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The father of four, who had settled in Colorado and gotten his commercial driver’s license, was driving a truck through Indiana when he was taken by masked ICE agents in October
ack in Afghanistan, Mohammad Ali Dadfar worked alongside the U.S. government fighting against the Taliban as a security official in the Afghan Army.
He joined U.S. troops as they traveled from province to province, attempting to hold back the armed rebellion. And after U.S. forces withdrew from the country, and the capital city of Kabul fell to the Taliban in 2021, Dadfar feared he and his family would be murdered.
It took three years for the family of six to journey to the United States, where they applied for asylum and settled in Colorado. Dadfar, who had a permit that authorized him to work in the United States, initially got a job as an insulation installer in Boulder County, then studied and received a commercial driver’s license this fall to become a long-haul truck driver.
Last month, as Dadfar drove a truckload of supplies through Indiana, he was taken by masked ICE agents after he was forced to strip by the roadside and handcuffed. He has been locked in a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center in Missouri for 26 days.
Dadfar, who had been working as a truck driver for only a few weeks, was caught up in what ICE officials are calling “Operation Midway Blitz,” a Chicago-based effort to prevent “alien threats to public safety.” U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said 223 people were taken into custody in a “successful operation” with the Indiana State Police targeting truck drivers near the Illinois state line.
Noem’s news release said some of the people taken into custody were connected to crimes, including drug trafficking and driving under the influence, but she did not say how many of the 223 were accused of illegal activities. The truck drivers were issued commercial driver’s licenses by “sanctuary states,” including Illinois, she said. ICE had not yet responded to a request Thursday from The Colorado Sun for more information.
https://coloradosun.com/2025/11/07/immigration-ice-truck-drivers-afghan-immigrant/
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Afghan immigrant who helped U.S. military fight Taliban arrested by ICE