Afghans across the US are being targeted by mass arrests by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
Most of the recent arrests appear to be focused on California, where there are sizeable Afghan communities in Sacramento, San Francisco and Los Angeles.
"We have been hearing about arrests of Afghans across the country, but especially in California. In the Sacramento area, there have been 20 arrests so far that we know of, but I think there are more," Amina Fields, an immigrant rights attorney with the Los Angeles chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, told The New Arab.
The latest wave of arrests of immigrants, particularly Afghan refugees, follows the fatal shooting of a National Guard member and wounding of another in Washington, DC by an Afghan last month.
Like other arrests of immigrants across the US, many of the apprehensions of Afghans are taking place in locations where they are filing paperwork and going through the official immigration process.
"Many of our Afghan clients are getting notices to check in with ICE, and that's where they're getting detained," Fields said. "You don't really have much of an option, because they have pending applications, and if you don't check in, they'll go out and search for you."
"We can't be a hundred per cent sure if they'll be detained, so it's really hard to advise a client of the risk. We can't tell them not to go if that's what ICE wants them to do. We just tell them the risk is high," she added.
Indeed, outside courtrooms and other government facilities where foreign nationals are undergoing the immigration process, there are often raids that target foreigners known to gather there.
For new Afghan refugees, most of whom relocated to the US after having worked for the American military in Afghanistan, their predicament is particularly dire, given the danger they would face from the ruling Taliban government if they were to be sent back.
In March, the Trump administration announced the end of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Afghans, putting them into a legal limbo. Other nationalities that have lost TPS include Honduras, Nicaragua, Venezuela, Haiti, Cameroon, South Sudan, Nepal, Myanmar, Syria, Ethiopia and Somalia. Ukraine is also under consideration.
Despite the removal of TPS, many immigrants from these countries would not be able to return safely. Some could be deported to third countries with which they have no connection.
Though the administration's reasoning for ordering deportations is crime, multiple studies show that immigrants, both documented and undocumented, commit fewer crimes than native born Americans.
According to US government statistics, immigrants with no criminal record account for the largest group in ICE detention.