Several members of the Afghan community in Utah suddenly fearing deportation

SOUTH JORDAN — Fatima, an Afghan woman now living in Utah, is getting increasingly worried.

Her husband, Ali, is being held in an immigration detention center, and with a hearing in his case scheduled for Monday, she fears he's at risk of being deported —another statistic in the immigration crackdown pushed by President Donald Trump. She asked that her and her husband's real names not be used given fears of backlash from the Taliban government should he be forced to go back to Afghanistan.

"I'm worried about the situation that has happened to Ali and also for us. What will happen? We don't know anything," she said through a translator at the South Jordan home of one of the many Utah supporters who has helped her and other transplants from Afghanistan's Hazara community.

As his Monday appointment nears, Fatima isn't alone.

Ali, living with his wife and two daughters in West Jordan, was unexpectedly detained in late December during an appointment with immigration officials and is currently being held in an immigration detention facility in Henderson, Nevada, according to Ashley Bardsley. Bardsley is part of the local contingent that has been helping Ali and other Afghans in Utah.

Likewise, others in Utah's small community of Hazara people, an ethnic, predominantly Shia Muslim minority that faces persecution from Afghanistan's Taliban government, also suddenly find themselves teetering in uncertain waters.

Another Hazara man was detained about the same time as Ali, who, with his family, had applied for asylum, and three others in the Hazara community here have appointments with immigration representatives next month. They fear they'll be detained, possibly face deportation, said Hassan Mortazavi, a naturalized U.S. citizen now living in Utah and head of the Utah Hazara Association.

"Right now, they are super worried," Mortazavi said.

Mortazavi suspects the seeming uptick in attention by immigration officials toward Afghans in the United States is reprisal for the alleged Nov. 26 shooting by an Afghan national of two National Guardsmen in Washington, D.C. One of the guardsmen died. Indeed, a day after that, Nov. 27, the U.S. government announced immigrants from Afghanistan and numerous other countries would face heightened scrutiny from U.S. authorities.

Mortazavi, though, rebuffs the notion that all Afghans should be placed under a cloud of suspicion because of the incident, particularly Hazara people. Hazara people just want to work and provide for their families.

"We don't want to harm people," he said.

Zafar Zulfaqhar, who came to the United States from Afghanistan in 2023 and now lives in Ephraim, is one of the three other Hazara people in Utah with an appointment next month with immigration representatives. Zulfaqhar said he helped the U.S. government for nine years during the U.S. war in Afghanistan, and he has also sought asylum here.

"There's no reason for the appointment. I don't know what's going on, so I'm worried about that," he said.

Bardsley said it's her understanding that Ali, Fatima's husband, would face deportation to Qatar if it came to that, not Afghanistan. He worked in Afghanistan's Finance Ministry and came under suspicion by the Taliban government after the U.S. departure from the nation. But still, Zulfaqhar, like Fatima, fears he'd end up in Afghanistan if forced to leave, where he thinks he'd potentially face execution for his work with U.S. forces.

"We did operations shoulder by shoulder with the U.S. soldiers over there," he said.

When he goes to his appointment, he'll bring some of the documentation he has attesting to his work with the U.S. government, he said.

Ali Qasimi, employed by a contractor during the U.S. war in Afghanistan that worked with U.S. forces, is another immigrant from Afghanistan now living in Utah who's scheduled to meet next month with immigration officials. He harbors the same deportation worries as Zulfaqhar and Fatima.

"We are so worried they might detain us and deport us back in Afghanistan," he said through a translator. "What the Taliban might do with us? You don't know anything. That's why we are so worried about that."

Like the others, Qasimi said he wants to remain in the United States, where he's trying to remake his life. He works as a car mechanic. "Everything is here. It's called the land of opportunity, security, work, everything. Safety, that's the most important thing," Qasimi said.

Fatima said her family would have nothing if deported. She, her husband and their two kids came to the United States in late 2024, transiting through Iran, Brazil, the Darién Gap at the Colombia-Panama border and Mexico and spending pretty much all of their money along the way. Beyond that, her daughters wouldn't have the same educational opportunities in Afghanistan, where education for girls stops after the sixth grade.

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"If we go back, our kids, they will lose the opportunity to go to school, and that's the biggest concern we have," Fatima said.

Mortazavi estimates there are around 150 Hazara families in Utah. Newcomers like Fatima, Zulfaqhar and Qasimi have been getting help from Bardsley and other Utah families, the Utah Hazara Association and the Draper-based Ward Foundation, which assists refugees. All of them, he said, are grateful to be here.

"They are working. They are taking care of their families, and they don't want to make problems for others," Mortazavi said. "They want to stay safe and work and be a good person in the community."

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