Benazir Noorzad, a 32-year-old human resources employee for Genesee County, was getting ready to board a flight to Virginia at Detroit Metropolitan Airport on Thursday, Oct. 22, when U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers detained her. As of 4 p.m. Saturday, she remained in ICE custody at the Calhoun County Correctional Center in Battle Creek, just weeks before she was scheduled to sit for an asylum interview.
Noorzad works as a human resources representative in Genesee County government's benefits division, according to MLive. She came to the United States in 2021 as a Fulbright scholar and applied for asylum after the Taliban seized control of Afghanistan, her brother said. Her application had not been denied, and officials had scheduled her for an interview in the coming weeks, he told the outlet.
Her brother, Matiullah Noorzad, a lawful permanent U.S. resident who says he aided the U.S. military in Afghanistan, described her as devastated and confused after being taken into custody. He called her detention unjustified and pleaded for an urgent humanitarian and custody review, asking that she be considered for release under supervision while her case proceeds. He said his wife also served alongside the U.S. government in Afghanistan, and he believes his sister's life would be in danger — including the risk of investigation or death — if she were deported back to Afghanistan because of her family's ties to him.
County Officials Vouch for Detained Employee
Genesee County Human Resources and Labor Relations Director Anita Galajda described Noorzad as a respected colleague and said she is lawfully in the country while her asylum application is processed. Galajda's account, relayed through email to the same outlet, adds institutional weight to her brother's defense of her standing in the immigration system.
Federal guidance from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services notes that applicants who have not yet received a decision on their asylum case generally should not leave the country without first obtaining advance parole. Separate USCIS guidance explains that after a positive credible-fear determination, an asylum officer may retain an application and schedule a follow-up interview, known as an Asylum Merits Interview, to determine eligibility.
Part of a Broader Pattern Across Michigan
Noorzad's case follows a string of similar detentions of asylum seekers statewide. Immigration attorneys told MLive that asylum seekers throughout Michigan are being detained while their cases remain pending, and one attorney estimated that roughly half of his 300 asylum-seeking clients are now in detention, per the outlet's September report. Mamady Camara, a 21-year-old asylum seeker from Guinea with no criminal record and a pending claim, was arrested by ICE in January, the same report noted.
Other Afghan asylum seekers in Michigan have described comparable experiences. An Afghan man identified only as M spent 68 days in detention before being released on a $15,000 bond following a habeas corpus challenge, according to Planet Detroit. Separately, ICE detained an Afghan asylum seeker named Azizullah after he attended a required check-in despite a clean record, as reported by Michigan Advance.
Arrests and Detention Times Have Climbed Statewide
ICE arrests in Michigan jumped from 85 in January 2025 to 477 in January 2026, according to the Planet Detroit analysis. From the start of 2025 through early August 2026, ICE apprehended 6,307 people statewide, and those detained were held for an average of 47 days, per data cited by Michigan Advance. Nationally, more than 2.2 million people were waiting for asylum hearings as of September, per the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse figures cited by MLive.
By the end of this year, an estimated 35,000 Michigan immigrants who had been living in the country legally are expected to lose their status and could face deportation, the outlet's reporting states. Some detained immigrants have had success contesting their custody in court: about 200 people in Michigan were granted immigration bonds after federal judges ordered the government to provide bond hearings or release them, according to Michigan Public. Still, the outlet reported that at least 100 immigrants granted habeas petitions in a single month were nonetheless denied bond.
It remains unclear why Noorzad was detained, whether she has legal representation, or whether a custody or bond hearing has been scheduled in her case. As of Saturday afternoon, she remained held in Battle Creek while her brother's appeal for her release went unanswered.
