A federal judge Monday ordered immigration officials to immediately release an Afghan immigrant who helped U.S. troops fight the Taliban before moving to Boulder County.
Mohammad Ali Dadfar, who liveDd in Louisville with his wife and four children after fleeing Afghanistan, was picked up in an Immigration and Customs Enforcement sting while working as a long-haul truck driver. He has been held in a detention center in Missouri for nearly two months following his arrest at a weigh station along an interstate highway in Indiana.
“Ali’s family is overwhelmed and excited to see him,” said Marissa Seuc-Hester, who leads a volunteer ministry for immigrants at Christ the Servant Lutheran Church in Louisville and had helped the family with housing and other support. “Our community is celebrating this just order and cannot wait to welcome him home.”
U.S. District Judge M. Douglas Harpool ruled that Dadfar’s rights to due process were violated and that he is entitled to immediate release. Federal authorities should return him to a “reasonable proximity” to his home, the judge’s order states.
Dadfar’s attorney in Colorado, Tiago Guevara of Longmont, said he expected Dadfar would be released by the end of the day.
Mohammad Ali Dadfar, 37, worked for the Afghan Army in opposition to the Taliban. When the Taliban regained control of Kabul, he and his family began a three-year journey to Colorado. (Photo provided by family)
Dadfar and his family escaped Afghanistan “in fear for their lives,” the court order says. He followed the path toward legal asylum, first by presenting himself and his family to border patrol authorities in San Ysidro, California, in June 2024. They were admitted into the United States and given a date for immigration court.
Dadfar was granted humanitarian parole, which does not expire until June 2026. He had applied for asylum in August 2024 and was scheduled to appear in immigration court in Colorado in February. He also has a work permit that is valid until June, according to court records, and had obtained a commercial driver’s license to work as a truck driver.
Dadfar was driving through Michigan City, Indiana, and had stopped at a weigh station along Interstate 94. “Then, without a warrant or any warning, Mr. Dadfar was detained and arrested,” the order states.
He was held for five hours at the weigh station, then taken into ICE custody by Chicago immigration agents. He was later sent to a detention center in Missouri.
Dadfar had worked in the Afghan Army for 14 years and provided security for U.S. soldiers. He and his wife, three daughters and one son fled Afghanistan in 2021, after U.S. troops had withdrawn and the Taliban returned to power.
They traveled first to Iran, and then to Brazil when the Brazilian government offered visas to Afghan refugees. After about a year in South America, the family made a treacherous journey through the jungle of the Darien Gap to reach the U.S. border.
They settled in Louisville, where Dadfar’s brother already lived.
This is a breaking story that will be updated.
Type of Story: News
Based on facts, either observed and verified directly by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources.