Jailed Afghan teen gets aid
Students raise $25,000 toward his release from ICE detention
SAN FRANCISCO >> He is now known as Hamid, but so little else is certain about the young man who showed up seven months ago at the U.S. border with questionable documents and a story of a tragic and treacherous trip from his village in Afghanistan through South America and somehow, alone, to the port of entry at San Ysidro.
On Friday, his extraordinary journey took another turn when a group of students in San Francisco inspired by his case delivered a $25,000 check to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to free him from a detention facility in a case that immigrant advocates say illustrates just how broken the immigration system has become in President Donald Trump’s America.
Hamid’s ordeal with the U.S. immigration system began in November when he left Tijuana and crossed into America and began telling his story to border agents.
He was 16 or 17, he told them — he couldn’t be sure because his village didn’t keep precise records — but he was seeking asylum in the U.S. after the Taliban killed his father and brother. He said his uncle put him on a plane with a passport that claimed he was older than 18 so he could escape and travel on his own.
The question of his age — whether he was an adult or unaccompanied minor — has become the center of this unique case that has drawn the attention of Sen. Kamala Harris and the ire of immigration activists who say Hamid is being unfairly targeted by the Trump administration.
At first, Hamid was brought to a nonprofit youth shelter in Contra Costa County while the government considered his asylum case — until ICE agents showed up nearly six months ago and transferred him to a detention center for adult men in Bakersfield.
“It’s been pretty lonely for him, in addition to being scary,” said Mariel Villareal, an attorney with San Francisco-based Pangea Legal Services, who is representing Hamid. “I have a strong feeling that ICE is making an example out of him to keep other people from coming here and seeking asylum.”
Villareal, who advocated for Hamid to be released on bail, said it’s outrageous that ICE originally set his bail at $35,000 — an amount he clearly couldn’t pay on his own. He’d also be required to wear a GPS tracker.
“When you set a $35,000 bond for a kid who just got here and has been in custody since he arrived, it’s essentially a slap in the face and ICE saying, ‘we’re going to keep this person detained,’ ” she said.
Unlike in criminal cases where a judge sets bail during a court hearing, it’s ICE who sets bail in immigration cases.
“Under the immigration regulations, it specifically says that it’s the Department of Homeland Security that sets the bail,” said San Francisco-based attorney Bill Hing, who added setting high bail amounts has become increasingly common as the Trump administration continues to crack down on illegal border crossings and asylum seekers. “Certain people — not everyone — can then ask for a bail re-determination hearing before an immigration judge.”
Immigrants who are subject to mandatory deportation — for example, people convicted of aggravated felonies or serious drug offenses — aren’t entitled to a bail hearing.
ICE agents this week dropped Hamid’s bail amount to $25,000, according to Villareal. Students with “415 Unidos for Freedom” at the June Jordan School for Equity in San Francisco delivered a check in that amount Friday to ICE — the result of fervent community fundraising. The small high school focuses on social justice issues and serves largely working-class black and Latino students.
“Just thinking that he’s in there in a detention center instead of being in school … he should be getting an education like all of us,” said Keytlen Ramirez, one of the students who raised funds for Hamid’s release. “It’s hard.”
What remains unclear is why Hamid was detained in the first place — often times, undocumented immigrants seeking asylum are released under “humanitarian parole” as their cases make their way through immigration court.
An ICE spokesman declined to comment on the specifics of the case Thursday but said ICE makes bail determinations based on a number of different factors unique to each case.
Hamid — a pseudonym created by his attorneys to protect his identity — fled terrorism in Afghanistan last year after his mother urged him to leave, according to his lawyers. They said he flew to South America, traveled north mostly by bus through Central America and Mexico and made it to the San Ysidro Port of Entry near San Diego in November, where he turned himself in to Customs and Border Protection. It’s a common but often deadly journey that migrants from all over the world make in an attempt to ask for political asylum at the border.
Hamid didn’t know his exact birthdate, and at first the agents determined he was a minor, according to his attorney. He was sent to Southwest Key in Pleasant Hill in Contra Costa County, part of a network of 27 private, nonprofit shelters that take in immigrant children in three states. He had planned to join family in Texas.
But after ICE used a dental exam to determine Hamid was between the ages of 16 and 23, ICE argued the boy was older than 18 and placed him in detention at the Mesa Verde Detention Facility in Bakersfield, where he’s remained since December.
Critics have called into question ICE’s use of dental and bone scans to determine the age of unaccompanied minors, arguing it’s inaccurate.
A representative from Harris’ office and many of the students who rallied on his behalf met with Hamid on Monday. It isn’t clear when he would be released.
“Senator Harris has been a fierce opponent of this Administration’s immigration policies that separate families, target communities in California, and harm our public safety,” a spokesperson for Harris said in a statement.
Ramirez, 18, was part of the group of students who visited Hamid this week. On Friday, she said his case was only the beginning of their activism.
“We’re not going to stop,” she said. “This is one case but there are a lot more to go. Our community has to be freed.”