They are eligible for asylum in Canada. So why are they trapped in an ice prison?

In a quiet, tree-lined Toronto suburb, a 30-year-old Afghan woman spent most of her afternoons on the phone hoping she could reach two young siblings and father.

They were held in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detentions not in Afghanistan, but several miles away from the U.S. border.

The three have been around in crowded cells for months, and their lawyers are talking about bureaucratic barriers between Canada and the United States.

They are eligible for asylum in Canada because they have direct relatives who are legal refugees in the country but can only file claims at the land border – U.S. officials insist that they can only release Canada without a visa, they can’t be released without a visa, their lawyer told the BBC.

The visa application is currently under review and they are still trapped, unable to file a claim in Canada and face deportation from the United States.

From her home near Toronto, “Asal” said she tried everything to free them. The BBC is using the alias because her family belongs to ethnic and religious minorities facing persecution in Afghanistan.

She has hired lawyers from both countries to impose the case and even offered to pay for ice agents escorting them to the Canadian U.S. border, but to no avail.

The family’s case illustrates how some asylum seekers are trapped in rapidly changing policies under the Trump administration, their lawyers and experts said. It also raised questions about whether Canada has the responsibility to speed up people with ties to the country.

Meanwhile, their U.S. attorney, Jodi Goodwin, believes that Asal’s family members can be sent back to Afghanistan or a third country rather than the third country they choose – “the most terrifying move.” The option, she said, “gives them the risk of being sent to God know where there is no guarantee.”

His father worked with the U.S. military as a contractor and was a potential target for the Taliban if he was expelled back to Afghanistan.

For the past eight months, Ms. Goodwin has been working to stop U.S. authorities from sending their families to their home country.

Meanwhile, their lawyers in Canada have been urging authorities to grant them the visas they need to take a flight. Under the immigration agreement between Canada and the United States – a safe third-country agreement – immigrants without a visa must seek asylum at the land border crossing point.

Asal talks with her detained family if possible. ICE allows online “access” and she often goes to find her 18-year-old sister.

On the recent call, she shared with her iPad with about 80 other roommates, her sister provided details of her daily life – she worked hard to have a good night break and to do laundry before she was busy crying.

In Canadian legal documents shared with the BBC, she said she was “shocked” by the conditions for ice detention.

“Every aspect of our lives is under control even if we are not criminals,” she said.

She described how undressed searches, “almost inedible” foods and how prisoners who refuse to eat are threatened with “solitary confinement.”

The BBC seeks comments from ICE. Government officials have previously defended reports of bad circumstances in the U.S. immigration detention location.

Asal and other families said they worked to get information about the well-being of detainees, including the youngest brother who was taken to the hospital for 10 days due to a seizure, who are now back on the ice.

She told the BBC that the first part of the family, including Asal and two siblings, arrived in Canada in February 2023.

This is their preferred destination after barely fleeing Afghanistan, as violence escalates rapidly after the Taliban takes over.

They hiked to Iran and then from there to Brazil and then to the United States, where they were detained by ice for four days before heading to the northern border and then crossing Canada via Roxham Road, a good but informal crossing between New York State and Quebec. After arriving in Canada, they successfully applied for asylum.

“It’s safe. It’s safe and the community is good,” Assal said.

In August 2024, more and more family members were able to leave Afghanistan and arrive in Canada on similar roads.

But when the final group – her mother and father and her three siblings began the trip, North American politics had changed.

Roxham Road – The unofficial route for thousands of asylum seekers entering Canada between 2017 and 2023 has been closed, and the United States is struggling to deal with a group of immigrants on the southern border.

In December, the remaining members of Asal’s family paid, paid to smuggle on the border and then surrendered to authorities after failing to try to enter the United States from Mexico.

In February, Trump took office and signed an executive order to expand detention and deportation of immigrants and travel to Canada.

But the remaining three are still in custody on ice, and U.S. authorities refuse to release them According to the new rulesMs. Goodwin said.

The fact that they didn’t release with others in February boiled down to bad timing.

Ms Goodwin said an official told her: “They just didn’t finish the paperwork in time.”

In response to a BBC question about family cases, a senior U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) official said: “If they ask to leave voluntarily, the ice happily returns them to their origin.

They added that the U.S. “will not pass on illegal foreigners seeking asylum to Canada and vice versa. It is part of being a good neighbor and partner.”

Adam Sadinsky is one of the family’s Canadian lawyers and Toronto-based Maureen Silcoff said Canada has the opportunity to allow the family to reunite.

“We don’t want Canada to be accomplices in this treatment and may send it to any number of countries with its own bad human rights records.”

Mr Sardinskie also believes that allowing them to enter Canada would be consistent with a secure third-country agreement that contains exemptions designed to reunite families.

Canadian Immigration, Refugee and Citizenship said in a statement to the BBC that, in an example of privacy legislation, it would not comment on family cases.

Immigration lawyer Richard Kurland said the case posed a problem for Canadian officials.

Mr. Courland, who is not involved in the case, told the BBC that people who are allowed to enter the family can establish a precedent for others’ relationships with Canada. “How can you say ‘yes’ to a family and then ‘to others’ no?”

But he added that he believes both Canada and the United States have a responsibility to at least make sure that families are not sent back to Afghanistan.

“For the United States, it’s cruel to not rule out Kabul flights,” he said. “Americans know what’s in the store because they’ve been in Kabul for more than 20 years.”

Currently, Asal and her family in Canada continue to feel pain in the case and hope to be reunited.

“Believe me when I say I can’t fall asleep all night,” she said.

But her hopeful Canadian officials passed, “in this case they won’t leave us alone”.