US veterans decry arrest of ex-army sergeant after Ice protest

Veterans who helped the US’s Afghan allies find refuge in the US say they are outraged that a fellow veteran and advocate now faces federal conspiracy charges for his role in a protest against the Trump administration’s immigration policies.

Some call the arrest of former US army sergeant Bajun Mavalwalla II “shameful” and “un-American”. Mavalwalla is part of a community of American military veterans who, in the wake of Kabul’s fall to the Taliban in 2021, worked to rescue Afghans who supported the US military operations in their home country.

“He is one of us – and his arrest sends a message that peaceful dissent is being criminalized,” Shawn VanDiver, the founder and president of #AfghanEvac, an umbrella group bringing together military veterans, national security leaders, intelligence workers and refugee rights groups, wrote to his membership after the Guardian revealed Mavalwalla’s arrest Tuesday.

“We want to say this loud and clear. We will not be intimidated,” VanDiver, a navy veteran, wrote.

The 11 June protest against Ice that led to Mavalwalla’s arrest was confrontational, leaving a government van’s windshield smashed and tires slashed, but Mavalwalla was not among the more than two dozen people arrested at the scene.

A one-minute video posted on Instagram shows the army veteran briefly jostle with an officer whose face is covered by a ski mask and sunglasses. Mavalwalla then locks arms with other demonstrators to block the gate outside a federal building in Spokane, Washington.

More than a month passed before the FBI came to his door on 15 July and took the 35-year-old Afghanistan war veteran away in handcuffs. He is not charged with obstruction or assault, acts that typically involve a victim and assailant; the federal conspiracy charge he faces is a crime of intent. Legal experts say prosecutors will simply have to prove that Mavalwalla agreed with others on a plan to impede or injure an officer.

Mavalwalla pleaded not guilty. He faces a maximum penalty of six years in prison, a $250,000 fine and three years of supervised release.

“This is not what America is about,” said Arnold Strong, a retired army colonel who deployed to Afghanistan and co-founded Operation Snow Leopard, an effort that has helped evacuate and resettle nearly 2,000 high-risk Afghans, including children, female leaders, human rights defenders, lawyers, journalists, interpreters, athletes and filmmakers.

“As veterans, we go forward and we model the way,” Strong said. “We set the example. When we are overseas, we show these folk in war-torn countries what it means to be an American.”

By taking part in the protest in Spokane, Strong said, Mavalwalla was acting with integrity and continuing the tradition of service that he carried out in uniform.

Michael Baumgartner, a Republican who represents eastern Washington state in Congress, declined to comment for this story.

Veterans advocates said Baumgartner had been supportive of their efforts, signing on as a co-sponsor of the enduring welcome act, bipartisan legislation introduced in August that would codify and make permanent resettlement programs for Afghans who worked alongside the US military.

They said the bill has become critical following a series of executive orders from Donald Trump, which ended evacuation flights, restricted asylum petitions and imposed a travel ban on visitors from the country.

The US attorney’s office in Spokane, which brought the charges, did not respond to an inquiry. The office declined to comment on the Guardian’s initial report, citing an ongoing investigation.

VanDiver said that despite Mavalwalla’s arrest, #AfghanEvac would press ahead with a plan to have veterans accompany Afghan allies to immigration hearings, a program launched earlier this year after Ice detained Afghan refugees at court appearances in California and Massachusetts.

In a statement, Human Rights First, which facilitates pro bono legal assistance for Afghan refugees, called Mavalwalla’s prosecution for conspiracy “a dangerous step toward authoritarianism”.

“What we’re seeing is an aggressive attempt to dismantle our fundamental civil and human rights by using Mavalwalla II as a test case for what they’d like to do on a mass scale,” said Hanah Stiverson, the organization’s associate director for democracy protection. “Everybody should be concerned by this.”

John Moses, a retired non-commissioned army officer, who served in Afghanistan and co-founded the Massachusetts Afghan Alliance after coming home, also voiced support for Mavalwalla.

“Veterans across the board are incredibly proud of that kid,” he said. “If they go after a combat veteran with a veteran father, it becomes easier to go after everyone else. We have to stand up for civilians and our democracy.”

Moses said he had begun assisting a local immigrant rights group in Lowell, Massachusetts, monitor the presence of Ice agents to alert the community to immigration sweeps, and was planning to attend his first demonstration at an Ice detention facility next week. “I’m trying to keep my community safe,” he said.