Madinat al-Muslimeen Islamic Message Board
| Nightmare with the INS |
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| bhaloo |
| 10/02/01 at 00:53:36 |
| slm Here is one brother's account of a horrible nightmare. Subject: [Fwd: Harrasment] Masarrat Fareed-CFM015 wrote: This is what heppened to my friend Usman Fazili's in-laws (Indian citizens on visit visa) when they flew in to Philadelphia airport this week. Its relatively (that's the keyword) better to fly airports other than East coast and to fly on European airlines. --------------------------------------- I want to warn all of the people who are living in USA to ask their loved ones if they are planning to visit USA to delay their plans. What happened to us the last weekend is a pure harassment from INS. My in-laws were coming to see us from Malta. Both of them are doctors in Libya. They have visited us previously 4 times. They had 5 year multiple entry visa and on this visa they had travelled twice before. But when this time they reached the Philadelphia airport the INS termed them "National Security Threat" (father in law is in 60's and mother in law is in 50's). They were first interviewed by FBI who were very nice and professional. FBI cleared them but INS decided not to let these people in. So they were told that they are going to be deported. All of us dont mind this decision but what happened next has put my wife and me into mental and emotional trauma. (1) My father in law was handcuffed and his feet were put in shackles. (2) My mother in law was handcuffed too. When she tearfully said that she did not expected this, the officers remark was "We also did not expected lot of things". (3)They were separated from each other and put in jail cells. My mother in law with some shabby character females while my father in law with eqally bad characters. My father in law did not have the room or clean place to sit. (4) Both my in laws are hypertensive and my mother in law is diabetic. But no food was given to these people from 7:30 pm to 10:30AM next morning when my mother in law begged the officers for it. (5)Repeated requests of my in-laws to see or speak with their daughter were denied. At one point my father in law asked "Wont you let me see my family?" The answer was "At least your family is intact there are 7000 families who are not intact" (meaning victims of NY). (6) $800 were stolen from my mother in law who trustingly signed the papers when their belongings were returned to them. When she asked about it she was told "You have been playing mind tricks with us througout". This is what happened to them, now what happened to me and my wife is another story. We waited outside the international arrival door till 9:30 pm (flight came 7:30 pm). My wife asked the British airways service people and they told her that her parents are with immigration. They made her talk to the INS office at the airport, my wife told them that if they have any questions they can ask her. At 10:00 or 10:15 pm I called again to ask what was going on and I was told that since I am not a blood relative so they cannot talk to me. So they told her that her parents are going to be deported. She pleaded their case but to no avail. In the end she asked the officers and supervisors of INS to give her a chance to talk to them (as they said very strongly that they will not let them see her). The Supervisor on duty accepted it and asked her to call him after 30 minutes. She called but was asked to call back again after 30 minutes. After that all the phone circuits of the INS were made busy. We tried from 11:30 pm or so to 12:30pm the number and every time got the answering machine that all circuits are busy. My wife finally pleaded to two police men at the Philadelphia airport. The afro american cop was the only one who showed compassion to us, he banged at the door of the INS and went in. After couple of minutes he brought the case officer out to meet us. This Nazi officer showed no remorse or compassion to my wife. After explaining in vague terms that there is something wrong with the visa of my in laws he said that he will let us talk to them over the phone if we will call. This Nazi gave us the same number which we were calling before. Upon objection from my wife he lied and told us to use pay phones instead of internal airport phones. Needless to say that from that time onwards we tried that number but were unable to get through. I dragged my wife back home and really felt helpless. In the night my wife called US Embassy in Malta and asked them about the problems with the visa. The Embassy called us back at 8:00 AM stating that they have gone over all the papers and everything is fine. The Counslar officers even gave his home phone number to us to pass to INS officer over here, so that they can clear the matter. But we were not able to get hold of anybody. Finally I called the Congressman's office and somebody answered the phone. This nice person then took the whole report and called us after 30 minutes saying that somebody in INS is going to locate my in laws. Soon after that my mother in law called but she was only allowed to call for 1 or 2 minutes. After she told us that they are leaving at 6:00pm flight. We asked her to give the phone number of the US counslar officer in Malta to the INS officer incharge. She asked for pen and paper from somebody who was standing next to her. We heard a distinct "NO", she then said "I have the pen can I at least get a paper", we again heard "NO". At that point phone was disconnected. We only heard from them when they reached Malta. This my dears is pure harassment. If this happened to my family today then it will happen to your family tomorrow. I hope this is not a message from INS "STAY OUT". I hope this is because of just few bad eggs within a big organization and will be purged by the department. I am planning to take some time off to stay home. I do not have internet. Wasalam, Usman Fazili |
| NS |
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