TACOMA — A U.S. Army veteran's immigration case remains uncertain after he was recently denied bond by a judge, family members say.
As community members and elected officials continue to advocate for Muhammad Zahid Chaudhry's release from the Northwest ICE Processing Center, federal officials have taken new legal actions in recent days to deport Chaudhry, who has been living in the United States since 2000.
The bond denial leaves my husband in a bit of a due process limbo at this point," Melissa Chaudhry said Monday.
Chaudhry was detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Aug. 21 after he arrived for a citizenship interview in Tukwila, she said. Federal officials say Chaudhry has several fraud charges in Australia from 1996 that he initially failed to disclose.
Known to many as “Zahid,” Chaudhry — who has now lived in the United States for over two decades — is originally from Pakistan and lives in Lacey with Melissa and their two children. Melissa Chaudhry ran for Congress in 2024 in Washington’s 9th Congressional District.
Zahid Chaudhry's arrest sparked outrage among supporters, who say Chaudhry has dedicated his life after military service to activism. He served on former Gov. Jay Inslee’s Committee on Disability Issues and Employment and is the president of the Veterans for Peace Olympia chapter.
“Detaining him in that process is unjust and undermines faith in the system," Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell said in a statement Aug. 28 calling for his release.
"This administration’s immigration enforcement is targeting our neighbors, friends, and even veterans rather than focusing on real public safety threats."
Chaudhry, who has been working to secure his citizenship in a cascade of litigation spanning roughly two decades, has faced the threat of deportation since 2009.
He is fighting his removal in an ongoing case moving through the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. The day after he was detained by ICE, he filed a stay of removal to prevent his deportation until the case concludes.
Federal officials have since taken additional steps to deport Chaudhry, filing a motion Sept. 2 to lift the removal stay. Melissa Chaudhry said they received a copy of the motion Sunday.
"We see them actively shredding immigration law," she said Monday.
Chaudhry entered the U.S. on a tourist visa in September 2000 and applied for a green card in January 2001 after marrying an American woman that same month, according to court documents. (They divorced, then he married Melissa in 2022, she said.) Chaudhry received lawful permanent resident status in April 2001, he said in court records.
That year, Chaudhry enlisted in the Washington Army National Guard. He served until 2005 before being honorably discharged due to a back injury sustained while training to go to Iraq in 2003. Melissa Chaudhry said the injury left her husband with severe pain, forcing him to use a wheelchair. He never deployed overseas.
Chaudhry applied for citizenship on the basis of his military service in April 2004, noting in his application that he had criminal convictions for fraud in Australia where he lived before moving to the U.S.
Those convictions were related to using a passport that wasn’t his to open a bank account and obtain medical benefits, and using a credit card that wasn’t his, according to court records.
That disclosure raised a red flag with immigration officials, who argued in court Chaudhry previously failed to mention those convictions in his tourist visa application, as well as in an interview related to his green card application.
The Department of Homeland Security distributed a news release Sept. 4 to "set the record straight" and detail these allegations against Chaudhry. "President (Donald) Trump and Secretary Noem have been clear: there is no place in the U.S. for illegal alien criminals," the release stated.
Melissa Chaudhry said her husband was coerced into pleading guilty to the fraud charges in Australia, and that he initially didn't disclose them on U.S. forms because police had told him there would be no criminal record associated with the convictions. She added Chaudhry has never broken the law in the U.S., and that the convictions in Australia carried a lenient sentence equivalent to paying a parking ticket.
"It's really shameful and disgusting, the DHS statement," she said, adding that it included claims that were irrelevant, out of context or "straight up lies."
In August 2008, an immigration judge denied Chaudry's application for naturalization. The following year, Immigration and Customs Enforcement moved to deport him, with federal officials saying he was “inadmissible based on his convictions for crimes involving moral turpitude,” court records stated.
Chaudhry challenged the deportation order, and a U.S. immigration judge ruled in 2018 he could keep his green card, Melissa Chaudry said, stopping his removal. Federal officials appealed the decision, and the Board of Immigration Appeals — an administrative body within the U.S. Department of Justice — overturned the immigration judge’s ruling in February 2020. Chaudhry filed his appeal to the Ninth Circuit court the following month.
"Pending the outcome of (my) appeal, no final order of removal is effective," Chaudhry said in a filing to the Tacoma immigration judge last week.
In a separate legal case, Chaudhry filed a lawsuit in 2009 appealing his denied citizenship application. A federal judge upheld the denial, and a three-judge panel from the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the district court's ruling in 2013.
Chaudhry has continued to file applications for naturalization on the basis of his military status, despite the denial, Melissa Chaudhry said. In general, legal permanent residents can reapply for citizenship, though they may have to wait several years to do so depending on the reason for the denial.
The Chaudhrys went to the naturalization interview Aug. 21 as a show of good faith, his wife said, despite knowing the risk of detention.
"My husband is neither a criminal nor illegal," Melissa Chaudhry said. "We know him, we love him and we trust him, and we're right. … But they're trying to weaponize this case.
On Aug. 29, dozens of supporters showed up at the ICE detention center to attend a bond hearing for Chaudhry. Judge Theresa Scala did not issue an immediate ruling on whether Chaudhry could go home while his case plays out, telling the courtroom she would take a few days to review the case.
In fact, Scala denied his bond later that same day, according to Melissa Chaudhry, who said she saw a copy of the judge's decision from her husband through the glass partition at the detention center on Sept. 4.
Many people detained at the center have struggled to secure a bond because of an unusual legal interpretation practiced by some judges at the Tacoma immigration court. The judges state they do not have jurisdiction to issue bonds in many cases. A class-action lawsuit filed in March is challenging the legality of the policy.
The bond denial has left Chaudhry with a shrinking number of options, his wife said. No new immigration hearing has been scheduled as of Monday. It's unclear when the Ninth Circuit court will issue a ruling on his appeal.
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