U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal and Rep. Bill Keating on Wednesday expressed outrage at the treatment of a former Afghan interpreter for U.S. Armed Forces deployed against the Taliban, describing his arrest and detention by immigration authorities as a “betrayal.”
Blumenthal, a Connecticut Democrat, visited the interpreter at the Plymouth County Correctional Facility. He was joined by Keating, who also visited the man last week and spoke in similar tones.
“ I have never been so angry or ashamed as to be with him this morning in a prison, away from his family, when he has done nothing wrong,” Blumenthal said.
The interpreter, Zia S., worked as a translator for U.S. troops at Camp Mike Spann in Mazar-e-Sharif, Afghanistan, between 2005 and 2009. His brother Tariq said his collaboration with U.S. Armed Forces put the entire family at risk of retaliation by the Taliban, as previously reported by WBUR. Zia, his wife and five children fled Afghanistan in 2021, after the Taliban seized control of the country. After spending three years in Pakistan, they were paroled into the U.S. in October 2024.
WBUR has agreed not to disclose Zia or Tariq’s full names, out of safety concerns for their relatives in Afghanistan.
Zia was arrested by masked agents with Immigration and Customs Enforcement on July 16 after a routine biometrics appointment for his green card.
Without providing evidence, the Department of Homeland Security has said Zia is under investigation for a “serious criminal allegation,” and that ICE revoked Zia’s legal status after receiving information from the FBI allegedly indicating he “is a risk to the national security of the United States.”
“ This claim about some kind of national security risk is the biggest bunch of baloney that I’ve ever heard,” Blumenthal told reporters. “ If they have any evidence, any shred of evidence, I want to see it. I’m cleared to see top secret stuff.”
Zia’s attorneys have maintained his innocence and claim his arrest and detention were unlawful. A federal judge in Boston ordered Zia not be transferred to another facility or deported while he hears arguments in a legal challenge to his detention.
If forced to return, “ On the first day, they would chop my head off,” Blumenthal recalled Zia telling him.
Keating said the country made a promise to help its wartime allies, like Zia, who often risked their lives for American troops.
“This is nothing but a disgusting betrayal of that promise,” he said.
Both Blumenthal and Keating described Zia as a decent, soft-spoken man who’s concerned for his family.
After the fall of Kabul, the Biden administration declared that Afghan evacuees — many of whom worked alongside U.S. troops — would be allowed to resettle in the U.S. through a humanitarian parole program.
The program offered a fresh start. But today, many remain in legal limbo.
Jessica Bradley Rushing is a spokesperson for AfghanEvac, an organization that has been helping Afghans resettle in the U.S. She said there’s a lot of fear in the Afghan community right now, especially among those in the process of obtaining green cards.
“Our allies deserve better than this. I mean, everyone deserves better than that, but very specifically, this is a population of people who put their own lives and the lives of their families at risk to serve alongside the U.S. mission,” she said. “For them to come here and be treated with such disdain and disrespect and callousness and heartlessness — it’s a tarnish on our global reputation, and it’s not how you should treat your allies.”
Publicly, President Trump has expressed sympathy for the Afghan refugees and said he’d try to spare as many as he could from deportation. But in response to a journalist’s question last week, he said: “We know the good ones, and we know the ones that maybe aren’t so good.”
Nevertheless, Zia’s case, along with a recent San Diego arrest, have deepened concerns that the U.S. has abandoned its wartime allies as the Trump administration aggressively pursues its mass deportation agenda.
Blumenthal said he’ll do everything in his power to help Zia.
“He’s going to be a truly amazing citizen of the United States of America, if I have anything to do about it,” he said.
This article was originally published on WBUR.org.
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