Posted on 06/17/2002 8:46:52 AM PDT by gubamyster
by Marie Szaniszlo Sunday, June 16, 2002
They came for Eleanor Mohamed's husband last month around dawn, as he and their 11-month-old baby slept.
They came for Elias Sawan's family in much the same way, rousing the 77-year-old retired meteorologist and his wife from a sound sleep. Once inside, the men fanned out across their Walpole home, handcuffing their four grown children as the couple looked on and wept.
When they came for Raouf Mankaryous, he was on his way to work. The 32-year-old electrical engineer got as far as the driveway of his Ayer home when the car pulled in. His wife, crying and still in her pajamas, ran outside as they handcuffed him, and knelt at their feet, begging for his release. Upstairs, the couple's 2-year-old son and 5-month-old daughter slept.
Since early this year, when Immigration and Naturalization Service agents began raiding the homes of ``absconders'' - immigrants who have remained in the United States despite deportation orders - 35 people have been arrested in Massachusetts, and nearly 700 have been arrested nationwide.
Virtually all of them come from countries that U.S. officials have linked to terrorist groups such as al-Qaeda. But in most cases, immigration advocates say, their only crime is that they remained here in the hope of eventually being granted asylum.
They are all targets of a massive crackdown on illegal immigrants since Sept. 11. And, as the government comes under mounting pressure to shore up America's borders, there are many more, from other countries, who face a similar fate.
In the months ahead, INS officers will seek out another 115 in Massachusetts and an estimated 300,000 nationwide.
``There's a human story behind every one of these cases,'' says Denis Riordan, acting district director of the INS Boston office. ``But they were afforded due process. They filed appeals, and the appeals were denied. It's no longer a matter of discretion.''
Already, the INS has begun to enter their names in the FBI's National Crime Information Computer, which will allow any law enforcement officer to determine whether a person - someone stopped for speeding, for example - is an absconder.
In the meantime, advocates say, many of those who already have been detained are languishing in jail alongside convicted felons, awaiting deportation to countries they fled because of poverty or persecution.
``There's not an immigrant out there who doesn't think that everything that can be done to stop terrorism should be done,'' says Victor DoCouto, a native of the Azores who came to the United States when he was 6, became a citizen after joining the Air Force, fought in Vietnam and now heads the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition.
``In many cases, they know only too well what terrorism and violence is like; it's the reason they fled their countries in the first place, and the reason they are more loyal to this place than some Americans are.''
The Sawans, Mankaryous and Saliba Kheirallah, a Norwood gas station owner and father of two, for example, are all Christians, a group that has suffered torture, rape and murder at the hands of Islamic extremists in their native Lebanon and Egypt, according to Amnesty International.
All of them entered the United States legally on visas, which have since expired. Since then, they have lived in a kind of limbo, unable, they say, to go back to their native countries because they have nothing left there, yet unable to go forward. They have applied to remain, spending thousands of dollars on immigration lawyers, but either been rejected because of quotas, or languished on waiting lists, praying for a miracle that never came.
What came was Sept. 11.
``If the INS wanted them back, they should have taken them a long time ago, not after 18 years,'' says the Sawans' cousin, Amina Sarkes, who came to the United States with her family in 1969 as a political refugee. ``They never committed a crime, never even got a speeding ticket, never were on welfare, always worked, always paid taxes. Wouldn't the United States want to keep people like that?''
That they may have lived otherwise upstanding lives, however, is besides the point, INS officials say, once they fail to comply with an order to leave. Far from seeing them as victims of circumstance, the INS considers them fugitives from justice.
``What (Sarkes) is saying is that, because her relatives have been able to get away this long, they should be home free,'' says Russell Bergeron, an INS spokesman. ``U.S. citizens with outstanding warrants are arrested in their homes every day. That's often the consequence of breaking the law.''
In the post-Sept. 11 world of politics, even many liberals unabashedly support enforcing outstanding deportation orders, even if they disagree with a judge's reason for issuing one.
``On an individual basis, many of these are sympathetic cases,'' says Rep. Barney Frank(D-Mass.). ``But if they've gone through the (appeals) process and still been denied, either you deport people or there's no point in having an immigration policy.''
At the Immigrants Assistance Center in New Bedford, Helena Marques sees the unintended consequences of immigration policy every day.
Marques runs a support group for women whose husbands have been deported and who have been forced to decide whether to go with them to a country that might be completely foreign to them and their American-born children, or to stay and try to hold on to whatever they might have left.
In some instances, the men were the sole breadwinners in their families, so when the women lost their husbands, they also lost their incomes, their health insurance and their homes.
``Their lives, and their children's lives, have turned completely upside down,'' Marques says.
Marques and other advocates see unsettling parallels between the arrest of immigrants whose sole offense has been failing to comply with a deportation order, and the interment of Japanese immigrants during World War II.
``It's not about justice; it's a policy based on a climate of fear,'' says Westy Egmont, who heads the International Institute of Boston, New England's largest immigration service agency. ``A tracking system that would require people who are here on visas to check in periodically would be fair and appropriate. But these (arrests) are broad-stroke judgments, with no humanitarian relief. We're reaching for straws so that we can feel like we're doing something as a nation.''
It has been nearly a month since Mohamed Mohamed, Eleanor's husband, was arrested at his Quincy home for failing to comply with a deportation order due to an expired visa. And although it is only a fraction of the time some other illegal immigrants have spent in Bristol County Jail, she has begun to wonder if it will ever end.
No one will tell her exactly when he will be deported. All she has been promised is 48 hours in which to pack his bags, but that she has already done.
Next week, their son Ahmed will turn 1. And if her husband has not been returned to Egypt by then, she will wait for his call from prison, and hold the phone up to Ahmed's ear.
Their crime is violating immigration laws.
In many cases, they know only too well what terrorism and violence is like; it's the reason they fled their countries in the first place, and the reason they are more loyal to this place than some Americans are.
If they are so loyal & have so much to lose, then why didn't they comply with the law?
If the INS wanted them back, they should have taken them a long time ago, not after 18 years,'' says the Sawans' cousin, Amina Sarkes
The government did want them & has been trying to get rid of them. They should be happy they got to live the American dream in the Land of Opportunity for 18 years.
They never committed a crime
They are illegal immigrants, by definition they committed a crime.
How does an illegal alien buy a house & a gas station? Isn't a SS # &/or other documentation required?
It is time for mass deportations. If not, Balkanization of the U.S. will occur and conflict will follow.
It's about bloody time.
WOW!!! Barney Frank in a rare moment of lucidity!!!!
It's about finally correcting a long pattern of naive and destructive negligence against our immigration laws. America-hating immigrants came here and lived in our society then turned around to kill 3,000 of us. Blame your fellow immigrants, the rest of us don't want to hear it.
Not to say that these people had anything to do with 9/11, but I would suspect each victim at the World Trade Center and Pentagon had a human story too. Unfortunately, we will never hear theirs.
Since this sounds good, and since it's coming from Barney Frank, I assume this is a preparatory move on his part. Expect a future announcement that there is no point in having an immigration policy. People who oppose open borders will be branded as racists who hate children.
Hey mister weighed in the balance, this is just my opinion, but I believe Balkanization of the US has already occurred, and low level conflict has already been taking place. You are right, however, but the continued Balkanization and conflict will more than likely grow much worse, as time goes on. I wish I could be more optimistic, but I can't.
In the months ahead, INS officers will seek out another 115 in Massachusetts and an estimated 300,000 nationwide.
Not a pi$$hole in the snow compared to the total number of illegals in Massachusetts.
Time to round up all the Mexicans, Hondurans, Guatamalans, Brazilians, Columbians, Irish, etc.
It doesn't matter if these are good people or not, what matters is that they have broken our laws by being here illegally.
And it would not be terribly long, perhaps 30-50 years before the vast majority of balkanized immigrants were assimilated.
Unfortunately, there seems to be no will to do this.
Bozos.
SHIP 'EM BACK!!! WAY BACK!!
DEPORT 'EM ALL, FAST AND HARD!!!
Just checked out the International Institute of Boston's website. It is a United Way agency. One more reason to pat myself on the back for refusing to support that leftist organization.
All in all this is designed to embarrass GWBush and his war on terror. Mark my words! I am against illegal immigration but let's start at the top!
September 11th, 2001 saw to that.
The law is the law. They broke it, they should pay the price, period.
INS has another estimated 8,000,000+ of these types of cases to go. It's high time the illegals in this country left, either of their own volition, or by force.
Whichever, I don't care. My relatives came here by LEGAL means and followed the rules. It is an affront to them, and to me that illegals (of every nation) have been permitted to stay here as long as they have.
Best don the asbestos suit now. Every time I say something similar, I'm called everything from a Nazi, to fascist to hate mongerer to isolationist.
But you're right! :)
What matters most is, our Government over the last 4+ decades has FAILED MISERABLY in securing our National Borders as part of providing for the Common Defense of our great nation.
Good people? Good people don't break laws. They stayed here ILLEGALLY. They knew what they were doing. In most cases, they were ORDERED to leave the country and failed. What happens to them now is exactly what they have coming to them. No more, no less.
No flame from me, I feel your pain (so to speak). I do wonder and worry about the case priorities being set by the INS. From the article, (and yes the author may not have and probably didn't choose representative cases and maybe excluded relevant information too), it does seem like the INS is doing reverse illogical profiling. Why pick on one 77 year old employed meteorologist basically minding his own business while ignoring thousands of groups of unemployed illegally drinking (because of the location) loitering illegal Mexicans harassing law abiding citizen pedestrians? And, it seems rather unlikely that the people chosen for deportation would be terrorist threats regardless of their origin country.
It kind of reminds me of a local school board that resists any attempt to cut spending by threatening to cut programs that about everybody wants to keep rather than cutting programs that about everybody wants to see go. Is some INS administrator using the same tactic? I.e., raising a ruckus by deporting a few apparently "good" illegals so that in the end they end up deporting almost nobody? If so, it seems to be working -- providing political ammunition for the illegal immigration advocates and the liberal press.
Of course, whoever is deported, the media will be there to put the sob slant on it. But, if we don't get and stay tough, this country will just turn into the place the immigrants are trying to escape -- guess it already has in several places. Maybe the thing to do is to use this as in: "Hey look, we deported some good ones already, it is only fair to go ahead and get the not so good ones out too". Probably too much to think that the INS actually planned it this way in order to squelch the profiling charges that will come up when/if they get to the real problems.
Their only crime? I think not. Now for the rest of the article since I know where it's heading.
EBUCK
He's really a good representative and works to understand those he represents. (Flame away)
Well, let's hope for the best.
As far as the terrorists are concerned, it's too bad they ruined it for Persians in this country, but we have to keep our homeland safe. So we do what we have to, make the illegals ones go home pronto.
Auto insurance is another thing -------
Exactly, you hit the nail on the head. If it were not for the millions upon millions of illegal Mexicans, Peruvians, etc. here for purely economic reasons, I might have more sympathy for true refugees. These illegals are doing a lot of damage to the SW United States, and enough is enough, I'm sick of living in the foreign land my city has become these last ten years. Deport them all!
Having said that, I do believe the government is going to round up the ones that will get the most sympathy and publicity so they can say public support is not there for deportation. They do this all the time. When complaining gets too loud about welfare, they take the saddest cases available, throw them off welfare and call the news media.
Bingo!
I guess Westy is going to have to find a real job now, instead of scamming us by keeping violators in the country.
You asked a good question, evidently illegals can buy homes, it's happening in my neighborhood, and I suspect that HUD is behind alot of it. We should suggest to congress a law that a complete check of SS# be done by a mortage company, especially HUD, and no illegal be allowed home ownership here.
You silly goose! Those stupid rules only apply to native-born American citizens.
Mexico has 100 million people now, and 40 million live in abject poverty while a tiny upper caste lives in regal luxury. No one except them and idiot multicutural apologists here calls Mexico a 'Great Nation' (well, I guess our president thinks so. Someday he'll tell us why).
They've got enough people. We've even shared the legal formula with them: private property, low taxation, the rule of law, a system of checks and balances. Still they fail. And we are supposed to give them our land and livelihoods? And elect guys from their country, or listen to their politicians? Why?
I mean, would anyone take investment advice from someone who's bankrupt?
Well said.
Well, yes, these are the people who need tossing - along with millions of others.
I see and understand your position. However, I respectfully disagree.
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