Immigrant at age 3 might be deported at 25 (to Afghanistan)

[rainbow4321]

http://feeds.bignewsnetwork.com/redir.php?jid=c30304605cfd379e&cat=11caa946bf11fe44

Ali, 25, has lived in the United States since he was 3. Immigration authorities, citing his criminal record, want to deport him to Afghanistan, the war-torn country he and his parents fled when he was 1. Ali said the worst crime he ever committed was having a few grams of marijuana, although that was not his only offense.

Ali knows very little about Afghanistan or the Afghan culture, has no friends or relatives there and can barely speak Farsi, his parents' native language. He worries that if he goes to Afghanistan, he'll be viewed as an American spy and persecuted. He also worries about leaving behind his 61-year-old mother, Saleha Ali, who has a variety of ailments and recently had surgery for breast cancer.

So far, U.S. courts and immigration authorities have denied Ali's appeals, mostly recently the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Jan. 11. On Jan. 18, the day he buried his long-ailing father, Najaf, Ali received a letter saying he would be deported. It didn't say when.

A 1998 conviction for possession of marijuana with intent to deliver was originally an aggravated felony, making him deportable, even though he is a legal permanent resident of the United States. U.S. citizenship would have provided him more protection, but Ali said he didn't know he wasn't a citizen until immigration authorities pursued him. His mother, who became a citizen in 1991, said she thought the status automatically conferred to her son.