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Special registration experiences!
- Thread starter haraputta
- Start date
Be prepared.....not sure if that even touches the surface of what the US government is doing in circumstances of "Special Registration". My husband (Morocco citizen) and I have been married for two months and filed our I765, I485, I130, etc. on 1/10/03 (deadline day #2) at the Orlando INS office. At the advise of INS who said since our forms were filed and he had an Alien #, to go ahead and register under "Special Registration".
So, after waiting 3.5 hours and at 11:30am he was called for his "interview" (without my being allowed to be present). Five hours later, I was notified that he was going to be detained and arrested because his visa had expired---despite the fact that we are married, have an INS receipt of our filing for Permanent Residency and he is in process for adjustment of status and awaiting an INS response.
AT 1:30am my husband called me to tell me to seek a lawyer as he was fearful of what might happen to him in the hands of our government’s officials. He told me he was going to be transferred to the Tampa, FL jail (over 1.5 hours away). Nearly ten hours later, I can not locate my husband at either any Orlando or Tampa jails or INS holding locations. I can not get any information from any other government agencies on my husband’s whereabouts and the likelihood of when or where I will be able to see him next, making securing independent legal representation for him very difficult.
My husband and I feel that legal representation is necessary because of the racial profiling associated with the new "Special Registration" process. My husband voluntarily went to INS to comply and is now being, what I feel, mistreated and discriminated against. It is obvious the US is not using its common sense in this situation. Aliens with negative intentions towards this country will not voluntarily take themselves to an INS office for registration, so why are those who are completely legal and decent human beings being treated as criminals and as though they should be ashamed of who they are and where they were born. This is not the premise America was created and I am afraid that the INS offices are taking advantage of these "adjustment in status" aliens and denying them basic civil rights through this unjust process of detention. Most if not all of the Arab men do not have legal representation and do not know of their rights as an immigration detainee.
This racial profiling is dangerous to our democracy. We therefore call on all citizens of conscience to register their discontent. The Department of Justice and the INS need to know that the broader American public understands and strenuously objects to what is happening with immigrant communities. I am reminded of past immigration disasters which ignored human rights during the "Red Scare" of the 1920s, when thousands of foreign-born people suspected of political radicalism were arrested and brutalized; many were deported without a hearing. Again 1942, 120,000 Americans of Japanese descent were interned in camps until the end of World War II. What will come of this current situation? Will America revert from all Civil Rights progress over the past 80 years to detain and deport all Muslim Americans, because it is afraid of them and call it “National Security” measures?
These registration schemes are not making us any safer. They do nothing but damage our reputation as a freedom-loving society and a land welcoming of immigrants. As an American, I am deeply ashamed of my country’s treatment of these men and can fully understand if they voluntarily exit America to never return. Taking with them, their college degrees and economic influence. As it is apparent, this is President Bush’s goal, it will surly hurt this country and all of its “citizens” in time. Our government must stop wasting precious resources engaging in discriminatory round ups. By design, the Special Call-In Registration scheme is wrong and fundamentally un-American.
At a minimum, the INS should stop detaining and arresting these people who are voluntarily complying with the requirements. Given its own extreme and deliberate failures of notification and implementation, the INS should extend all registration deadlines; release those already detained and either scrap or refashion the program.
My advise to anyone who did NOT register or to those required to register in round #3------get a LAWYER and take the lawyer with you to the registration.
God Bless each of you going throug this nightmare!
DML
Orlando, FL
So, after waiting 3.5 hours and at 11:30am he was called for his "interview" (without my being allowed to be present). Five hours later, I was notified that he was going to be detained and arrested because his visa had expired---despite the fact that we are married, have an INS receipt of our filing for Permanent Residency and he is in process for adjustment of status and awaiting an INS response.
AT 1:30am my husband called me to tell me to seek a lawyer as he was fearful of what might happen to him in the hands of our government’s officials. He told me he was going to be transferred to the Tampa, FL jail (over 1.5 hours away). Nearly ten hours later, I can not locate my husband at either any Orlando or Tampa jails or INS holding locations. I can not get any information from any other government agencies on my husband’s whereabouts and the likelihood of when or where I will be able to see him next, making securing independent legal representation for him very difficult.
My husband and I feel that legal representation is necessary because of the racial profiling associated with the new "Special Registration" process. My husband voluntarily went to INS to comply and is now being, what I feel, mistreated and discriminated against. It is obvious the US is not using its common sense in this situation. Aliens with negative intentions towards this country will not voluntarily take themselves to an INS office for registration, so why are those who are completely legal and decent human beings being treated as criminals and as though they should be ashamed of who they are and where they were born. This is not the premise America was created and I am afraid that the INS offices are taking advantage of these "adjustment in status" aliens and denying them basic civil rights through this unjust process of detention. Most if not all of the Arab men do not have legal representation and do not know of their rights as an immigration detainee.
This racial profiling is dangerous to our democracy. We therefore call on all citizens of conscience to register their discontent. The Department of Justice and the INS need to know that the broader American public understands and strenuously objects to what is happening with immigrant communities. I am reminded of past immigration disasters which ignored human rights during the "Red Scare" of the 1920s, when thousands of foreign-born people suspected of political radicalism were arrested and brutalized; many were deported without a hearing. Again 1942, 120,000 Americans of Japanese descent were interned in camps until the end of World War II. What will come of this current situation? Will America revert from all Civil Rights progress over the past 80 years to detain and deport all Muslim Americans, because it is afraid of them and call it “National Security” measures?
These registration schemes are not making us any safer. They do nothing but damage our reputation as a freedom-loving society and a land welcoming of immigrants. As an American, I am deeply ashamed of my country’s treatment of these men and can fully understand if they voluntarily exit America to never return. Taking with them, their college degrees and economic influence. As it is apparent, this is President Bush’s goal, it will surly hurt this country and all of its “citizens” in time. Our government must stop wasting precious resources engaging in discriminatory round ups. By design, the Special Call-In Registration scheme is wrong and fundamentally un-American.
At a minimum, the INS should stop detaining and arresting these people who are voluntarily complying with the requirements. Given its own extreme and deliberate failures of notification and implementation, the INS should extend all registration deadlines; release those already detained and either scrap or refashion the program.
My advise to anyone who did NOT register or to those required to register in round #3------get a LAWYER and take the lawyer with you to the registration.
God Bless each of you going throug this nightmare!
DML
Orlando, FL