How does this Afghan family end up from ice in bureaucratic limbs

In a quiet, leafy suburb of Toronto, a 30-year-old Afghan woman spends most afternoons on the phone, hoping she can reach his two younger siblings and father.

They are not in Afghanistan, but instead only for kilometers, across the US border, held in retaining immigration and customs law enforcement (ICE).

The three have been there in crowded cells for months stuck in what their lawyers say it is a bureaucratic limb between Canada and the United States.

They are entitled to asylum in Canada because they have immediate relatives who are legal refugees in the country, but can apply for 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 US lawyer told the BBC.

This visa application is currently being reviewed and they remain stuck, they cannot bring a lawsuit in Canada and face deportation from the United States.

From her home near Toronto, Asal says she tried everything to release them. The BBC uses a nickname because her family belongs to an ethnic and religious minority group facing a persecution in Afghanistan.

She has hired lawyers in both sides to press her case and even offered to cover the costs of ice agents that accompany them to the border between Canada and the United States, to no avail.

The family’s case illustrates how some asylum seekers were caught in the fast -changing policies under the Trump administration, their lawyers and experts say. He also raises questions about whether Canada is responsible for accelerating entry to people in ice detention who have relationships with this country.

Meanwhile, the family members of Asl’s family can be sent back to Afghanistan or a third party that is not of their choice – “the worst move of all,” says their US lawyer Jody Gudwin. This option “puts them at risk of being sent to God, knowing where, without assurances of protection,” she said.

The father worked with US troops as a contractor, Asal said, making him a potential goal for the Taliban if he was deported back to Afghanistan.

In the last eight months, Ja Gudwin has been working to stop US authorities from sending a family to their home country.

Meanwhile, their lawyers in Canada are pressing the authorities to provide visas they need to get on a plane. According to the Immigration Pact between Canada and the US – the Safe Third Party Agreement – migrants without a visa must seek asylum at the terrestrial border crossing.

Asal talks to her detained family when she can. Ice allows online “visits” and she often handles her 18-year-old sister.

When a recent call made with the iPad, which she shares with about 80 other roommates, her sister offered her details about her daily routine – her fight to get a good night’s vacation, her habit of doing laundry, just to deal with – before she burst into tears.

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

“Every aspect of our lives is controlled, even though we are not criminals,” she said.

It describes the search for tapes, serves “almost non -non -native” food and how prisoners who refuse to eat are threatened by “solitude”.

BBC sought a comment from ICE. The administration’s employees have previously defended the messages of poor conditions in the establishments for detention of migrants in the United States as incorrect.

Asal and another family say they are struggling to receive information about the well-being of the detainees, including the youngest brother who has been admitted to hospital for 10 days due to seizures and who is now back in ice retention.

The first part of the family, including Asal and two siblings, arrived in Canada in February 2023, she told the BBC.

It was their preferred destination after being reluctant to escape from Afghanistan, as violence quickly escalates after the Taliban took over.

They moved to Iran and from there to Brazil, then to the United States, where they were held with ice for four days before heading to the northern border and moving to Canada through Roxham Road, at the time it was well traveled, but an unofficial crossing between New York and Quebec. Once in Canada, they have successfully filed asylum requests.

“It’s safe. There’s security and the community is good,” Asal said.

In August 2024, more family members managed to leave Afghanistan and arrived in Canada after a similar road.

But by the time when the final group – her mother and father and her three siblings – made the journey, politics in North America shifted.

Roxham Road – this unofficial route for thousands of asylum seekers entering Canada between 2017 and 2023 – was closed and the US struggled to deal with migrants at its southern border.

After unsuccessfully tried to legitimate opportunities to enter the United States from Mexico, in December, the family of Asl’s other members paid to be smuggled across the border, where they then surrendered to the authorities.

In February, Asl’s mother and one of her sisters were released shortly after Trump took office and signed an enforcement order expanding the detention and deportation of migrants, and headed for Canada.

But the other three are still in custody, with US authorities refusing to release them under the new rulesHe says d -Gudwin.

The fact that they were not released with the others in February was reduced to bad weather.

G -Ja Gudwin says an employee told her “They just didn’t reach their documents on time.”

In response to the BBC questions about the family case, a senior official of the US Department of Interior Security (DHS) says, “Ice will gladly return them to its country of origin if they ask for a voluntary departure.

They add that the United States “will not transfer illegal aliens who seek asylum from our country in Canada and vice versa. This is part of being good neighbors and partners.”

Adam Sadinski, one of the Canadian family lawyers, said Canada had the opportunity to allow this family to reunite.

“We do not want Canada to be complicit in this treatment and the potential result that they can be sent to any number of countries with their own hassle -free record for human rights,” he told the BBC.

Sadinski also claims that allowing them to enter Canada would be in accordance with the Safe Third Party Agreement, which contains exceptions aimed at gathering families.

In a statement to the BBC, immigration, refugees and citizenship Canada said it would not comment on the case of the family, citing confidentiality legislation.

The case puts a puzzle for Canadian employees, says immigration lawyer Richard Kurland.

D -K Kurland, who does not participate in their case, told the BBC that admission of entering the family could set a precedent for others in holding ice with relationships with Canada. “How can you say yes to one family only and then” no “to everyone else?”

But he adds that he believes that both Canada and the US are at least responsible to ensure that the family has not been sent back to Afghanistan.

“It is cruel for the US not to exclude the flight of Kabul,” he said. “Americans know what’s in the store because they have been there in Kabul for more than 20 years.”

So far, Asal and her family in Canada are still agonizing the case, wanting to get together.

“Believe me when I say I can’t sleep the bigger part of the night,” she said.

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