This commentary is by Marissa Seuc-Hester, director of faith formation at Christ the Servant Lutheran Church in Louisville, where she leads a volunteer ministry welcoming immigrants into the community. She lives in Lafayette and is the daughter of an immigrant.
My friend has been taken by ICE.
For a while, we didn’t know where Ali was, and those hours and days of wondering were excruciating. Now, despite knowing his location, fear remains. Will he be given due process? Can he be transferred back to Colorado to be nearer to his family and community? How will his family survive with their main earner detained indefinitely in another state?
In recent years, the community at Christ the Servant Lutheran Church in Louisville has been living out Jesus’ directive to “welcome the stranger.” As director of faith formation, I have organized volunteers into an Immigrant Host Team to welcome and accompany new residents in Louisville and the surrounding areas. We support families with start-up costs and navigating school, healthcare and employment opportunities.
In exchange, we have tasted flavors from around the world, learned new phrases in new languages, and heard the harrowing stories of persecution that have led each family to seek asylum in the United States. We spend about a year closely intertwined with each family until they are settled in our community. Once they are independent, we remain friends, but begin to welcome another family.
We started working with Ali, his wife and four young children in June 2024 and have watched them move from being newcomers to being thriving community members. In the last six months, the family has been fully independent. Until I got a call from Ali’s wife on Oct. 10.
Ali had been detained by ICE without cause in the course of his job as a long-haul trucker. He stopped at a weigh station in northern Indiana where, after his inspection, ICE was waiting for him. He has been moved among multiple detention centers and is now in a jail in Missouri that is doubling as a detention center.
As the daughter of an immigrant, I have always been attentive to the challenges that face newcomers in our community. The process for entering the U.S. is a complex road with many obstacles in a setting with constantly changing rules. Added to this are the general challenges of adapting to a new culture, acquiring a new language, and finding pathways to work that match the rich skills immigrants bring (but whose experience and education are often not recognized). And now, what had been an arduous but knowable pathway has turned into chaos.
Ali and his family have become a part of our community. This month, their kids have headed to pumpkin patches; they are working hard in school, biking and playing at the park in the crisp autumn air. Their mom is working at a local store and shopping for groceries next to you and me. And their dad, until Oct. 10, had been providing for his family as a trucker.
Ali and his family entered the U.S. lawfully and have applied for asylum. Ali worked with the U.S. military in Afghanistan and fled for his life after the Taliban took over; being deported back means certain death. He has had his work permit for over a year. All his paperwork in order. We are led to believe that these things matter and provide protection, but that is not the current reality. Ali and so many others are having their rights trampled, and they are suffering dearly for it.
As I share Ali’s story with others, I am often met with bewilderment. People have trouble understanding the overreach of ICE. They are shocked to learn that many people being detained are lawfully present in the United States and have “followed all the rules.”
Furthermore, permanent residents and citizens are being arrested and detained without cause. I urge my neighbors and other Coloradans to pay attention. We must be vigilant, and we must act together against these attacks on our fellow humans. We cannot remain silent in the face of such oppression.
Welcome the stranger — and those strangers become friends. I fear for my friend, Ali. I fear for his family. Even more, I fear for my country. A country of immigrants whose promise of hope and justice is being trampled.
This is abhorrent. Do we know what the stated reason for his detention is?
As far as we know, he was arrested in Missouri while doing his CDL driving job. They asked him for his paperwork, which he had and they would not look at it. He was 100% legal to be in the US. His wife and 4 children miss him terribly and are so frightened.
Thank you for your letter! We are now one of the countries in which people “disappear”.
Here in Boulder, I know a family in which all members are American citizens except the father. He has lived and worked here for decades but failed to renew his work visa and is now detained. Perhaps a movement to share more stories would have an impact.
Thank you for this powerful letter detailing the “disappearance” of a member of our community. What can we do to take action in order to support Ali and his family?
Should we contact Joe Neguse and see what he can do to bring attention to Ali’s situation in Missouri? Should we contact other elected officials? How can we bring Ali home to his family?
Does he have contacts in/retired from the military that he assisted in Afghanistan? You have probably already thought of this but wanted to ask as that community still gets at least a small amount of attention from this Administration’s supporters.
Marissa,
This is horrifying and we know it’s happening all over the country to innocent people and families. Is there any way our church (St. Mary Magdalene Episcopal) can help? We are in Gunbarrel and I live in Lafayette.