By The Washington Times (Politics) | Created at 2026-08-10 17:31:04 | Updated at 2026-08-10 19:25:23
2 hours ago
A federal appeals court stepped in and ordered a do-over after an Afghan man who spent years opposing the Taliban was poised to be deported because a translator in his immigration case used the wrong calendar.
Salaruddin Eqbal worked as a bodyguard for senior officials in the U.S.-backed government, including for Afghanistan’s vice president.
After the Taliban retook control during the Biden administration, he fled to the U.S. but didn’t have a visa and was detained as an unauthorized immigrant. He sought leniency, saying if he were forced to go back, he would be tracked down and killed by the Taliban based on his previous work for the pro-U.S. government and his Tajik ethnicity.
An immigration judge rejected his petition, doubting Mr. Eqbal’s credibility in describing his anti-Taliban service.
But the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, in a ruling Thursday, said it was a misunderstanding based on different calendars.
Mr. Eqbal had said he started working as a bodyguard in the year 1372. The interpreter wrote that he said 1972.
The immigration judge concluded there was no way Mr. Eqbal was working as a bodyguard in 1972, nor that he was imprisoned by the Taliban a few years after that. The Board of Immigration Appeals agreed.
The 5th Circuit, though, said Mr. Eqbal was giving those years in Islam’s Hijri calendar, based on the life of the Prophet Mohammed. When converted to the U.S. calendar, it all made sense.
“Eqbal stated that he began working as a bodyguard in 1372 (Afghan), which corresponds to 1993 (Gregorian),” wrote Judge Kurt Engelhardt, a Trump appointee.
He said it was clear that Eqbal couldn’t have meant 1973 since the Taliban didn’t exist back then — nor, for that matter, did Eqbal. He wasn’t born until 1974.
At another point he told a Department of Homeland Security officer that he was imprisoned by the Taliban for a month in 1997 or 1998. But the notes of the interview said he claimed to have been in prison 20 years earlier, in 1977.
That, too, was a calendar failure, the court said.
“The incorrect date was caused by a mistranslation between the Gregorian and Afghan calendars. No reasonable factfinder could find that Eqbal was imprisoned by the Taliban before the Taliban existed and when Eqbal was a child,” Judge Engelhardt wrote.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Louisiana, which defended Mr. Eqbal in the appeals court, said the ruling was a rare “glimpse of justice” in the current immigration system.
“We are overjoyed that the Fifth Circuit delivered justice for Mr. Eqbal. But that justice will only ring true when he walks away free from civil detention,” said Nora Ahmed, the ACLU’s legal director.
She said he’s been in detention since his arrival here two years ago.
She said Mr. Eqbal served not only Afghanistan but also the U.S. during the 20-year war effort there.
The Justice Department, which oversees the immigration courts, declined to comment, saying Mr. Eqbal’s case is still pending before it.
Mr. Eqbal fled Afghanistan in 2023. He was stopped by Taliban agents at the airport but managed to convince them he was seeking medical treatment and would return.
He eventually made his way to the U.S. in 2024, entering without a legal visa. He was detained and put in deportation proceedings.
He sought a cancellation of removal under the Convention Against Torture, which forbids deporting noncitizens to a country where they face persecution or torture.
Mr. Eqbal isn’t out of danger of deportation yet.
Part of the immigration judge’s ruling doubted his claim that his mother was beaten to the point of disability when she refused to reveal Mr. Eqbal’s whereabouts.
The appeals court sent the case back to the immigration courts to ask for evidence to back up those claims.
