Supreme Court to Decide Fate of Iraqi Woman (Ashcroft Alert)

[Whoa_Nelly]

Supreme Court to Decide Fate of Iraqi Woman

Young Married Mother Faces Deportation to Baghdad, Iraq

DETROIT, Oct. 29 /PRNewswire/ -- This Friday, October 31, 2003, the
Supreme Court will decide the fate of an Iraqi woman. Najwa Bakal, a native of Baghdad, Iraq and the mother of two minor children who are United States citizens, has petitioned the Court to grant her application for certiorari after an unsuccessful appeal before the Sixth Circuit. If the application is denied, Bakal will face immediate deportation.

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The petition alleges she was denied her constitutional due process rights because she never had an opportunity to appeal an immigration judge's finding that she was removable. The judge determined she was removable and entered an in absentia order. The order was in absentia, or in her absence, because Bakal, who had appeared at two of her previous immigration hearings, failed to appear at her final hearing due to a misunderstanding.

The petition raises substantial issues pertaining to an alien's due process rights. The Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) provides aliens with a chance to appeal such determinations by an immigration judge, but Attorney General John Ashcroft and the Immigration Naturalization Service (INS) have relied on regulations to contest an alien's right to such an appeal.

Kenneth Hardin, a Detroit immigration attorney who represents Bakal, has seen a significant rise in the number of Middle Easterners facing deportation. Bakal's other attorney, Nedra Campbell, suggested that "this is just another example of Ashcroft and company enforcing immigration laws to deport Middle Easterners like Bakal."

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