Innocent Sunni Man Victim of Biden’s Ruthless Immigration System
On a sweltering June morning, officials from the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency made their way to a humble condominium in North Miami Beach, Florida, adjacent to the historic Greynolds Park. They were not conducting a blanket search but explicitly seeking out Foad Farahi, a Sunni man of faith residing in the vicinity for over three decades. Mr. Farahi was escorted to a detention establishment in Miami before he was flown on a governmental aircraft to Texas, earmarked for yet another detention center.
Subsequently, he saw further relocation to Torrance County Detacntion Center, a grim, privatized facility hidden amidst the barren deserts of New Mexico. This facility has recently been exposed for issues including sewage backups and scarcity of potable water. Mr. Farahi continues to be incarcerated here. He is one of the thousands of individuals ensnared by the relentless ICE initiatives since Donald Trump occupied the Oval Office in January.
But, this incident was not Farahi’s initial brush with the U.S. government’s treatment towards transgressors. Decades ago, during the final years of George W. Bush’s reign, the authorities attempted to manipulate the impending threat of deportation to coerce him into spying on his own community. Regardless, Farahi demonstrated moral resistance against betraying his community, declined their proposal, and dodged deportation.
In the subsequent years, he continued to reside under the looming shadow of the stringent immigration system, maintaining constant contact with the authorities and complying unflinchingly with all stipulations. His legal team now claims that his ongoing detention resembles retribution more than procedural necessity. They allege that ‘Mr. Farahi’s detention seems to be solely punitive,’ a statement made during a recent habeas plea in a federal court in New Mexico.
Farahi’s experiences span across two decades of American security protocols, revealing the interconnectedness between the FBI’s strategy post-9/11 of using informants and the present expansive immigration control measures. His situation calls into question whether the FBI utilized immigration enforcement as a tactic for coercion and the implications of rejecting government’s demands landing immigrant lives in a perpetual state of uncertainty.
His face-off with the government began back in November 2004. Following evening prayers in North Miami Beach, he saw two unfamiliar faces waiting outside his residence. They introduced themselves as FBI agents. The country was then gripped by the residual terror in the wake of 9/11, and the agents sought information regarding two individuals who reportedly attended Farahi’s mosque.
The so-called ‘dirty bomber,’ José Padilla, accused of plotting the detonation of a homemade radioactive device, and Adnan El Shukrijumah, a Saudi-native who quickly ascended to a high-ranking post within Al Qaeda post-departure from the U.S. were these individuals. Farahi had agreed to provide the required information but in a public setting to maintain transparency with his congregation. On the contrary, the FBI anticipated discretion.
The federal agents proposed, ‘We want you to collaborate with us. You’ll be granted residency and financial aid for education.’ Farahi declined, stating that becoming an informant would amount to betraying his faith community. ‘People regard you as a religious figure, and you are attempting to delude them,’ expressed Farahi.
The agents retreated, but the burden of federal scrutiny persisted. Fast-forward to 2007, at a standard asylum hearing, Farahi was presented with a choice by ICE agents. He could either withdraw his asylum plea and accept deportation or brave federal terrorism charges. There was an unspoken alternative – act as an informant.
I first shed light on Farahi’s predicament in 2009, when it represented one of the earliest public indications of the FBI exploiting immigration apprehensions to enlist Muslim informants. Initially, the FBI categorically denied such claims. As subsequent investigations uncovered similar instances, the FBI maintained their rejection. However, years later, internal documentations affirmed the indications originating from Farahi’s case.
Indeed, leveraging immigration control had not been a unilateral move but was formalized within the FBI’s internal policy manuals. FBI agents were mandated to assist in the expulsion of informants who were ‘no longer effectual.’ This directive was a recognition that this policy objective was more persuasive than transactional.
Over the years, the FBI and their informants exerted significant scrutiny on Farahi, repeatedly falling short on substantial evidence. Despite the unwavering probes, Farahi has never been charged. His case unanimously devoid of any credible allegations or indictments related to terrorism. The government’s continued suspicion seems to be grounded partly on a lone 2007 FBI report which suggested Farahi as a Muslim Brotherhood recruiter – an assertion based purely on the testimonies of a source in Trinidad without any substantiating evidence.
Farahi’s legal record apart from animmigrant-related misunderstanding in 2003 is clean. In 2020, an immigration court turned down Farahi’s asylum plea but declared that he couldn’t be extradited to Iran, his country of origin. The judge recognized the high risk of religious persecution that Farahi, being a Sunni Muslim, could face in majority-Shia Iran. This verdict ushered Farahi into immigration purgatory.
With a ‘withholding of removal’ order, he was unable to return to Iran; he also lacked legal status. Farahi was permitted to stay in the U.S. conditional to biannual check-ins with immigration officials. He adhered to these terms impeccably, for several years, until Trump enforced his aggressive immigration control. Current immigration detention is at an all-time high, with over 60,000 people incarcerated. The Trump administration rolled out expedited removals, sanctuary city raids, and third-country deportation flights — irrespective of whether individuals have any connections there. Caught up in this broad spectrum of detention and exile policies, Farahi now faces the highest risk of potential expulsion.