WA veteran to remain detained in Tacoma immigrant lockup following bond hearing

A Pakistani native and U.S. military veteran will not be able to bond out of the Northwest ICE Processing Center, according to his family.

The family of Muhammad Zahid Chaudhry said he received court documents rendering a federal immigration judge's ruling, saying Judge Theresa Scala does not have jurisdiction to grant him bond.

Scala did not provide a legal explanation in her document about why she didn't have jurisdiction and issued the ruling soon after Chaudhry's hearing was adjourned last Friday.

Chaudhry, who was taken into ICE custody last month during a naturalization appointment in Tukwila, had a previous order of removal that he's been appealing for years.

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Chaudhry entered the U.S. on a tourist visa and later became a legal permanent resident through marriage to a U.S. citizen. The government has since sought to rescind his green card, claiming that he failed to disclose a prior conviction on his paperwork and misrepresented his citizenship status when applying for a position at the Yakima Police Department.

“The court will make more than likely two findings but it will not be today. And I will need to take a second look at the…jurisdictional issue,” Sacala said. She did not give a timeline or set a date for a next hearing.

Bond is typically determined by a few factors, starting with whether the judge has jurisdiction over a person’s case. If a person is eligible for a bond, a judge will evaluate factors such as whether the person is a flight risk or a danger to the community.

This question of jurisdiction has become the subject of multiple lawsuits, including one aimed at a recent Trump administration policy change that seeks to deny bond hearings to detainees who entered the country without permission.

RELATED: Immigrants in the US illegally fight the Trump administration's new no-bail policy

It’s unlikely that this policy is at play in Chaudhry’s case because he’s had legal status in the U.S. since he arrived 25 years ago. During the hearing, a government attorney was unable to access one of Chaudhry’s ongoing court cases because the documents are “locked and restricted.”

The Chaudhrys and their family and friends say much of this is a result of a United States Citizenship and Immigration Service entering his application under what’s called the Controlled Application Review and Resolution Program or CARRP. Chaudhry is originally from Pakistan.

The list reportedly targets people from Muslim-majority countries, people who speak other languages, and people with advanced degrees, all based on frequently vague associations with people on a separate U.S. terrorism watchlist. People who are targeted by CARRP face a delayed naturalization process under what’s called "extreme vetting,” sometimes becoming undocumented and eligible for deportation.

The U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington ruled earlier this year that the federal government’s use of the program was “arbitrary and capricious,” and violated federal laws.

RELATED: Under Trump’s ICE, people without criminal history increasingly targeted in WA

Chaudhry’s family said he chose to represent himself during the bond hearing, although he’s been in contact with several attorneys since his detention.

He told Judge Scala that he hasn’t been able to contact the ICE officials managing his case or retrieve documents that were taken from him during his arrest, including his children's birth certificates and his military papers. Detainees are provided access to a phone, where they can call to talk to their deportation officer.

“I don’t know my deportation officer,” he said, “Nobody picked up the phone, I call it every day.”

Muhammed Chaudhry served in the National Guard as a mental health specialist in the early 2000s. While he served in the National Guard, his team was later deployed under Operation Iraqi Freedom but he stayed in the states to continue his work and was deployed to different parts of the country, he told Scala. Chaudhry continued to serve in the military until he was medically retired in 2005 after an injury.

Last week, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service enacted new policies to increase scrutiny of people in the naturalization process. The new policies include increased scrutiny of anything officials deem “anti-American,” including what officials consider anti-Semitic views, or who are supportive of terrorist organizations. The Chaundrys were vocal about what’s commonly referred to as Israel’s genocide and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians, especially in the Gaza strip.

In announcing this shift in policy, the USCIS also USCIS officials said they are also taking a closer look at instances of applications the federal government considers fraudulent, or misrepresented.

EDITOR'S NOTE: This article was updated at 6 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 5, to include Judge Scala's ruling that she does not have jurisdiction to grant bond to Muhammad Zahid Chaudhry, who is being held in the Tacoma ICE center.