How this Afghan family found itself held by ice in bureaucratic limbo

In a calm and leafy suburbs of Toronto, a 30-year-old Afghane spends most afternoon on the phone, hoping that she can reach her two younger brothers and sisters.

They are not in Afghanistan, but just kilometers away, on the other side of the border in the United States, held in immigration and customs application (ICE).

The three have been there in overcrowded cells for months, stuck in what their lawyers say they are a bureaucratic limmbe between Canada and the United States.

They are eligible for asylum in Canada because they have immediate parents who are legal refugees in the country, but can only submit their complaint on the land border – and US officials insist that they will only be released if they enter Canada by air, which they cannot do without a visa, their American lawyer told the BBC.

This visa request is currently being examined and they are stuck, currently unable to make a complaint in Canada and to face the expulsion of the United States.

From her house near Toronto, “Asal” says she tried everything to free them. The BBC uses an alias because its family belongs to a group of ethnic and religious minorities faced with persecution in Afghanistan.

She hired lawyers in the two countries to put pressure on their case and even offered to cover the costs of ice agents escorting them on the Canada-US border, to no avail.

The family’s case illustrates how some asylum seekers were taken in rapidly evolving policies from the Trump administration, according to their lawyers and experts. This also raises questions to find out if Canada is responsible for accelerating entry for people in detention of ice that have links with this country.

In the meantime, ASAL family members could be sent back to Afghanistan or to a third country of their choice – “the most frightening decision of all,” said their American lawyer Jodi Goodwin. This option “endangers them to be sent to God knows where, without protection insurance,” she said.

The father had worked with American troops as an entrepreneur, said Asal, making him a potential target for the Taliban if he was deported to Afghanistan.

Over the past eight months, Goodwin has worked to prevent US authorities from sending the family to their country of origin.

Meanwhile, their lawyers in Canada put pressure on the authorities to grant the visas they need to get an airplane. As part of an immigration pact between Canada and the United States – the third -party country agreement – migrants without a visa must claim asylum during a terrestrial crossing.

Asal speaks with her family detained when she can. Ice authorizes “visits” online, and she often goes to her 18 -year -old sister.

During a recent call, made with the help of an iPad that she shares with around 80 other cell comrades, her sister offered details on her daily life – her struggle to rest a good night, her habit of making the laundry just to stay busy – before she cries in tears.

In Canadian legal deposits shared with the BBC, she declares that she was “shocked” by the conditions of detention of the ice.

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

She describes the strip excavation, served as “almost non -edible” food and how prisoners who refuse to eat are threatened with “isolation”.

The BBC asked for comments on ICE. Administration officials previously defended the reports of poor conditions in the installations of detention of migrants in the United States as false.

ASAL and other families say they are struggling to obtain information on the well-being of detained persons, including the youngest brother who was admitted to the hospital for 10 days due to crises and who is now back in detention of ice.

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

It was their favorite destination after having reluctantly fled Afghanistan, violence, violence quickly degenerated after the Taliban took over.

They went to Iran and from there to Brazil, then to the United States, where they were detained by ice for four days before heading to the northern border and crossing Canada via Roxham Road, at the time a well-transported but unofficial crossing between New York State and Quebec. Once in Canada, they managed to ask for asylum.

“That is sure. There is security and the community is good,” said Asal.

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

But when the final group – his mother and his father, and his three brothers and sisters – made the trip, politics in North America had changed.

Roxham Road – This unofficial road for thousands of asylum seekers entering Canada between 2017 and 2023 – had been closed, and the United States had trouble facing a wave of migrants at its southern border.

After having tried without success legal options to enter the United States from Mexico, in the December family, the remaining members paid for smuggling across the border, where they then went to the authorities.

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

But the other three are still in police custody, the American authorities refusing to publish them under new rules, says Goodwin.

The fact that they were not released with the others in February were summed up in bad timing.

Ms. Goodwin says that an official told him “that they just arrived at their documents in time”.

In response to the BBC questions on the family case, a senior official of the US Department of Internal Security (DHS) said: “ICE would make them readily in their country of origin” if they asked for a voluntary departure.

They add that the United States “will not pass illegal foreigners in search of asylum in our country in Canada and vice versa. This is part of good neighbors and partners”.

Adam Sadinsky, one of Canadian family lawyers, said Canada had the opportunity to allow this family to be reunited.

“We do not want Canada to be accomplice of this treatment and the potential result they could be sent to a number of countries with their own abyssal human rights file,” he told the BBC.

Mr. Sadinsky also argues that allowing them to enter Canada would comply with the secure agreement on the third country, which contains exemptions aimed at bringing families together.

In a declaration to the BBC, immigration, refugees and citizenship Canada said that it would not comment on the family, citing privacy legislation.

The case sets an enigma for Canadian officials, explains immigration lawyer Richard Kurland.

Kurland, who is not involved in his case, told the BBC that allowing it to entry to the family could create a precedent for other people in ice detention with links with Canada. “How can you say” yes “to a single family, then” no “to everyone?

But he adds that he thinks that Canada and the United States are responsible for ensuring that the family is not returned to Afghanistan.

“It is cruel for the United States not to exclude Kabul’s theft,” he said. “Americans know what’s in stores because they have been there in Kabul for over 20 years.”

For the moment, Asal and his family in Canada continue to compete in the case, wishing a meeting.

“Believe me when I say I can’t sleep almost all night,” she said.

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