A federal magistrate has ordered the release of a former Afghan interpreter for the U.S. military who is accused of falsifying records to obtain a visa and come to Rochester.
Prosecutors had sought to stay or revoke Dilbar Gul Dilbar’s release — arguing that the 33-year-old posed a serious flight risk.
“If the defendant is convicted in this case, he, his wife, and four of his five children are all at risk of deportation,” U.S. Attorney Michael DiGiacomo wrote in a filing Wednesday.
Dilbar was arrested by FBI agents on May 1. He and his family have lived in Rochester for the past year. His youngest child was born here.
“If the defendant was desperate enough to lie to the United States government to get his family out of Afghanistan,” DiGiacomo continued, “then there is no question that he will be desperate enough now to flee while this case is pending and avoid being sent back to Afghanistan."
Magistrate Judge Colleen Holland ordered Dilbar’s release this week. And U.S. District Judge Frank Geraci denied the government’s request Wednesday afternoon to pause or reverse that decision. It was not immediately clear how quickly Dilbar might be freed.
He must post bond, surrender his and his children’s passports, submit to electronic monitoring and provide the government with access to his financial records. And, at his own suggestion, his attorneys said, sign an irrevocable waiver of extradition.
The case comes amid a nationwide crackdown on immigration by the Trump administration. But this is a fraud investigation that dates back months, with court records showing federal agents zeroing in on Dilbar late last year.
A key factor in the court’s decision to release him — pending a district court review and a detention hearing next month — is that Dilbar has no known criminal history or gang affiliations.
That assessment is limited, according to the government, as officials cannot now access his records in Afghanistan. But his attorneys argue he surely was subject to a background check before being hired as a translator. And, despite the allegedly fraudulent employment records, he underwent extensive vetting before being cleared to come here.
“Having never experienced detention previously, Dilbar is suffering acutely during his confinement,” Assistant Federal Public Defender Anne Burger told the court. “He is surrounded by individuals who have been deemed too dangerous to be released even under New York State’s relaxed bail regime. He is also isolated from his wife and five children and has not been able to return to work given his detention.
“The government’s request for a stay,” she wrote, “is thus not only unnecessary, but harmful to him.”
In court filings Wednesday, prosecutors confirmed that Dilbar did assist the United States and its allies, working intermittently as a translator between 2009 and 2011, during the war in Afghanistan. Then he stopped showing up for work and was fired.
DiGiacomo argued that Dilbar did not qualify for a Special Immigrant Visa, often granted for interpreters and others who assist the military, because he didn’t last two years on the job, and that is the minimum requirement. The baseline according to the Department of State website is 12 months.
That website also has an entry warning applicants about fraud.
According to court records:
Dilbar, also known as Dilbar Gul Taj Ali Khan, applied for the special visa in 2016, but was denied after failing to provide sufficient documentation.
“Over the next three years, the defendant reached out to various companies with operations in Afghanistan,” DiGiacomo told the court. “He never worked for any of these companies. But the defendant wrote and claimed that he had worked for them. He then asked for an employment letter.”
Dilbar allegedly used different names and dates of birth, “hoping one of those companies had bad enough record-keeping that they would not realize he never worked for them,” according to DiGiacomo.
When that effort failed, Dilbar — in the months before an immediately after Afghanistan fell to the Taliban — allegedly resorted to buying fake employment letters and trying again.
He allegedly purchased one from a company that the Department of State has traced to more than 100 fake employment letters, records show. He bought a second letter from a man going by Ray James and posing as a supervisor for a U.S. military contractor “who, for a fee, would provide fraudulent employment letters and then verify that employment with the Department of State,” DiGiacomo wrote.
And prosecutors say he got a third letter from a woman named Arlene Seret, identified in the document as an employment supervisor in Afghanistan now living in Rochester – and listing the same Blossom Road address where Dilbar and his family now live, records show. A search of county records turned up nothing under that name.
The alleged fraud went undetected, and Dilbar and his family got approved to come to the United States. He arrived last April, and investigators were combing through his emails by year’s end, records show.
Dilbar allegedly has remained in contact with Ray James. And when authorities searched his rental house earlier this month, they "found visa and identity documents belonging to other Afghan nationals who do not live in that residence. There appeared to be no legitimate reason for the defendant to have these other people’s immigration and identity records,” prosecutors alleged.
Dilbar has ties to the Islamic Center of Rochester and is active in Grace Church, a Presbyterian congregation two doors away from his rental home. The $6,000 cash bond set by the court reflects almost the entirety of his family’s savings, records show.
Federal authorities speculate the two religious groups and others might post his bond, and that he has the ability to obtain false documents and disappear. His attorneys call those claims “baseless” and argue his supporters are law-abiding citizens.
