How this Afghan family ended up held by ICE in bureaucratic limbo

In a quiet, leafy suburb of Toronto, a 30-year-old Afghan woman spends most afternoons on the phone, hoping she can reach her two younger siblings and father.

They are not in Afghanistan, but instead just miles away, across the border in the US, held in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention.

The three have been there in crowded cells for months, stuck in what their lawyers say is a bureaucratic limbo between Canada and the US.

They are eligible for asylum in Canada because they have immediate relatives who are legal refugees in the country, but can only file their claim at the land border – and US officials insist that they will only be released if they enter Canada by air, which they can’t do without a visa, their US lawyer told the BBC.

That visa application is currently under review and they remain stuck, currently unable to make a claim in Canada and facing deportation from the US.

From her home near Toronto, “Asal” says she has tried everything to get them released. The BBC is using an alias because her family belongs to an ethnic and religious minority group facing persecution in Afghanistan.

She has hired attorneys in both countries to press their case and even offered to cover the costs of ICE agents escorting them to the Canada-US border, to no avail.

The family’s case illustrates how some asylum seekers have been caught in rapidly changing policies under the Trump administration, their lawyers and experts say. It also raises questions about whether Canada has a responsibility to expedite entry for people in ICE detention who have ties to that country.

In the meantime, Asal’s family members could be sent back to Afghanistan or a third country not of their choosing – “the scariest move of all”, argues their American lawyer Jodi Goodwin. That option “puts them at risk of being sent to God knows where, with no assurances of protection,” she said.

The father had worked with US troops as a contractor, Asal said, making him a potential target for the Taliban if deported back to Afghanistan.

For the last eight months, Ms Goodwin has been working to stop US authorities from sending the family to their native country.

Meanwhile, their lawyers in Canada have been pressing authorities to grant the visas they need to get on a plane. Under an immigration pact between Canada and the US – the Safe Third Country Agreement – migrants without a visa must claim asylum at a land border crossing.

Asal speaks with her detained family when she can. ICE allows online “visitations”, and she often gets through to her 18-year-old sister.

On a recent call, made using an iPad that she shares with around 80 other cellmates, her sister offered details of her daily life – her struggle to get a good night’s rest, her habit of doing the laundry just to keep busy – before she bursts into tears.

In Canadian legal filings shared with the BBC, she states that she has been “shocked” by the conditions in ICE detention.

“Every aspect of our life is controlled, even though we are not criminals,” she said.

She describes being strip searched, served “nearly inedible” food and how inmates who refuse to eat are threatened with “solitary confinement”.

The BBC sought comment from ICE. Administration officials have previously defended reports of poor conditions in migrant detention facilities in the US as false.

Asal and other family say they struggle to get information about the well-being of those detained, including the youngest brother who was admitted to hospital for 10 days due to seizures and who is now back in ICE detention.

The first part of the family, which included Asal and two siblings, arrived in Canada in February 2023, she told the BBC.

It was their preferred destination after reluctantly fleeing Afghanistan as violence rapidly escalated after the Taliban took over.

They trekked to Iran and from there to Brazil then up to the US, where they were held by ICE for four days before heading to the northern border and crossing into Canada via Roxham Road, at the time a well-travelled but unofficial crossing between New York state and Quebec. Once in Canada, they successfully filed for asylum.

“It is safe. There is security, and the community is good,” Asal said.

In August 2024, more family members were able to leave Afghanistan and arrived in Canada following a similar path.

But by the time the final group – her mother and father, and her three siblings – made the trip, politics in North America had shifted.

Roxham Road – that unofficial route for thousands of asylum seekers entering Canada between 2017 and 2023 – had been closed, and the US was struggling to deal with a surge of migrants at its southern border.

After unsuccessfully trying legal options to enter the US from Mexico, in December Asal’s family remaining members paid to be smuggled across the border, where they then surrendered to authorities.

In February, Asal’s mother and one of her sisters were released shortly after Trump took office and signed an executive order expanding the detention and deportation of migrants, and made their way to Canada.

But the remaining three are still in ICE custody, with US authorities refusing to release them under the new rules, Ms Goodwin says.

The fact they weren’t released along with the others in February came down to bad timing.

Ms Goodwin says an official told her “they just didn’t get to their paperwork in time”.

In response to questions from the BBC about the family’s case, a senior official with the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) says, “ICE would happily return them to their origin country” should they request a voluntary departure.

They add that the US “is NOT going to pass off illegal aliens seeking asylum from our country to Canada and vice versa. This is part of being good neighbors and partners”.

Adam Sadinsky, one of the family’s Canadian lawyers, said Canada has an opportunity to allow this family to be reunited.

“We don’t want Canada to be complicit in this treatment, and the potential result that they could be sent to any number of countries with their own abysmal human rights record,” he tells the BBC.

Mr Sadinsky also argues that allowing them to enter Canada would be in line with the Safe Third Country Agreement, which contains exemptions aimed at reuniting families.

In a statement to the BBC, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada says it would not comment on the family’s case, citing privacy legislation.

The case poses a conundrum for Canadian officials, says immigration lawyer Richard Kurland.

Mr Kurland, who is not involved with their case, told the BBC that allowing entry to the family could set a precedent for others in ICE detention with ties to Canada. “How can you say ‘yes’ to just one family, and then, ‘no’ to everyone else?”

But he adds that he believes both Canada and the US have a responsibility to at least ensure the family is not sent back to Afghanistan.

“It’s cruel for the US not to rule out the Kabul flight,” he said. “The Americans know what is in store, because they were right there in Kabul for over 20 years.”

For now, Asal and her family in Canada continue to agonise about the case, wishing for a reunion.

“Trust me when I say that I cannot sleep most of the night,” she said.

But she is hopeful Canadian officials come through and “that they will not leave us alone in this situation”.