An 18-year-old Cheshire High School student has been held in Plymouth County Correctional Facility in Plymouth, Mass. since he was detained by ICE on April 6.MediaNews Group via Getty ImagesSeveral unmarked cars surrounded Rihan, his uncle Tariq and his younger brother as the family drove not far from their home in Cheshire early on the morning of April 6, boxing them in with sirens blaring.At first, the masked agents in those cars didn’t ask for Rihan, according to a court filing by his attorneys. They were with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, they said, looking for Rihan’s father, Zia.Article continues below this adIt was déjà vu for the family of seven. Zia, his wife, and their five children — including Rihan — fled to the United States in late 2024 from Afghanistan, where Zia was an interpreter for U.S. troops. After ICE arrested Zia in July 2025, the government said in court filings he posed a threat to national security. Months later, in October, two federal judges who reviewed the government’s evidence ordered his release.More NewsNow, almost six months after Zia got out of ICE custody, it was his 18-year-old son being detained. Tariq explained that Zia wasn’t with them, according to the court filing.That’s when the agents turned their attention to Rihan. After checking an online system, the officers took Rihan into custody, the filing stated.Article continues below this adNew Haven Register LogoMake us a Preferred Source on Google to see more of us when you search.Add Preferred SourceAttorneys for Rihan said they believed an “administrative error” caused his arrest.Rihan and Zia shared many trying experiences, from fleeing Afghanistan to waiting in Pakistan for years for a U.S. visa to finally coming to the United States to build a new life in Connecticut.Soon they would share one more: Being arrested by ICE and sent to a county jail in Massachusetts, where Rihan still sits.Article continues below this adAttorneys for the family have asked that members only be referred to by their first names, citing concerns for their safety and the safety of their relatives who are still in Afghanistan.President Donald Trump took office for a second time on Jan. 20, 2025, promising one of the most sweeping deportation efforts in the nation’s history. That immigration crackdown has played out most dramatically on the streets of cities like Los Angeles, California; Chicago, Illinois; and Minneapolis, Minnesota, drawing national attention.Connecticut has not seen the dramatic flood of immigration enforcement those cities have. But a steady drip of stories about arrests by ICE in the Nutmeg State, backed up by the agency’s own data, show a spike in immigration arrests here since Trump took office.Coming to AmericaZia and his family came to the United States after spending about five years as an interpreter and cultural advisor with U.S. forces at Camp Mike Spann in Mazar-e-Sharif, in the country’s north, according to a press release last year from Blumenthal’s office. One of Zia's brothers was also an interpreter for U.S. forces, the press release said.Article continues below this adThat cooperation marked Zia’s entire family as targets for Taliban insurgents who sought to take back control of the country, according to Zia's supporters. The advocacy group #AfghanEvac said in a press release last year that the Taliban attempted to kidnap Zia while he was working for U.S. forces in Afghanistan but instead were able to kidnap one of his brothers, whom they tortured.When the Taliban took back control of Afghanistan in 2021, Zia and his family fled to Pakistan. Meanwhile, his brother Tariq came to the United States, eventually gaining citizenship. Tariq sponsored Zia's family, and Zia gained chief-of-mission approval for his visa from the U.S. embassy in Kabul, according to court filings and a fact sheet provided by #AfghanEvac.Eventually, court filings say Zia, his wife and their five children, including Rihan, were able to fly into John F. Kennedy Airport in New York in early October 2024, where U.S. Customs and Border Patrol admitted them into the country on a two-year humanitarian parole — a temporary immigration status that would allow them to enter and stay in the United States while they applied for permanent residency and, eventually, citizenship.For almost nine months, life seemed quiet as Zia settled into a job and his children settled into school in their new home, court filings say. In late June, Zia filed an application with US. Citizenship and Immigration Services for legal permanent residency, commonly called a “green card.”Article continues below this adThe peace wouldn’t last long.‘National security’On July 16, Zia went to a USCIS office in East Hartford to have his fingerprints taken as a routine part of his green-card application process. That’s when six masked ICE agents took him into custody, according to court filings and statements one of his attorneys, Lauren Petersen, made to the press after his arrest. They revoked his humanitarian parole and took him to the Plymouth County Correctional Facility, in Plymouth, Massachusetts, which has a contract with ICE to house immigration detainees.In a statement to CT Insider after Zia’s arrest, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security — which oversees ICE, CBP and USCIS — said he was “currently under investigation for a serious criminal allegation.”Article continues below this ad“All of his claims will be heard by a judge,” DHS said. “Any Afghan who fears persecution is able to request relief.”Petersen, one of Zia’s attorneys, denied that claim.“Zia’s done everything right,” she said at the time. “He’s followed the rules. He has no criminal history.”It wasn’t immediately clear why ICE arrested Zia. The day after, his attorneys filed a petition in district court asking that a federal judge order the government to grant him a bond hearing. About a week later, John Charpentier, then acting deputy director of the ICE field office in Boston, disclosed in a declaration to the court: In late May, Charpentier said, ICE agents serving on a Joint Terrorism Task Force learned that the FBI had received a tip that Zia “is a risk to the national security of the United States.”Article continues below this ad“Based upon this information, (ICE) Hartford began reviewing (Zia’s) immigration status in an effort to determine whether termination of parole and initiation of proceedings to remove (Zia) from the United States was appropriate,” Charpentier said in the filing.The filing did not say why ICE and the FBI believe Zia poses a risk to national security or what the specific allegations against him are. ICE did not respond to requests for comment at the time. The FBI declined to comment.Meanwhile Zia’s attorneys and supporters denied that allegation in court and to the press.“Zia risked his life to secure America’s interests abroad; he has never and does not now pose a threat to national security,” Petersen said at the time in a statement to CT Insider. Article continues below this adBlumenthal dismissed the government’s allegation at a press conference in Plymouth after he visited Zia in detention there alongside U.S. Rep. Bill Keating, D-Mass., calling the former interpreter’s arrest “cruel” and “stupid.”“For him to be in prison is an outrage,” Blumenthal told reporters, his voice briefly trembling with emotion. “I have never been so angry or ashamed.”Details of that FBI tip and any evidence the government may have to support were never made public. In late September, U.S. District Judge Leo T. Sorokin ordered the government to file its evidence supporting the claim that Zia posed a national security risk under seal so he could review it privately.A week later, Sorokin ordered the government to grant Zia a bond hearing. Article continues below this ad“As far as the FBI tip is concerned, the respondents have not argued, let alone shown, that the information provided to ICE justifies … mandatory detention,” Sorokin wrote.“To the extent further investigation leads any of the involved agencies to conclude that the tip supplies a basis to deny (Zia) relief he is seeking from USCIS or in immigration court, that is a matter for consideration by the relevant agencies,” he added.A separate immigration judge — an employee of the U.S. Department of Justice, which oversees immigration courts, not the independent Judicial Branch like Sorokin — granted Zia a $15,000 bond six days later. ICE released him from the facility in Plymouth after he posted the money.DHS released a statement to CT Insider after Zia’s release, which it said was attributable to a “Senior DHS Official.”Article continues below this ad“One lone activist judge has released (Zia), a national of Afghanistan masquerading as an interpreter and suspected terrorist into our communities,” the statement read, including the bold type.“The Trump administration is committed to restoring the rule of law and common sense to our immigration system — including not allowing terrorists to roam free in our country,” it added. “We will continue to fight for the arrest, detention, and removal of aliens who have no right to be in this country."A paperwork errorDHS released another statement to CT Insider after Rihan's arrest on April 6.Article continues below this ad"ICE arrested him on federal immigration violations and issued him a Notice to Appear before a (immigration) judge. He will remain in ICE custody pending removal proceedings. All his claims will be heard, and he will receive full due process," the statement said before encouraging "illegal aliens" to voluntarily deport."Being in detention is a choice," DHS added.Surveillance footage obtained by CT Insider through a public records request shows a convoy of five or six ICE vehicles — unmarked black or silver cars and SUVs — pulling into the rear parking lot of the Cheshire Police Department with Rihan after they arrested him on April 6. The footage is from a considerable distance, largely unclear what is happening.In an interview with his attorneys from Plymouth, documented in a court filing, Rihan said the officers took him out of one of the vehicles and placed shackles on his legs.Article continues below this adThe 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 adAfter the convoy left Cheshire, Rihan told his attorneys that it drove him to ICE’s main Connecticut field office, in downtown Hartford. 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.”Filings by his attorneys show that the online version of one document he received when he entered the United States incorrectly stated that his humanitarian parole expired in October 2025 when it should have said 2026. USCIS has since corrected that error, Rihan’s attorneys said in a court filing.In a memo written before he transferred Rihan’s case to Massachusetts, Oliver said that ICE agents “erroneously claimed” Rihan’s humanitarian parole expired in 2025.The same day ICE arrested Rihan, his attorneys filed a petition asking that a federal judge order the government to grant him a bond hearing. Compared to his father’s case, Rihan’s has been swift.Article continues below this adThere was a brief back-and-forth of court filings over whether the U.S. District Court for Connecticut had jurisdiction. Such petitions generally have to be filed where the plaintiff is physically present. U.S. District Judge Vernon Oliver ultimately ruled with the government that Rihan was in Massachusetts on his way to the detention facility in Plymouth when his attorneys filed their petition.Once Rihan’s case was formally transferred to the federal district court in Massachusetts, the government filed a response to the petition that seemed to concede the merits of the case. If the Massachusetts court followed its logic in similar habeas cases, Assistant U.S. Attorney Mark Sauter wrote, “it would reach the same results here and order a bond hearing conducted in Immigration Court.”Richard G. Stearns agreed, ruling Wednesday that the government must hold a bond hearing for Rihan in immigration court “as soon as practicable, but in no case later than Monday, April 20, 2026.”Online records show that Rihan has a hearing scheduled for Monday at 9 a.m. before Immigration Judge Huy Le of the Chelmsford Immigration Court, in Chelmsford, Massachusetts, which hears cases for people detained in Plymouth.Article continues below this adMeanwhile, Rihan has a green-card application pending with USCIS, and both his parents have pending asylum applications that include him, court filings show. Such applications can take years to wind their way through immigration court.Correction: The caption of this story has been corrected to reflect that Rihan is 18 years old.April 19, 2026|Updated April 19, 2026 8:28 a.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.