Posted on 08/13/2006 3:22:59 PM PDT by cornfedcowboy
WASHINGTON -- Immigration officials have now picked up all but two of the 11 Egyptian exchange students who came to the U.S. for a summer course in Montana but never showed up for classes.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents tracked three of the students to Des Moines. They were arrested at about 8 p.m. Friday, and are being held in the Polk County Jail.
They will be here until a federal immigration judge decides if they will face charges or be deported. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents won't say what led them to find these students in Des Moines or where they were staying. The students are Ahmed Laket, 19, Mohamed Moghazy, 20, and 18-year-old Moustafa Gafary. Agents are not releasing their pictures.
Others were picked up earlier in New Jersey, Maryland, Chicago and Minnesota. They were part of a group of 17 who arrived in New York July 29 en route to a month-long program at Montana State University in Bozeman. Six reported on time, but the 11 others were no-shows.
Immigration officials said the students are not considered a terrorism risk, but all the no-shows now face deportation.
Montana State contacted Homeland Security officials after repeatedly trying to contact the missing students, under procedures put into place after Sept. 11, 2001, to track foreign students.
SImplify it a bit ~ kid asks Arabic speaking cab driver for help just outside International Arrivals building at JFK ~ cab driver cheats kid.
End of story.
I always try to read between the lines of these news reports and guestimate what they're not saying....
With so many of them ending up with someplace with an "MN" connection, it's a wonder one of them is not already in Montserrat.
Or, what if the student asked Santa Claus, but it was really a fake Santa from the mall, and he took their tickets away?
"You have too many variables and demonstrably false suppositions in your logic chain".
I do? Hahhahaha. Good one -- you had us going for a while!! You really are pulling our legs.
Were you unaware of the international calling prefix number system?
Certainly you weren't ~
You read and responded to my post at #55 just a little while ago. Maybe it has already escaped your memory.
Yes, there are people messing around with people at JFK.
I'm happy you never had any problems traveling. That's why so many tourists to this area end up driving down my street that ends in a cul de sac and then stopping me and asking where they can find the Washington Monument.
"I had a ticket stolen from me by a ticket agent in New York about 30 years ago"
Bet you didn't somehow end up in Maryland or Chicago.
That list is a hoot. Those poor lads, lost and stranded in a strange land...let's cut 'em a break...(/sarcasm off)
BTW, I never have problems with AMEXCO on anything.
What I posted was VERY relevant.
Do you realize you just inadvertantly agreed that asking for directions is NORMAL? That's what many of us have been saying. LOL.
In their case since they speak Arabic (being from Egypt and all), and with the airports swarmng with Arabic speaking cab drivers, and a Moslem prayer room in the terminal, they asked an Arabic speaking person ~ who proceeded to do the wrong thing.
Try: http://www.acfnewsource.org/religion/faith_in_flight.html
JFK has FOUR different chapels, each of which has staff prepared to assist lost travelers.
bttt
The report in post #29 says that they admitted they never had any intention of going to this class in Montana.
Besides, I don't think they'd end up at IAH before inquiring about Montana.
My high school sophomore exchange student from Kyrgyzstan didn't have much of a problem mastering the intracasies of international calling when hitting the airport stateside.
Things like "intent" can be misinterpreted by interviewers ~ and apparantly not all the students had relatives in the New York area ~ frankly, we don't know enough details here to make definitive statements about intent.
Same with that interrogator in Iraq who has Private Barker saying all sorts of things about Private Green that Green denies.
The fact it's been so easy to find these guys suggests they weren't hiding!
All 11 students's paths crossed with nefarious cabbies who lead them astray. They wouldn't tell these poor fellas how to dial a phone, and then they took their tickets and information away!
Come to think of it, the FBI may have saved their precious lives by finding them!
All it takes is one nefarious Arabic speaking cabby in the Inerfaith chapel at JFK to lead them all astray ~ has anyone bothered to talk to the 6 who made it to Montana to find out what happened?
Yes. They had a nice cab driver.
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