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
Click Here for an article about the Palmer Raids that deported dangerous aliens in the 1920's. There is an historical precedent for deporting dangerous aliens. We did it in the 1920's and we stayed a free, democratic nation.
They were too busy with other endeavors ensuring that our streets are safe....sheesh!
Says who? Sounds to me like he was supported by al Quiada? Inless you have inside information we don't, statements like yours are just dumb. If you do know something then perhaps you could let us in on it?
(Seen this one, HangFire?)
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