Australian family caged, detained, starved and deported by US customs

[babylonsister]

Mercy dash family denied entry to US


Rachel Browne
January 25, 2009

http://www.smh.com.au/ffximage/2009/01/24/natl_38_rabbifamily_narrowweb__300x393,0.jpg
Deported . . . valid visas did not help the Rabbi family.
Photo: Adam Hollingworth



AN AUSTRALIAN family on a mercy dash to a dying relative in the United States were detained without food or water before being sent to a detention centre and forced to spend the night with criminal suspects. Their ordeal finished with them being deported.

Mr Fazle Rabbi, his wife, Rokeya, and their two sons, Rakin, 14, and Raiyan, 8, left Sydney on Tuesday, January 13 to visit Mr Rabbi's ailing 84-year-old father in Los Angeles.

However, instead of the emotional reunion they expected, the family was detained at Los Angeles International Airport by US Customs and Border Protection officers.

Over the next 24 hours, officers questioned the Thornleigh taxi driver and his aged-care worker wife, patted them down and searched their luggage before sending them to a detention centre in a caged van. They were then taken to a hotel with other detainees at 2.30am to sleep with armed guards by their bedside before being woken at 4.30am and put on a flight back to Sydney.

Despite being Australian citizens and having valid visas to enter the US, the family members claim they were singled out because of their cultural background, having immigrated from Bangladesh four years ago.

"They treated us like terrorists," Mr Rabbi said. "We are Australian citizens. Why did they have to keep us in a detention centre? Why did they have to lock up my kids?"

Mr Rabbi says that when he explained he was in the US to visit his father, the officers threatened him.

Despite producing the family's $6400 return tickets, dated February 5, he says the officers accused him of attempting to illegally stay in the US.

more...

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2009/01/24/1232471656805.html

[burythehatchet]

1. I feel ya bro

[LakeSamish706]

2. I would say that President Obama's new Homeland Security Secretary ....

has their work cut out for them with that Department.

[dixiegrrrrl]

6. btw..I lost track..what is the Pres. doing about DHS ? anythng yet?

[LakeSamish706]

7. I'm not sure if he has appointed yet or not, but this is who he wanted....

Gov. Janet Napolitano..... Anyone else know if their has been an appointment yet?

[dixiegrrrrl]

9. I wikied..she is head of DHS as of Jan. 21.

Let us hope.
Something tells me there will be considerable time spent looking for non-existent records, bills, receipts, etc.

[LakeSamish706]

11. I would almost be certain of that, as in most other Departments. n/t

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

3. Flying while Muslim

(Well, they LOOK Muslim). Sort of like Driving While Black.

[annabanana]

4. Sounds to me like a rilly big lawsuit.

Unconscionable.

[GCP]

5. God, that pisses me off

Arrogant bastards treating people like shit. No wonder we're hated around the world.

[gollygee]

8. Welcome to America!

DHS - doing their part to help the tourism industry!

(I wonder how many people choose to travel somewhere else after hearing about stuff like this.)

[varun]

10. Doesnt surprise me. Some on DU are talking about deporting all Green card holders

and H-1B / other workers.

Anti immigrant sentiments are on the rise.

[gollygee]

12. Really?

I'd have to move then - husband has a green card.

[LakeSamish706]

13. Question has to be, who do we as a country take care of first....

H-1B holders or American citizens? I say American citizens.

[Peace Patriot]

14. My God! The utter inhumanity of this makes me sick.

Why didn't they call his Dad? Why didn't they take him to see his Dad? Why didn't they check with Australian authorities? Why didn't they put them up in a hotel? What frigging nerve to deny entry to Australian citizens, with return tickets and an obviously humanitarian purpose, completely verifiable? I hope there is somebody in the Australian government who will raise holy hell about this! And I hope they sue, sue, sue! Can you imagine how terrified these people must have felt--and their children?! That happens to you--with Guantanamo Bay in the news, and secret U.S. prisons around the world--and you would likely fear you may never see your children again. I am so sick of this "Fatherland Security" nazism. This has got to stop!

X-raying suitcases I can take. Secret searches of suitcases I can take. Walking shoeless I can take. Lines, hassles, metal detectors, the constant threat of a strip search, I can take. I don't want to be bombed any more than the next person. But treating people like shit, because they're brown and poor, and aren't war criminals like Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld, and a whole busload of rich, privileged felons, who get treated like royalty, is DISGUSTING.

[babylonsister]

16. Makes me ill, too. This would give AUS a perfectly legitimate

reason to treat US tourists as terrorists. Maybe they should. Might raise a few eyebrows.

[Hawkowl]

15. Fire the LAX persons in charge

There will never be a better time to fire the managers in charge of customs, ICE, DHS, or the Hitler Youth or whatever they are calling themselves nowadays.

New administration, new ideas, NEW PEOPLE IN CHARGE. Fire them all.