Jamil Bahlouli was one among many Iranians rounded up by ICE in Austin just after the U.S. bombed Iran in June.
“The day after the bombing occurred, did you receive a list of individuals that ICE made it a priority to locate and speak with here in Austin?” An attorney asked ICE agent Enrique Alcantara in court on July 3.
“Yes, sir,” Alcantara testified.
The attorney asked if each person on that list, at that time, was designated as a national security threat?
“That’s correct.”
Bahlouli’s name was on the list. Just a few days later, his “threat” status had already been removed. Still, he faced deportation. As Officer Alcantara testified in early July, Bahlouli sat with wrists and ankles shackled in court.
In Iran, Bahlouli was tortured. He faced a death sentence too, for alleged sex outside of marriage, according to court documents filed in his immigration case.
Though the U.S. denied Bahlouli’s request for asylum, in recognition of the danger to his life, his deportation was blocked. In 2020, a U.S. immigration judge withheld Bahlouli’s removal order under the Convention Against Torture. The judge found it “more likely than not” he would be tortured in Iran if he returned, according to a memorandum filed by Bahlouli’s defense attorney.
When ICE arrested Bahlouli June 25 of this year – just four days after the U.S. bombed nuclear facilities in Iran – Bahlouli had not provoked the arrest himself. He was not suspected of a petty crime, or even pulled over with an expired tag, as was the case for some deported Austinites.
He was on the list of Iranian nationals in Austin distributed to ICE officers. From the list, they searched for Bahlouli and identified his car and the home he shared with his wife, who is an asylee from Afghanistan with legal status in the U.S. Officers surveilled the couple for several days, Alcantara testified. On a day when neither of the couple’s cars had moved, they decided to knock on the door, the officer said.
“Any other country would suffice.” – ICE agent Abel Rossi on Where Jamil Bahlouli could be deported to other than Iran
Body-cam footage shows what happened next. Bahlouli’s wife was the one to answer the door. The officers wore plain clothes, and guns secured to their thighs. Bahlouli’s wife pleaded with the officers to let him be. “I don’t want him to die. I don’t want him to,” she told them. She showed them court documents, called an immigration attorney, and ultimately shut the door. Officers kicked the door open and took Bahlouli away.
He has been in ICE detention since, his family tells us. First, in a facility in Central Texas, then in a facility in Houston.
Whether his deportation is legal is unclear. The 2020 order to block his deportation had no expiration date. In 2021, Bahlouli left the U.S. for Canada seeking asylum there. American authorities found him back in the U.S. in 2023, charged him with the felony of illegal reentry, and his removal order was reinstated, according to the criminal complaint filed by an ICE officer this year. Is this removal order valid to carry out, given the earlier Convention Against Torture decision?
In court July 3, ICE officers said they believed they could deport him anywhere besides Iran. ICE agent Abel Rossi testified: “Any other country would suffice.” Officers did not identify which country he’d be sent to, and did not guarantee that this third location would refrain from sending Bahlouli along to Iran, where he may be tortured or executed or both. Rossi added that Iran might still be an option, if DHS determined it safe enough.
“America’s asylum system was never intended to be used as a de facto amnesty program or a catch-all, get-out-of-deportation-free card,” an unnamed DHS senior official said in a statement sent to the Chronicle. “The person in question is an illegal alien with a final order of removal from October 19, 2020. He can either go home or we will find a safe third option for him.”
The Chronicle has contacted the Department of Homeland Security 13 times during Bahlouli’s two months of incarceration in an ICE facility to ask questions. The federal agency provided the above statement, but has not yet answered the Chronicle’s questions. Could Bahlouli still be deported to Iran despite the Convention Against Torture ruling? If not Iran, which country will Bahlouli be deported to? Is DHS giving Bahlouli a timeline to select a third country under threat of deportation to Iran? If so, what is the timeline? Can DHS guarantee, should Bahlouli be deported to a third country, that this third country will not deport Bahlouli to Iran?
This article appears in The 35th Annual Austin Chronicle Hot Sauce Festival.
