying that “at this level the court docket can not supply any reduction.”
Whereas the case proceeds, she ordered the federal government to “adjust to C.B.P. short-term detention requirements” and to not limit Mr. Wahidi from talking to a lawyer.
