FILE - Cheshire High School, where Rihan is a student, at 525 S. Main St. in 2023. Hearst Connecticut Media file photoA Cheshire High School student was riding in a car with his uncle and younger brother the morning of April 6, when three vehicles filled with masked immigration agents boxed them in, according to a court filing by his attorneys.The agents weren’t there to arrest the student, Rihan, the court filing said. They were looking for his father, Zia, a former interpreter for U.S. forces in Afghanistan who spent three months in immigration detention before his release last October, according to the court filing.Article continues below this adIt was only after the uncle said Zia wasn’t with them that the officers asked for Rihan’s identification and detained him, the court filing says.Rihan and his family entered the United States at John F. Kennedy Airport in New York City in October 2024 on a two-year humanitarian parole that was set to expire on Oct. 7, 2026. ICE officers arrested his father, Zia, last July during a routine visit to a federal immigration office in East Hartford. Zia had worked as an interpreter during the war in Afghanistan, and his case became national news, with U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., championing his cause. ICE released Zia in October.More NewsThe arrest of 18-year-old Rihan last week set off renewed outrage among many state and local officials, with Blumenthal calling it “un-American.” (Earlier filings incorrectly listed Rihan's age as 19.)Article continues below this adThe Hour LogoMake us a Preferred Source on Google to see more of us when you search.Add Preferred Source“Zia was detained by ICE illegally,” Blumenthal said. “Now they are detaining his son because they failed in the effort to get Zia. So Rihan has become ICE’s latest victim in that family.”Court filings are providing new details on Rihan’s arrest and his lawyer’s efforts to get him released from the Plymouth County Correctional Institute in Plymouth, Mass., where he’s currently held. Attorneys for Rihan and Zia asked that they only be referred to by their first names, citing concerns for their safety and the safety of their relatives who are still in Afghanistan.In a statement to CT Insider, attorneys for Rihan said they believed an “administrative error” caused his arrest.Article continues below this ad“We are hopeful this will be corrected promptly, allowing him to return home soon, graduate with his classmates from Cheshire High School, and continue his plans to pursue higher education,” said Catalina Horak, executive director of The American Immigrant Legal Clinic, which is representing Rihan.“In the meantime, his school has been exploring ways to support him so that he can stay on track academically and graduate on time, including sending homework and class assignments to him through his attorneys at the detention center,” Horak said. In a statement provided after publication of this story, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security said: "Any application for asylum does not preclude immigration enforcement. If we encounter illegal aliens who should have been detained but were instead released into the country by the Biden administration, we will detain them."One of the court documents, filed late Friday, may back up the assertion by Rihan’s attorneys that his arrest was an error. It’s based on an interview Rihan’s lawyers had with him April 9 at the Plymouth County Correctional Institute.Article continues below this adIn that interview, Rihan said that before ICE agents handcuffed him, they said his humanitarian parole expired last October. Other court filings from Rihan’s attorneys say that the online version of one of the documents Rihan received when he entered the country said his humanitarian parole expired in October 2025, while the rest of his documents said it expired in October 2026.U.S. Customs and Border Patrol provided one of Rihan’s attorneys with a corrected version of that form the day after his arrest that listed the expiration date as October 2026, court records show.Even still, ICE revoked Rihan’s humanitarian parole after he arrived in Plymouth, his attorneys said in court filings."No paperwork of any kind — no administrative warrant, no court order, no charging document — was provided to Petitioner or his uncle at the scene of the arrest, despite their requests," Rihan's lawyers said in the court filing.Article continues below this adImmediately after his arrest, the ICE agents drove him to the parking lot of the Cheshire Police Department, where they placed him in leg shackles, Rihan told his attorneys. The teen “observed other Cheshire police officers in the vicinity who witnessed these events but did not intervene,” the court filing said.Chief Frederick J. Jortner of the Cheshire Police Department said his agency did not assist ICE with Rihan’s arrest and only learned about it after the fact.“A review of the department’s camera system for the date and time in question shows a convoy of federal agents in the rear parking lot of the police station,” Jortner told CT Insider in a statement. “It is not unusual for federal agencies to utilize the exterior parking lot. At no time did ICE request access to or use Cheshire Police Department facilities.”"The department became aware of the arrest through news reporting at the same time as the general public and did not receive prior notification,” he added.Article continues below this adConnecticut law places tight limits on the cooperation state and local law enforcement agencies can provide to federal immigration officials. The Cheshire Police Department abides by that law, Jortner said.The agents then drove him to ICE’s main Connecticut field office, located on the fifth floor of the Abraham A. Ribicoff Federal Building in downtown Hartford, Rihan told his attorneys. On the ride there, Rihan said an agent told him his asylum case had been closed. But Rihan’s father and mother both have pending asylum claims that include him, court filings show.Once at the ICE office, Rihan said four agents interrogated him. There, Rihan said the agents told him that his humanitarian parole had expired and “repeatedly attempted to pressure him into signing a voluntary departure form.”Article continues below this adVoluntary departure is a form of immigration relief that allows a person charged with being in the country illegally to voluntarily return to their home country without incurring the legal penalties that come with forcible deportation.ICE did not respond to questions about why its agents told Rihan his family’s pending asylum applications were closed, why it inaccurately said his humanitarian parole had expired or why agents encouraged him to voluntarily deport. But DHS encouraged voluntary departure in its statement to CT Insider last week.“Being in detention is a choice,” DHS said, adding: “The United States is offering illegal aliens $2,600 and a free flight to self-deport now. We encourage every person here illegally to take advantage of this offer and reserve the chance to come back to the U.S. the right legal way to live the American dream. If not, you will be arrested and deported without a chance to return.”Rihan's attorneys said in their court filing that ICE issued him an arrest warrant and a charging document only once he was at the Hartford field office. The warrant seems to confirm that, his attorneys said, because the document says it was served on Rihan at the Hartford office.Article continues below this adThat "indicates that it was a completely collateral arrest," his attorneys wrote.After about 45 minutes at the Hartford office, two ICE officers transported Rihan to Plymouth, court filings say.Rihan’s attorneys said they will continue to fight for his release. They filed a petition seeking his release in U.S. District Court in Connecticut on April 6. Judge Vernon Oliver ruled Saturday that he did not have jurisdiction because Rihan likely crossed into Massachusetts on his way to the facility in Plymouth shortly before his lawyers filed the petition. Such petitions generally have to be filed in the jurisdiction where a person is physically present.A note on the docket late Tuesday afternoon said the case has been transferred and is now opened in district court in Massachusetts.Article continues below this adCorrection: This story has been updated with the name of the organization representing Rihan. It is The American Immigrant Legal Clinic.Editor's note: This story has been updated to include a comment from the Department of Homeland Security.April 15, 2026|Updated April 15, 2026 7:55 p.m.Investigative reporterJoshua Eaton is an investigative reporter at Hearst Connecticut Media Group. Before joining Hearst, he was on investigative and enterprise teams at NBC News, CQ Roll Call and ThinkProgress. His work has also appeared at The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, The New Republic, Kaiser Health News, Al Jazeera America, The Intercept and elsewhere.