Posted on 11/06/2001 6:20:31 AM PST by csvset
| Omar S. Yahia |
Officials said that Omar S. Yahia, 31, born in Israel of Palestinian parents, was in the country on a student visa that expired nine years ago. He was detained by Immigration and Naturalization Service officials on Oct. 19, just hours before being convicted of assault and battery in Marshalltown, Iowa.
Despite Yahia's lengthy record of arrests in Virginia, Iowa and two other states during the nine years he has been in the country illegally, his immigration status was never questioned by law enforcement authorities until after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
His recent detention is a stark example of how immigration law suddenly is being enforced vigorously, particularly against those of Middle Eastern and Arab descent.
Tom Derouchey, deputy district director of the INS office in Omaha, Neb., could not say Monday whether Yahia is among the 1,147 people picked up since Sept. 11 under a variety of circumstances and held mainly on immigration charges while federal investigators determine whether they have any connection to terrorist plots.
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David C. Miller, a sheriff's deputy in Marshall County, Iowa, who sat in on Yahia's interview with INS officials last month, said that Yahia came to the United States on a student visa in 1988. He was enrolled at the time at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln.
Yahia became illegal, according to the deputy, after he quit the university. His visa expired in 1992.
``He did not inform the INS and nobody followed up,'' Miller said.
After that, Yahia moved freely about the country, establishing a home in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, according to police records, and running afoul of the law in at least four states.
He came to Virginia Beach, where he had a confrontation with a motel employee on Jan. 3. Yahia was charged with assault and battery of a clerk at the New Castle Motel on Atlantic Avenue. He was jailed, but was released on bond hours later.
Steve Powell, of Absolute Bail Bonds, who paid Yahia's bond, said that after he was released, Yahia made a threat against the government that Powell and police heard.
Yahia said Muslims had been persecuted by the police and the government long enough and ``we were going to get ours soon,'' Powell said.
Powell said he thought nothing about the threat, recalling it only after the Sept. 11 attacks. He then called federal authorities to report it.
Powell said Yahia had plenty of money, which allowed him to easily post bond. He never returned to Virginia Beach to face trial.
Less than two months later, Yahia was arrested in Iowa after allegedly using a box-cutter to tear up a motel room.
According to a police report and a sheriff's deputy in Marshalltown, Yahia did about $1,000 worth of damage to the motel room's carpet and bedspread. Jailed on Feb. 28, Yahia later assaulted three law enforcement officers while behind bars, the deputy said.
The vandalism charge was withdrawn before Yahia was tried Oct. 19 on the assault charges. He was convicted and sentenced to 30 days in jail, said Paul G. Crawford, a Marshall County prosecutor who handled the case.
Meanwhile, the Virginia Beach assault and battery charge was withdrawn at the request of a public defender assigned to Yahia's case. The FBI returned to the New Castle Motel in October to question employees, according to a motel source.
Crawford said Yahia would have been released after the Iowa conviction had the INS not detained him.
``They would not tell me what they were detaining him for,'' Crawford said.
Yahia's criminal charges in Iowa are only his most recent. In 1995, Yahia pleaded guilty to carrying a concealed weapon in Utah. He also was charged with assault, but was found not guilty.
In Nevada, Yahia was charged with battery. No record was available of how that charge was resolved.
Any one of those charges should have been enough to alert INS officials that Yahia was in the country illegally, Derouchey said. Iowa police routinely check with INS officials regarding the immigration status of people placed under arrest, he said.
Don Rimer, a spokesman for the Virginia Beach Police Department, said that all suspects placed under arrest are checked on a computer database to determine whether other warrants or alerts against them have been issued. Rimer said that no INS alert had been issued against Yahia in January.
Reach Jon Frank at 446-2277 or jfrank@pilotonline.com
Not even that. I was watching a program last night on A & E -- I think it was Crime Story hosted by Bill Kurtis.
The program was about an Egyptian chemist, Sharif Sharif, who was a serial rapist and batterer. He plea bargained once - got no time. He plea bargained a second time -- got 12 years and was out in 5. There were other cases against him, but most of the women he brutalized were afraid to testify against him.
Because he was so brilliant and had money he managed to get his employers to vouch for him. After he was in jail, his business partner decided to contact the INS, as did the sheriff of the county where he was serving time, to get him deported. The INS (this was Miami) refused to get involved. He was released, went to TX where he got a big job with an oil company and started his life of crime and brutality against women again.
The former business partner contacted the new company and they finally chased across the border to Mexico where more than 20 women associated with him turned up dead. Unfortunately, I fell asleep so I don't know the end of the story; but it was obvious that the INS really dropped the ball on this one.
We either end this immigration "free for all" or wait to be attacked, multiple times for years to come.
The price we pay for this "immigration free for all" will turn American into a police state for you and your children.
After a few months, illegal aliens will be heading for the Rio Grand and swimming south.
I am amused by some people asking "and how are we gonna tell an illegal from a legal?". Duh. At least take care of the illegals when they show up on the radar screen.
Either lock him up and throw away the key or hang him high.
Great! Good news.
Yep, that's the guy.
Say what?
Haven't you heard? The illegals vote en bloc Dumbocrapic, along with the cemetery inhabitants.
Motor votor and all that, y'know.
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