A crackdown by Afghan authorities on a protest against the arrest and detention of more than a dozen women over dress code violations reportedly left at least three people injured on Tuesday.
Eyewitnesses said armed police opened fire during the protest by more than 100 people in the city of Herat.
Protests are rare in Afghanistan, which has been run by the Taliban since 2021 in the wake of the chaotic withdrawal of U.S.-led forces. It has since imposed rules governed by a strict interpretation of Islamic, or Sharia, law. The regulations include draconian restrictions on women and girls, including bans on education beyond primary school and regulations on what they can wear outside the home. Dissent is not tolerated, and protests against government decisions are illegal.
Government regulations stipulate that women can only go out in public when wearing full hijab — which includes a headscarf and long robe covering the entire body — as well as a face covering that leaves only the eyes visible. The rules are policed by the feared Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice.
Kakar, who witnessed the crackdown, said he was driving by the site of the protest when he saw police cars arriving and the police firing shots in the air.
“After several shots, we got scared and got out of the car, to not be injured,” said Kakar, who asked that only his one name be used for fear of reprisals for speaking with the media. Shortly afterward, the police clashed with the protesters “and the police opened fire again, and some people were injured. I saw blood on the road.” Kakar said he couldn’t be sure exactly how many people had been injured.
Another eyewitness, who spoke on condition of anonymity for security reasons, said he saw three people injured.
Richard Bennett, the United Nations’ investigator on human rights in Afghanistan, said he was “alarmed by excessive use of force against seemingly peaceful protesters in Herat today.”
In a post on X, he said those responsible for the violence should be held accountable. “It’s time to defuse the tension, respect citizens’ freedom of expression, especially women and girls, and avoid further harm,” Bennett said.
On Sunday, the U.N.'s Assistance Mission in Afghanistan said in a post on X that the arrests and detentions of women in Herat over alleged dress code violations raised “serious human rights concerns.” It had expressed concern over similar arrests in the Afghan capital, Kabul, last year.
A human rights monitor, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release details to the media, said Monday that monitors had verified at least 16 arrests and detentions, including of a pregnant woman, in Herat since Friday over alleged non-compliance with dress requirements.
Afghanistan's vice and virtue ministry dismissed the reports of arrests and detentions of women.
“The issues being spread about women being arrested in Herat are all rumors,” it said in a statement, adding that wearing the “hijab is a divine command, a law that we are obliged to implement.”
During last week's Friday prayers, imams in mosques in Herat issued announcements on behalf of the vice and virtue ministry that women were not allowed to leave their homes without wearing the hijab. The human rights monitor said the arrests and detentions began shortly after that.
FILE - An Afghan woman walks out of a cell inside the women's section of the Pul-e-Charkhi prison in Kabul, Afghanistan, on Sept. 23, 2021. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana, File)
WASHINGTON (AP) — House Republicans will look to get nearly $70 billion for immigration enforcement over the finish line Tuesday, enough to fund a pair of Homeland Security agencies through the next three years and the rest of President Donald Trump's time in office.
Speaker Mike Johnson will need near perfect attendance and unity on his side to complete weeks of action on the bill. The legislation got sidetracked when Republicans sought to include $1 billion for enhanced security on the White House grounds, including for Trump's new ballroom, and the Trump administration tried to create a nearly $1.8 billion fund to compensate allies of the president who claim they have been unjustly investigated and prosecuted. Those proposals proved politically toxic and were scrapped.
Now, the bill is focused entirely on immigration enforcement, a topic that Republicans have treated as a defining issue between the two major political parties and one they hope will carry them to victory in this year's midterm elections. The bill provides $38 billion for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, $26 billion for the Border Patrol and another $5 billion to cover unforeseen costs, fueling Trump's deportation agenda.
“It's long overdue,” said Johnson, R-La., of the bill. “We have to fund border security and immigration enforcement, and it's sad that Republicans have to do it on our own.”
The funding comes on top of the nearly $140 billion that the Republican-controlled Congress gave ICE and Customs and Border Protection last year as part of Trump's tax and spending cuts bill.
Democrats objected to giving the agencies more money without significant changes in the way they operate after the deaths of Alex Pretti and Renee Good in Minneapolis. For example, Democrats insisted that agents be required to display their ID badges during enforcement operations and that they get a judicial warrant before entering private property. Instead, the funding will come with virtually no strings attached.
House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries vowed his party would oppose the package.
“We believe that taxpayer dollars should be used to make life more affordable for the American people – not give ICE another $70 billion blank check so that they can unleash brutality on American citizens and violently target law-abiding immigrant communities,” said Jeffries of New York.
The package is the result of a monthslong standoff in Congress after Democrats refused to fund the Department of Homeland Security in the wake of the immigration enforcement actions in Minneapolis and other American cities, leading to the longest shutdown in agency history.
Negotiations had been underway with the White House to alter ICE operations as Democrats were demanding. When those negotiations failed, Republicans turned to a complicated procedural maneuver to get around the filibuster and pass the immigration funding with no Democratic votes.
If approved, the package would next go to Trump for his signature, all but assuring an essentially uninterrupted flow of funds for his immigration enforcement and deportation agenda into 2029.
The Senate completed its work on the legislation last week during an all-night session that extended into the early morning hours Friday. The final 52-47 vote on the bill was nearly party line, with Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska the only Republican to oppose it.
The money will come at a pivotal time for the Department of Homeland Security, which is under new leadership after Trump replaced Kristi Noem with new Secretary Markwayne Mullin in March.
While Mullin has vowed to keep the department out of the headlines, the administration is under pressure from anti-immigration advocates to deliver on Trump’s campaign promise of the largest deportation operation in American history.
So far, the administration has not hit its goal of 1 million deportations a year, but Trump’s border czar, Tom Homan, has promised more to come, including hinting at immigration enforcement actions in New York, the nation's biggest city, which is heavily Democratic.
At the same time, the administration is making it more difficult for legal immigrants to remain in the U.S. by working to end Temporary Protective Status, changing the processes for obtaining green cards and leaving some Dreamers — the young people who were brought illegally to the U.S. as children — reporting delays in renewing their status, which allows them to stay and work.
On the House side, Johnson has little margin for error. Republicans can afford to lose only a couple of votes if every lawmaker is present. GOP leadership opted to avoid any hiccups and sent lawmakers home last week rather than take up the bill early Friday once the Senate had completed its all-nighter.
The bill is just a slim package, without the hundreds of pages of details and directives that typically come from Congress when it provides funding for agencies.
Leading up to the vote, Democrats portrayed DHS as an agency that has used its new resources to buy private jets for its leadership, warehouse immigrants in deplorable conditions and attack U.S. citizens.
“To give these rogue agencies another $70 billion now when they still have $100 billion in the bank from last year would implicate all of us in the escalating corruption and shameful actions of this department," said Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, the ranking Democratic member on the House Judiciary Committee.
Republicans countered that they were fulfilling their duty to safeguard the nation and support the men and women charged with enforcing the law.
“Democrats can say whatever they want, but what it’s about is public safety. What’s it about is keeping Americans safe,” said Rep. Michelle Fischbach, R-Minn.
Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, lower left, testifies before the House Committee on Homeland Security during a hearing on the Fiscal 2027 budget request for the Department of Homeland Security, in Washington, Wednesday, June 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Cliff Owen)
Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin testifies before the House Committee on Homeland Security during a hearing on the Fiscal 2027 budget request for the Department of Homeland Security, in Washington, Wednesday, June 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Cliff Owen)
The U.S. Capitol is seen behind a light pole, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, June 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Cliff Owen)
FILE - The seal of U.S. Department of Homeland Security is seen before a news conference at ICE Headquarters in Washington, May 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, File)
FILE - Department of Homeland Security, Transportation Security Administration, Federal Air Marshals, patrol around Washington Dulles International Airport, in Chantilly, Va., Tuesday, March 24, 2026. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce,File)
