CT Officials Demand Release of Detained Cheshire Student

A 19-year-old Cheshire High School senior who wants to be a cardiologist is sitting in a federal detention center in Plymouth, Mass., after ICE agents took him from outside his family’s home Monday morning. Connecticut officials gathered Friday to call for his release, with Governor Ned Lamont, Attorney General William Tong, and Sen. Richard Blumenthal all pledging support for the family.

The teenager, identified publicly only as “Rihan” to protect the family, is the son of an Afghan interpreter who served the U.S. Armed Forces. ICE agents took Rihan as he was leaving his house with his uncle. He is now held at the same Plymouth detention facility where his father, known as “Zia,” was confined for four months last year before a federal judge ordered his release, finding he was in the country legally and posed no public safety threat.

Attorney Lauren Cundick Peterson, who has represented the family since they arrived in the United States on a humanitarian visa in 2024, filed a petition in federal court Friday demanding Rihan’s immediate release. She said she did not yet know when a judge would rule.

Peterson recalled meeting the family at a West Haven restaurant shortly after their arrival, a celebration marking what everyone hoped was the end of a brutal ordeal. In Afghanistan, Zia and his family faced the threat of torture or death from the Taliban, direct retaliation for the work Zia did supporting U.S. military operations.

“That’s what we were celebrating: that they were finally at home here in the United States,” Peterson said.

That sense of safety has now been shattered twice. After Zia’s detention and release last fall, the family had begun to rebuild a sense of stability. Monday’s arrest ended that.

Peterson said the government has offered no explanation for why Rihan was taken into custody. Neither father nor son has a criminal record, officials said Friday. Both have cooperated fully with the humanitarian parole and asylum process and entered the country lawfully.

The family did not attend Friday’s press conference. Peterson said they were sheltering at home and planned to watch a recording of the event later.

Speakers at the press conference described Rihan as a serious and studious student who has worked through obstacles that would have derailed most teenagers. He fled Afghanistan under dangerous conditions, learned English after arriving in Connecticut, and spent four months last year fighting alongside his family to free his father from detention. Through all of it, he kept his grades up and maintained a clear goal: a career in medicine.

Lamont pressed the Trump administration directly on its stated enforcement priorities. The administration has repeatedly said it is targeting dangerous criminals and national security threats for removal.

“He is an ‘A’ student. He loves science, wants to be a cardiologist,” Lamont said, questioning why federal officials are going after what he called “the best of the best” rather than the violent offenders the administration has repeatedly invoked to justify its enforcement posture.

Blumenthal and Tong also spoke at Friday’s event. Tong has been among the more aggressive state attorneys general in the country in pushing back against federal immigration enforcement actions that he argues fall outside the law.

The case echoes a pattern playing out in Connecticut communities this spring, as families with documented legal status or pending asylum claims find themselves caught in federal enforcement sweeps. The Cheshire case is notable because of Zia’s direct service to the United States military, a fact that has drawn particular anger from state officials who argue that detaining the family of a U.S. military interpreter sends a damaging message to allies abroad.

Peterson said there is no pending criminal charge, no stated public safety rationale, and no explanation from the government. A federal judge will now decide whether Rihan comes home to finish his senior year.