Sometimes the only way to comprehend the magnitude of a horrific injustice is to stare into the face of a single victim. It’s why the image of Anne Frank is an enduring symbol of the world’s callous abandonment of millions of Jews in Europe in the 20th century. Or why the story of the savage lynching of Emmett Till speaks volumes about our long, ugly racist history.
Today the face of Mohammad Ali Dadfar demands that we look as it rips away any pretense of fairness or decency from the lawless immigration crackdown under way across the country.
Dadfar’s story reveals how America has become a cruel, sinister place. It shows us that no one is safe here.
His story began in Afghanistan, where for 14 years he risked his life to aid American troops in the war against the Taliban. In a recent Sun story by Jennifer Brown, his wife tells of how the U.S. troop withdrawal left him standing at the Kabul airport with no defenses against retribution from the Taliban as the evacuation left his family alone with no way out.
The criticism of the U.S. withdrawal at the time was furious and bipartisan. Abandoning the U.S. allies from the Afghan army was widely condemned.
Rep. Jason Crow was livid about the way the Biden administration handled the situation. “… We didn’t need to be seeing these scenes at Kabul airport,” Crow told the New York Times in 2021. “We should have started this evacuation months ago.”
Now, Crow and Rep. Joe Neguse are fighting for the release of Dadfar, 37, who was working under a valid work permit last month when he was swept up in an immigration crackdown on the Illinois border. He remains held in a detention center in Missouri.
The saga of Dadfar’s family is beyond tragic.
After the Americans fled Afghanistan, the family spent 15 days traveling through Pakistan to Iran, where they lived for more than a year under hostile, harsh conditions. Word came that Brazil was accepting Afghan refugees, so they applied for visas. Six months later, they arrived in an overcrowded refugee camp in Brazil.
After a year spent struggling to find work and housing, the family began a two-month trek across South America, through the Darien Gap to the U.S.-Mexico border, where they applied for asylum. They were assigned a court date, and U.S. Customs and Border Patrol advised them to contact Dadfar’s brother in Colorado. He helped them move to Colorado in July 2024.
Dadfar obtained a legal work permit pending his asylum case, which is bogged down in a Kafkaesque immigration court system that has fallen years behind in adjudicating cases.
While the family waits for the immigration court decision, Dadfar has worked in construction and recently completed training for his new job as a long-haul truck driver. His wife works in retail. Their four children are going to school and learning English.
Dadfar was at a weigh station in Indiana on Oct. 10 when masked ICE officers descended upon him and forced him to strip at the side of the road. They asked him if he had documents to prove he was here legally. He did, but they ignored him.
He was handcuffed and incarcerated.
He has no criminal record, just a proud history of service to the U.S. military in a war zone.
Crow, who served in Afghanistan as an Army Ranger, told The Sun he “might not be here today” if not for the Afghans who supported the American troops. “After the war, we promised we’d have their back.”
Neguse, whose district includes Boulder County where Dadfar’s family lives, called the behavior of ICE agents “deplorable.”
“The detainment of Mohammad Dadfar — an Afghan ally who risked his life alongside American troops to fight the Taliban — is a disgrace, and yet another example of this administration’s draconian immigration policies,” Neguse said. “My office is in touch directly with Mr. Dadfar’s legal counsel, and we are committed to taking all legal steps to ensure his safety and secure his release.”
Still, Dadfar waits.
A judge in Missouri ordered the Department of Homeland Security to produce evidence to justify his arrest by Nov. 17. No such documentation was submitted. An extension was granted until Friday. After that deadline, the judge will rule on the writ of habeas corpus, possibly ordering that Dadfar be released.
In the meantime, he calls his family every day. His children, who are between the ages of 4 and 11, have not been told the whole distressing story of his detention. The fragile financial independence the refugee family has achieved in the past year is being unraveled as he sits in the detention center, unable to work.
Marissa Seuc-Hester, who has supported the family through her work with the volunteer ministry for immigrants at Christ the Servant Lutheran Church in Louisville, said the family “is doing their best to keep going in the midst of great duress.”
The community response in support of Dadfar and his family has been huge, she said. “People are paying attention.”
But the bullies at the Department of Homeland Security keep the disinformation campaign raging.
In a media release on the ICE sweep that resulted in Dadfar’s arrest, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said “223 illegal aliens” were picked up for “driving under the influence, drug trafficking, theft, burglary, assault, child abuse, domestic battery, prostitution, fraud.”
No evidence was cited. As with most of the immigration sweeps, no formal charges were filed.
It’s all just lies, cruelty and political theater.
Noem can’t be bothered to care that Dadfar and his family are here legally, working hard and have sacrificed everything to support the U.S. government. She cavalierly delights in forcing them to live in fear, to struggle, grovel and wait and wait and wait for the asylum they so richly deserve.
Diane Carman is a Denver communications consultant.
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