ICE detained disabled Army veteran Muhammad Zahid Chaudhry without notice, held him four months at Tacoma facility

On August 21, 2025, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detained Muhammad Zahid Chaudhry, a disabled U.S. Army veteran and lawful permanent resident since 2001, at the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services office in Tukwila, Washington, immediately after he completed a scheduled citizenship interview there. DHS later confirmed the arrest was carried out "in close coordination with USCIS." Chaudhry's wife, Melissa Chaudhry -- a 2024 congressional candidate in Washington's 9th District -- and other family members had accompanied him and asked to join the interview; officials denied the request, and Melissa did not see her husband again before he was taken into custody. ICE gave the family no explanation for the detention at the time. He was transferred to the Northwest ICE Processing Center in Tacoma, where he remained for the next four months; his family said he went without adequate treatment there for pre-existing conditions, including impaired vision from thyroid eye disease.

Chaudhry served in the Washington Army National Guard from 2001 to 2005 and was honorably discharged after a service-connected back injury. He has sought U.S. citizenship since 2004, a process an immigration judge denied in 2008 over undisclosed prior fraud convictions in Australia; ICE moved to deport him the following year, but the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit stayed his removal in 2020 while his citizenship case remained under review there, a stay still in effect at the time of his arrest. DHS has separately stated Chaudhry had "a disturbing pattern of deceit for immigration-related purposes" and a final removal order, and disputed that his military service exempted him from immigration consequences. Chaudhry's supporters, including the Council on American-Islamic Relations' Washington chapter, said the arrest reflected a broader pattern of aggressive enforcement against Muslim immigrants and noted it is rare for someone to be detained at their own naturalization interview.

Whatever the merits of Chaudhry's underlying immigration case, ICE gave him no advance notice of the arrest and no opportunity to contest the basis for detaining him before it happened -- a step federal court rulings in the Western District of Washington had already established was required. His detention drew public attention in the Seattle area, including from advocacy groups that called for his release and an investigation into the circumstances.

Updates

2025-12-22 — Federal judge ruled Chaudhry's detention unlawful and ordered his release [1, 5]

U.S. District Chief Judge David G. Estudillo granted Chaudhry's habeas corpus petition, ruling from the bench that his four-month detention was unlawful "for the lack of process that was provided [in] detaining him in the first instance," and ordered his immediate release. Assistant U.S. Attorney Michelle Lambert, representing the government, acknowledged in court that under prior rulings in the district, Chaudhry should have received notice before his arrest so he could challenge it. Estudillo also noted the Ninth Circuit's still-active stay of removal left "no basis to detain" him, barred ICE from re-detaining him absent written notice and a chance to respond, and said from the bench: "Clearly somebody is not looking at this in the right way or in the right context when they're detaining individuals." Chaudhry was released from the Tacoma facility that evening.