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Gov. Ned Lamont spoke alongside U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal and Attorney General William Tong at a press conference on Apr. 10, 2026 to criticize Immigration and Customs Enforcement for detaining a high school senior from Afghanistan on humanitarian parole. Credit: Theo Peck-Suzuki / CT Mirror

A few weeks after an Afghan interpreter for the U.S. Armed Forces known as “Zia” and his family came to the U.S. on a humanitarian visa in 2024, attorney Lauren Cundick Peterson met them at a Turkish restaurant in West Haven for a celebratory meal.

“At that point, we were so happy that they were at the end of their struggle, it seemed,” Peterson said.

In Afghanistan, Zia and his family were in danger of torture or worse at the hands of the Taliban, retaliation for the work Zia had done to help the United States. But now, they could breathe a collective sigh of relief.

“That’s what we were celebrating: that they were finally at home here in the United States.”

Then in July of 2025, Immigration and Customs Enforcement picked up Zia as he attended a routine immigration appointment in East Hartford. He was sent to a detention center in Plymouth, Mass., for four months. The family, aided by Peterson and officials, fought for his release. When he came home in October, it seemed that they had once again put a traumatic chapter to bed.

But on Monday, ICE returned to the family again. This time, they took “Rihan,” Zia’s 19-year-old son, as he was leaving his house with his uncle. Rihan is now in the same Plymouth detention center where his father was held last year.

Peterson said that she has filed a petition in federal court demanding Rihan’s immediate release but that she did not yet know when a judge would make a ruling in the matter. According to Peterson, the government has provided no explanation as to why Rihan has been detained. In 2025, Zia was released after a judge concluded that he was in the U.S. legally and posed no danger to the public.

The family did not attend Friday’s press conference. Peterson said they were sheltering in the safety of their home and would watch a recording later.

Speakers on Friday described the Cheshire High School senior as respected and studious with dreams of being a cardiologist. He has excelled academically, all the more remarkable because of the many obstacles he has experienced: a fraught exit from Afghanistan, learning English in his new country, and an agonizing four months fighting for his father to be released from detention in Massachusetts last year. Neither father nor son has a criminal history, officials said, and they have cooperated with the humanitarian parole and asylum process, coming to the country lawfully.

Gov. Ned Lamont, Attorney General William Tong and Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., all pledged their support to Rihan and his family on Friday. Lamont asked on Friday why the Trump Administration has said it was going to deport “the worst of the worst,” and instead, in detaining Rihan, is going after “the best of the best.”

“He is an ‘A’ student. He loves science, wants to be a cardiologist,” Lamont said. “I think that means you’re whip-smart and you have a big heart.”

Blumenthal, also decried ICE’s actions. He told the crowd that “Minneapolis is happening here” in Connecticut, referring to the recent deaths of Alex Pretti and Renée Macklin Good during ICE raids earlier this year.

“What ICE is doing here is beyond cruelty. It’s beyond brutality. It’s un-American,” Blumenthal said. “If anybody wants to know why I will vote against any more funding for ICE, just listen to the story of this family coming from Afghanistan to this country to escape near certain torture and death in Afghanistan because they help our troops and kept them safe. I don’t recognize our country in what is happening to this family.”

Rep. Liz Linehan, D-Cheshire, said at the press conference that since Rihan’s detainment, dozens of concerned members of the Cheshire community have reached out to her, some coming to her doorstep. Her own daughter is a classmate of Rihan’s.

“We’re here today because in Cheshire, we care for our neighbors. We show up for one another when it’s difficult, and in those moments, we do not turn away when one of our families is hurting,” Linehan said.

Rep. Jack Fazzino, D-Meriden, who also represents Cheshire, said that Zia and his family represent the very best of what America should be.

“They’ve sacrificed for this country at great personal cost to themselves. This isn’t how we treat our neighbors. This isn’t how we take care of our own as a nation, and most importantly, it’s not how we take care of our kids,” Fazzino said. “The world is telling us that there is an ‘us’ and there is a ‘them.’ There is only us.”

Laura Tillman is CT Mirror’s Human Services Reporter. She shares responsibility for covering housing, child protection, mental health and addiction, developmental disabilities, and other vulnerable populations. Laura began her career in journalism at the Brownsville Herald in 2007, covering the U.S.–Mexico border, and worked as a statehouse reporter for the Associated Press in Mississippi. She was most recently a producer of the national security podcast “In the Room with Peter Bergen” and is the author of two nonfiction books: The Long Shadow of Small Ghosts (2016) and The Migrant Chef: The Life and Times of Lalo Garcia (2023), which was just awarded the 2024 James Beard Award for literary writing. Her freelance work has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, New York Times and The Los Angeles Times. Laura holds a degree in International Studies from Vassar College and an MFA in nonfiction writing from Goucher College.