Trump's immigration crackdown targets asylum-seekers at Bethpage office

One morning in mid-October, a man who says he fled the Taliban in Afghanistan walked into a little-known federal office in Bethpage expecting to see his asylum case move ahead just as it had for five of his relatives.

Instead, ICE agents arrested Ali Faqirzada, 31, even though he passed a "credible fear" interview that concluded he would likely face persecution or worse in his homeland. Now he is sitting in an ICE detention facility in Newark. His supporters fear he will be sent back to Afghanistan, where his life could be in danger because he'd worked in an office that supported U.S. efforts to restore democracy there, his attorney said.

Faqirzada's arrest on Oct. 14 has provoked outrage in upstate Ulster County where he lives, with leaders of the Episcopal Church, Bard College and Ulster County government calling for his release.

The detention is "causing him enormous pain," said Anwen Hughes, a senior attorney at Human Rights First, an international nonprofit that is representing Faqirzada. Arrests at Bethpage and other asylum offices are "injecting a lot of fear and uncertainty into what should be fairly routine interactions."

The nondescript office building at 1065 Stewart Ave. has become one of the newest flashpoints in the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown. One of only 11 federal asylum offices in the United States, it's where migrants from around the world show up for hearings.

Now increasing numbers are detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, leaving their relatives and friends stunned, immigration lawyers and advocates said.

Faqirzada's sister, Saida, said she was shocked when ICE agents took her brother away that morning. He was "really hopeful and, like, optimistic" on the way down from Ulster County for his appointment, she said, especially since she and four other relatives already had successfully received asylum.

When she learned he was getting arrested, she said, it was "like your whole brain and emotion just collapsed all of a sudden."

Little-known cases

Making the arrests of him and others particularly upsetting is that asylum offices are supposed to be sanctuaries where people already traumatized by persecution, torture or other violence in their home countries find refuge, advocates said. They generally must recount their traumatic stories over a period of hours to asylum officers who are strangers to them.

"We're talking about populations who already have plenty of cause for anxiety in terms of their fates in their countries, but this is injecting another level of it," Hughes said. "There's no legitimate government reason to be doing this."

President Donald Trump’s crackdown has received widespread attention for arrests taking place in the streets and in immigration courts and offices such as 26 Federal Plaza in Manhattan. But the arrests at the asylum offices are far less known publicly.

The Stewart Avenue facility, which is run by U.S. Citizenship and Immigrant Services, serves immigrants from 12 counties: Nassau, Suffolk, Queens, Brooklyn, Staten Island, Westchester, Orange, Dutchess, Putnam, Rockland, Sullivan and Ulster.

Asylum-seekers typically are fleeing persecution based on their race, religion, nationality, political opinion or membership in a particular social group.

Trump contends many migrants abuse the asylum system and are here for economic reasons, to seek a better life. He has called the system a "hoax" and a "scam."

Trump says his crackdown is aimed generally at dangerous criminals who are here illegally. ICE officials did not respond to questions about arrests at asylum offices.

Although there may be some fraudulent claims in the asylum system, many cases are legitimate, said Heather Hogan, a former government asylum officer who now works for the American Immigration Lawyers Association, the largest such group in the country. The United States was founded by people fleeing persecution, she noted.

Faqirzada's sister said he came out of his credible fear interview late that morning smiling, though officers told him to wait around for the decision. By about 4 p.m., he was called back inside, and soon texted his sister: He was being arrested and agents were taking him away.

The sister started crying hysterically, knocking on the door pleading to see her brother to say goodbye, which she never did.

'A cruel act'

Since Faqirzada's detention, his father barely speaks and spends most of the day praying for his release, Saida said. The family has visited him in Newark but feels crushed every time they leave, she said.

"We trusted the U.S. process," she said. 

Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, where Faqirzada was studying, held a vigil on Oct. 20 in part to demand his release. Ulster County Executive Jen Metzger called his detention "a cruel act."

Faqirzada "came to this country with his family seeking refuge after fleeing violence and persecution — protections that have long been afforded to asylum-seekers by our country and are now being upended," Metzger said in a statement.

Arrests at the asylum offices used to be rare but now are becoming common, even for people who pass the "credible fear" interview, Hogan said.

"There are some circumstances when an arrest at an asylum office may be useful — for example, human traffickers at times apply for asylum for the people they are trafficking in order to obtain lawful status for those being trafficked," she said.

But the practice of arresting people who have no criminal records or arrest warrants "seems to go against the purpose of the asylum program's protection mission and scares asylum-seekers from appearing for their appointments," she said.

Typically, asylum applicants were allowed to remain in the United States while their cases wound through the immigration system — they were not suddenly arrested, Hughes said.

Optimistic applicant

Abdulai Bah, an immigrant from Guinea in West Africa, said he went to the Bethpage office on Oct. 28 to help translate for a fellow immigrant from the same country. The friend, Ibrahima Barry, filed for asylum because he said he faced political persecution from the military junta running Guinea.

Barry was happy and optimistic during their car ride from Brooklyn, where they both live. Bah told Newsday that Barry, who was working as a Door Dash driver, had undergone an asylum interview in Bethpage two weeks earlier that "according to him, went pretty well," Bah said. "He was actually not concerned. He was looking forward to getting his results."

Barry had been issued a work permit and Social Security number years back as part of his asylum application, Bah said.

But once inside 1065 Stewart Ave., things went awry, Bah said. In a back room, Barry was informed he had not passed his interview and would have to appear before an immigration judge in February to decide his case.

Then, two ICE agents walked in. "They said to us, ‘We're from ICE, we have a warrant for you, Mr. Barry. Today, we're here to take you in.’ "

Bah had to drive Barry’s car back to Brooklyn.

"It's very disturbing," Bah said. "He was not expecting this. ... He was shocked. ... I was never under the impression that people would get picked up at a location like this. ... Mr. Barry had done everything that he was supposed to be doing."

Nelson Gonzalez said he went to the Bethpage office the same day after a fellow native of Peru who lives in Brentwood was detained there by ICE. The friend, Yan Lee, drove his car alone to the office since he never imagined he would be arrested, said Gonzalez, who went to retrieve it.

Lee appeared to have a strong chance of getting his asylum application approved, said Pablo Jimenez, an attorney at the Central American Refugee Center in Hempstead who helped him fill it out.

"Somebody who was doing the right thing, doesn't have a criminal record or anything, and they still got detained. ... I don't support that," Gonzalez said. "Trump should just stick with the criminals and then get them out of here."