Muslims in America flee to Canada, fearing deportation

[Judi Lynn]

Muslims in America flee to Canada, fearing deportation
By SAM STANTON and EMILY BAZAR
September 25, 2003


In the shadow of the Ambassador Bridge, 24-year-old Sohail Rahim is waiting for a yellow Checker cab that will ferry him into Canada, where he hopes to start a new life.

Again.

Two years after he fled persecution in Pakistan and carved out a life of freedom in Dallas, he is fleeing the United States and the fear of the FBI coming for him.

"I loved Dallas," Rahim said, standing along a bleak Detroit street with all his possessions stuffed into two large rolling suitcases.

But the fear of being deported back to Pakistan for an immigration violation is too severe for him to risk staying in the United States. He already has spent five days in a Detroit jail, housed with criminals because he showed up at the wrong immigration counter in Canada by mistake and was turned back to America, where immigration officials held him because of his expired visa.
(snip/...)

http://www.nbcactionnews.com/kshb/news/article/0,1925,KSHB_9418_2297483,00.html

[mddemo]

1. immigration

So these guys are worried they will be deported as they are here illegally, thats rich, i dont get what part of here illegally these guys dont understand. As a legal immigrant it annoys the hell outta me that i had to jump through hoops and lay down a fortune in order to emigrate here, whilst people jump the queue. OOps hes on an expired visa, still illegal.

[w13rd0]

2. The article talks about their leaving because they fear being...

...persecuted for immigration violations, NOT "being illegals"...

You know, the "immigration violations" Ashcroft is making up to lock up people with swarthy skin...

[mddemo]

3. violations

so having immigration violations dosent mean that they are now in fact here in violation of the law. My take is if you are here illegally then you have no right to complain if your ass is on a plane back home. I worked hard to come here and it pisses me off when people try to work the system, kinda like me working to buy a house, just to have someone move in one day and say its mine.

[Bridget Burke]

4. Welcome to the USA!

You seem to have assimilated nicely.

In this quotation on another thread you sound almost native born: "My wife is pretty happy with her rights, shes got a better education than me, better job. and as to my not making it into your mainstream order, kinda reminds me of a certain gentlemen that my forefathers fought back across Europe, i now understand the term Feminazis, thanks".

The point of the article is that minor immigration irregularities are now being treated more harshly than formerly but enforcement is not consistent. Fear of sudden deportation is making people emigrate to Canada. Often these are educated people--the kind who formerly would have gotten a good immigration lawyer & begun the process to make everything kosher (as it were).

[Muddleoftheroad]

7. According to the article

His visa expired. That means he is here illegally, not just something dreamed up by Asscrack.

[Frederic Bastiat]

5. Obviously you know nothing about Canadian immigration

Read up on it, you just might learn something. They don't have an illegal immigration problem up here because as soon as you violate any immigration laws its sayonara, you're on the first plane outta here.

Nary a day goes by before a Canadian daily reports these deportation incidences, trust me it happens a lot more than in the States where you have illegal immigrants wandering around with impunity heck even buying property and securing employment.

[LeftistGorilla]

6. No secret....

Started the day after 9/11...
If I remember correctly...most were muslims originally from Pakistan and Iran...

[varun]

9. Canada is no haven for illegals...

http://www.globeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20030822.wpaki0822/BNStory/Front/

Canada arrests 19 Pakistanis on immigration charges

Associated Press


Toronto — Canadian authorities arrested 19 Pakistanis on immigration charges after a seven-month investigation found they may have posed a threat to national security, officials said Friday.

The 19 men, aged 18 to 33, were arrested in a pre-dawn raid on Aug. 14 in Toronto, Royal Canadian Mounted Police spokeswoman Michelle Paradis said.

The intelligence arm of Canada's immigration department drafted a document after the men were arrested that said most entered Canada as students from Pakistan's Punjabi province and faked documents to keep their immigration status.
....

[Jack Rabbit]

8. Next, young Americans will flee to Canada

. . . fearing being drafted to fight in the PNAC Wars.

[shrike]

10. It's not deportation we should be worried about

If someone hanging out in America illegally, fine, send them back. I don't have a problem with that. What I don't like is holding them for weeks, months at a time without access to an attorney or any redress. Nightline did a piece not long ago about a Syrian man whose VISA had expired. He had lived in this country for several years -- his daughter had grown up American -- so he appealed. His lawyer assured him that all he'd have to do during the appeals process was to sit tight and wait. He was taken into custody during one of Ashcroft's sweeps and held for months without access to family, the media, or even his attorney for a while. His wife and 16-year-old daughter were also held for a time in a windowless cell.
The man was finally released after someone in the Justice Department decided to do the right thing. That person was fired the next day.