Posted on 10/25/2001 2:52:11 PM PDT by FresnoDA
September 27, 2001, Thursday
A NATION CHALLENGED: IMMIGRATION; Suspects in Hijackings Exploited Loopholes in Immigration Policy
By DIANA JEAN SCHEMO and ROBERT PEAR
Source: The New York Times
Section: National Desk
1291 words
Abstract
Hijackers who flew airliners into World Trade Center and Pentagon exploited immigration system that critics contend is riddled with loopholes and that is geared to ease the way for commerce, whether in form of tourism, business or study; experts on terrorism say security precautions often take back seat to pressure from industry, concerns of neighboring governments and even bureaucratic rivalries in US government; say sheer volume of daily border crossings--300 by land from Mexico alone--make exclusion of all foreign terrorists impossible; photo (M)
Five Israelis Held In New York |
| October 25, 2001 Five young Israelis are "on the verge of collapse," according to family members, as their incarceration in New York on charges relating to the Bin Laden attacks continues. They were arrested on Sept. 11, only hours after the World Trade Center attack, on charges of "plotting to blow up" a New York bridge. |
THE 1994 LIBERTARIAN PARTY PLATFORM
17. IMMIGRATION
We hold that human rights should not be denied or abridged on the basis of nationality. We condemn massive roundups of Hispanic Americans and others by the federal government in its hunt for individuals not possessing required government documents. We strongly oppose all measures that punish employers who hire undocumented workers. Such measures repress free enterprise, harass workers, and systematically discourage employers from hiring Hispanics.
We welcome all refugees to our country and condemn the efforts of U.S. officials to create a new "Berlin Wall" which would keep them captive. We condemn the U.S. government's policy of barring those refugees from our country and preventing Americans from assisting their passage to help them escape tyranny or improve their economic prospects.
Undocumented non-citizens should not be denied the fundamental freedom to labor and to move about unmolested. Furthermore, immigration must not be restricted for reasons of race, religion, political creed, age, or sexual preference.
We therefore call for the elimination of all restrictions on immigration, the abolition of the Immigration and Naturalization Service and the Border Patrol, and a declaration of full amnesty for all people who have entered the country illegally. We oppose government welfare and resettlement payments to non-citizens just as we oppose government welfare payments to all other persons.
They would be the loudest calling for deportation. Bet the rent.
By Kristen Green
STAFF WRITER
October 25, 2001
Tamim Keshawarz figures that if he had lied about where he is from, he might not have been choked and punched in the head.
But Keshawarz is proud of his heritage, and when three passengers in his cab noticed his olive skin, dark hair and Middle Eastern accent and asked about his background, he told them he is from Afghanistan.
As soon as he uttered the name of his homeland, the woman and two men became abusive, he says.
"Why are you here?" the woman asked the bearded 37-year-old.
"I'm here to work," Keshawarz told her.
"You're here to work and blow up the U.S.," she replied.
The passengers, all of whom are white, say Keshawarz mumbled anti-American statements, according to the Harbor Police. He denies the allegation.
Keshawarz, who has lived in America for 23 years, says he stayed calm on the short ride from Croce's on Fifth Avenue to the Marriott Hotel on West Harbor Drive early Saturday morning.
"I just kept quiet because I didn't want to start anything with them," he said. "I kind of tried to ignore them."
But when Keshawarz arrived at the Marriott and stepped out of his green taxi, labeled with the company's name, Pal's Cab, one of the male passengers lunged at him and grabbed his throat, Keshawarz told police. The second male passenger tried to pay the $4.30 fare, Keshawarz said.
The first male passenger began punching him, Keshawarz alleges. He put his arms in front of his face and fought off several blows, but three or four of the punches struck him on the head and the side of his face, police said.
At the same time, the woman yelled out, "We've got an Afghanistan here!" Keshawarz recalled. She seemed to be trying to rouse other people who are angry with Afghans to support her, Keshawarz said. The second male passenger, the woman's husband, didn't do anything to intervene, Keshawarz told police.
Then the woman yelled: "Afghans! Afghans! How many more Afghans are here?" said Ahmad Bakhtari, a valet parking attendant who witnessed the incident.
Bakhtari says he told her he was from Afghanistan, too.
The woman pulled him aside. "You're not like that," she told Bakhtari, pointing at Keshawarz.
"What's wrong with him?" Bakhtari asked. But the woman never replied, he said.
Harbor Police responded to a 911 call from Marriott's security. After interviewing witnesses, they arrested Stanley Grogg, a pediatrician from Tulsa, Okla., on a misdemeanor charge of battery and a felony hate-crime charge. The other two passengers also are from Oklahoma.
No one else was arrested, and Harbor Police declined to release the other passengers' names. But Todd Rakos, a senior officer with the Harbor Police, said he is investigating the actions of the woman, who is a nurse, to determine whether there is enough evidence to charge her with a crime.
Grogg, who has been released on $33,000 bail, has not responded to messages left at the Marriott or at his home in Tulsa. His wife, Barbara, referred phone calls to his San Diego attorney, Tom Warwick.
Warwick said witnesses told him Keshawarz made remarks about the people killed in New York City on Sept. 11 that offended the passengers. He declined to elaborate.
"Unfortunately, there is a potential for a criminal charge being leveled against my client," Warwick said. "I'm doing my best to determine what happened."
Grogg, who is scheduled to be arraigned Monday afternoon, is an associate professor at Oklahoma State University attending the American Osteopathic Association at the San Diego Convention Center this week. He also is president of the American College of Osteopathic Pediatricians.
A spokeswoman for the university's Center for Health Sciences said the medical college will conduct an internal investigation. Grogg, 56, has worked for OSU since April 1999.
After Grogg was arrested Saturday morning, Keshawarz says, he went home to Southcrest. He wasn't injured, he adds, just shaken up.
But Saturday night, he was back in the 1989 Chevy Caprice he rents, working to support his wife and five children and trying to make up for the $100 to $150 in business that he says he lost on the night of the alleged assault.
"I'm a little bit nervous still," he said yesterday. "It'll probably take me a while to get over this."
But Keshawarz says that if asked again where he is from, he will probably tell. In his five years as a San Diego cabdriver, no one else has ever responded negatively.
"I don't have anything to hide," he said. "I'm from Afghanistan."
Library researcher Jackie Macias contributed to this report. Copyright 2001 Union-Tribune Publishing Co.
Of course, there are many immigrants within our borders who are productive and worthy of American citizenship. But, the @ss-backwards immigration policies of the previous administration opened the floodgates for the pearls and swine alike. Everyone here illegally should be deported. Period. Those on student visas, work visas, etc. need to be scrutinized carefully, although my knee-jerk reaction is to deport them too, and let them re-enter later after new screening procedures have been implemented. Those married to upstanding American citizens should not be deported, unless felony criminal or terrorist connections can be proven.
Those who have become American citizens are, well...American citizens, and are our brethren. After all, most of us were born here, because some immigrant in our family tree was smart enough to hop on a ship to America. I come from Irish potato famine stock myself.
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