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| July 11, 2005 | Monday | Jumadi-us-Sani 3, 1426 |
Pakistanis continue to face 9/11 fallout
WASHINGTON, July 10: Pakistan and Bangladesh top the list of the countries whose citizens were targeted for deportation since the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States, show the most recent statistics released by the Department of Homeland Security.
“In terms of the percentage of growth, Pakistanis and Bangladeshi are the highest,” says Aarti Shahani of Families for Freedom, a New York-based immigrants’ advocacy group. “Mexicans and the Central Americans, however, continue to be the largest ethnic groups targeted for deportation because of their sheer numbers. They outnumber all other immigrant groups in the US.”
Data released by the DHS in their immigration statistical yearbooks show that during the last seven years more than 1.2 million immigrants have been deported. Most of them were from Mexico which shares a long border with the US and provides bulk of the immigrant work force.
Before 9/11, Pakistan and Bangladesh were not even among the top 12 immigrant groups who regularly faced deportation. But after 9/11, when Muslims became prime suspects for terrorist attacks, the situation changed drastically.
Ms Shahani, however, warns that this alarming situation is not shown in the statistics released by the DHS. “The statistics are deceptively low because they do not include voluntary departures while many immigrants facing deportation proceedings agree to go home voluntarily after spending some time in prison,” she said.
For instance, in 2002, 1,444 Pakistanis were selected for deportation but official statistics show only 812 deportations. Majority of them chose to go home voluntarily and many were sent to Pakistan by special flights.
Similarly, in 2003 as many as 4,083 Pakistanis were selected for deportation but the official data shows only 828 deportations. In 2002 also, the majority agreed to go home and many were put on special flights.
The statistics further show that voluntarily departures increased drastically after 9/11. For instance, 481 Pakistanis were selected for deportation in 1999 and 403 were actually deported. Similarly, 440 Pakistanis were targeted for deportation in 2001, mostly before the terrorist attacks, and 346 of them were deported.
According to the statistics, most of those selected for deportation before 9/11 were shown as deported but in 2002, only 812 out of 1,444 were shown as deported while almost half were voluntary departures. The voluntary departures increased manifold in 2003, when 4,083 were selected but only 822 were shown as deported. The majority chose to go home voluntarily.
The Pakistani Embassy in Washington also played a key role in arranging voluntary departures. Embassy officials regularly visited US jails after 9/11 and helped convince Pakistanis inmates to go home rather than staying in prison and wasting their hard-earned money on litigation while the end result was still going to be deportation. The Bangladeshis faced a similar situation.
But even these “deceptively low” statistics show a clear bias against the Pakistanis, says Ms Shahani who worked with a large number of immigrants in Jackson Heights, New York. Among those targeted for deportation, there were more Pakistanis than Arabs although all the suspects in the 9/11 hijackings were Arabs, said Ms Shahani.
She observed that in some cases in Jackson Heights, there were Pakistanis and Afghans living in the same building and sharing the same businesses and yet when immigration officials came, they went for the Pakistanis, sparing other ethnic groups. “Pakistanis are overwhelmingly more targeted than Afghans and Arabs, probably for political reasons,” said Ms Shahani.
She noted that since 9/11, there had also been a growth in the number of people selected for deportation for criminal offences, such as credit card frauds.
Advocacy groups like Ms Shahani’s Families for Freedom are also protesting a proposed bill that, they say, would suspend constitutional right of an immigrant against habeas corpus for the first time since the Civil War. The right against habeas corpus protects all people – citizens or non-citizens – from illegal detention.
Critics say the Real ID act, which is supported by the Bush administration, would permit the Department of Homeland Security to deport immigrants without basic protections against illegal deportation. The act, they say, would also allow the department to police borders without regard to domestic labour, environmental and other laws.
The groups say the proposed law would make it compulsory for those seeking driver’s licence to prove their lawful immigration status to the Department of Motor Vehicles. Besides, they say, immigrants who are not US citizens or permanent residents would get an alternative driver’s licence.
The Real ID Act, which is now being negotiated by a House-Senate conference committee, will also make it much harder for those fleeing political and religious persecution to find refuge in the United States. The act, its critics say, will further empower bounty hunters to detain even those foreigners whose status in the country has not been determined.
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