Posted on 01/25/2003 11:48:12 AM PST by kattracks
Saturday, January 25, 2003Once again a section of the Arab and Muslim community in the United States is on the run. This time, the people running are mostly young undocumented Arab and Muslim men belonging to 25 Middle East and Asian countries, who have been living there for years, hoping to become citizens and live the American dream.
Suddenly, that dream has turned into a nightmare, and thousands of them have taken to their heels, heading to the Canadian border in the hope of avoiding possible detention and deportation in the United States.
Already, some 2,300 Arabs and Muslims have arrived at border posts in Ontario, Quebec, British Columbia and the Maritime province of New Brunswick. Huddled under blankets to keep out the winter cold, they are coming - some with families in tow, but many without - to seek political asylum or to become refugees, just to stay out of the reach of U.S. Immigration and Naturalisation Service (INS).
Hundreds more are reportedly on the move and are expected to be knocking on doors at Canadian immigration centres along the border over the next several weeks. The biggest rush is at the immigration offices outside Buffalo, the border town at Niagara Falls, and Lacolle, just outside Montreal in Quebec.
They are the closest crossing points for people fleeing from U.S. in the North East. They hitch a ride with friends or travel by Greyhound bus to these places, walk across the border and file asylum applications at the immigration centres. The shelter houses at these crossing points are said to be overflowing these days with these asylum seekers.
The immediate cause for this exodus of Arabs and Muslims is a call made by the INS last month, requiring all undocumented 16 and over male nationals from 25 countries in Middle East and Asia, including Iran, Iraq, Libya, Sudan, Syria, Afghanistan, Algeria, Morocco, Yemen, Bangladesh, Egypt, Indonesia, Jordan and Kuwait, to register within certain deadlines set for different nationality groups. Some deadlines expired last month, a few have been extended. Others are due to expire at the end of this month and the next.
The registration apparently started off well with thousands of "out of status" aliens from the designated countries dutifully reporting at INS centres as requested. Then reports started filtering back to immigrant communities that some of the people who reported for the registration have been detained for immigration violations, and have been ordered deported.
Within days, instead of heading to INS centres, many of these "out of status" Arabs and Muslims have opted to run to Canada, carrying their valuables in carry-on luggage.
This week INS officials confirmed that some1,169 men who reported for the special registration have been detained, nearly twice as many as the number that they had acknowledged last month.
According to INS, some were held for a day or two and released with instructions to appear for deportation hearings. Others were held for longer periods. But 170 have been ordered detained indefinitely, pending completion of their investigations.
The detentions have sparked protests and demonstrations, but the INS is not budging. To be sure, some deadlines have been extended to facilitate the registration, but the department also added five more nations to the initial 20, which means more 'out of status' aliens will be on the run soon.
"Our lives have been turned upside down," says a Pakistani woman who had flown to Toronto from New York to meet her husband who is among those seeking asylum in Canada, and asked not to be identified.
"Sure, my husband has overstayed his visa. But then there are millions of other illegal residents in the U.S. who are not being subjected to this registration. Why does he have to run? He would be quite willing to register if he has some assurance that he would not be detained and deported."
She said that her husband was awaiting an immigration hearing on his application for legal residency when the INS announced the new registration programme. He wanted to heed the call, but when word got to him that illegal immigrants who went to register were being detained and deported, he decided his best option would be to go to Canada.
"My husband cannot go back to Pakistan. He has no one there. His family and friends are in New York ," the woman added.
Some of the people who have sought asylum in Canada have said that the men detained are mostly Arab and Muslims who responded to the call for the registration in December and January. Almost all of them are being held for immigration violations, and their fate would be decided at deportation hearings.
In the view of the U.S. Justice Department, the INS has launched the registration process as a way to track tens of thousands of undocumented visitors from countries that the United States considered security risks because they believe they harbour large numbers of Al Qaida members.
But the widespread fear and confusion caused by the detentions is prompting many to flee the country. "Once again this is a nervous time for Muslims in the United States." explains Mohammed Khadir, a Muslim activist in Toronto. "Rather than wait for the inevitable, many Pakistanis have chosen to run, jump into buses and head North. Their only hope is asylum in Canada."
But not everyone is assured of getting asylum in Canada. With Osama bin Laden's recent threat to include Canada as a target for his Al Qaida still hanging in the air, this is a sobering time even in Canada.
Immigration authorities are under strict orders to be extra careful in the screening of asylum applicants, and naturally, they run criminal background checks before admitting any newcomers. Those who flunk - immigration sources say some have - are returned to the United States or turned over to American immigration at the border station.
Fortunately, the failures are few and far between and close to 65 per cent of the applicants are reportedly getting through. This is not surprising considering that many of the Arabs and Muslims arriving in Canada are bona fide immigrants who have overstayed their visas in the United States, or people who have lost papers or have applications for residency pending.
Also among them are illegal immigrants who had been living there for five or six years, people who had applied for permanent residency under a 2001 amnesty law. But the processing of their applications had been delayed by post-September 11 investigations or because of the massive INS reorganisation.
Such immigrants are now in legal limbo - on the verge of obtaining green cards, yet still subject to deportation until that day arrives.
Rather than risk being deported, they are coming to Canada, either to wait here until they know the fate of their applications or 'until things cool down' in the United States, or because they have extended family there and want to remain close to them from Canada.
In Canada, the asylum seekers whose applications are accepted are allowed to continue on to Toronto, Montreal or Vancouver and wait out the year-long series of asylum hearings. Some of them may still face deportation because under a new agreement that Ottawa concluded recently with Washington on asylum seekers and refugees coming to Canada via the United States, the rejected applicants have to be returned to U.S. authorities for deportation from there.
For people running in desperation, it seems a risk worth taking. For they say that the alternative is possible detention and deportation immediately, if they volunteer for the INS registration.
"Either way, it is a gamble," Mohammed Khadir points out. "Maybe in Canada they have slightly better odds. If they are fortunate enough to get asylum - and many will get asylum - they have a better than even chance of going back to where they came from, sooner or later."
© Gulf News 2003
A young Muslim man, who refused to give his name, shows his feelings toward the media outside the Federal Court House in Buffalo, New York September 18, 2002 where he sat to show his support for the six local suspected al-Qaida supporters who appeared inside the court, September 18, 2002. The six men have been charged with providing material support to al Queda from nearby Lackwanna, New York.
NEVER FORGET!
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