New York, November 13, 2026—The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement authorities to immediately and unconditionally release Afghan journalist Shaban Ali Rafat and grant him full access to a hearing on the merits of his asylum claim. CPJ warns that deporting Rafat to Afghanistan would expose him to significant risks of persecution and retaliation by the Taliban.
Rafat has been in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody in California since January 21, 2025, when he attempted to enter the United States to seek asylum, and now faces deportation to Afghanistan, according to his attorney David Tarr.
“Rafat fled Afghanistan because the Taliban made it impossible for him to work as a journalist without risking his life. Deporting him now would deliver him directly into the hands of the very persecutors he escaped,” said CPJ Americas regional program director Jose Zamora. “His prolonged detention is a betrayal of the United States’ commitments to press freedom and human rights. U.S. authorities must release Rafat and provide him with asylum.”
Before the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan in August 2021, Rafat worked as a producer and reporter for state-owned Maaref TV and served as a senior media officer at Kabul University, where he extensively covered the 2020 terrorist attack on the university and the plight of the Hazara community — a persecuted ethnic and religious minority of which he is a member.
Afghanistan’s Hazara community has faced escalating persecution and violence since the Taliban’s return to power in August 2021. In 2026 alone, the Taliban shut down three Hazara media outlets, and detained their senior managers in an effort to suppress the community’s media outlets and journalists in Afghanistan.
CPJ’s emails to Department of Homeland Security and ICE representatives seeking an update on the status of Rafat’s asylum claim did not receive an immediate reply.
This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by CPJ Staff.