IMPLICATIONS OF THE PATRIOT ACT ON NON-NATIONALS IN THE USA
Arrests, Detentions, Deportations and Denial of Asylum to Non-Nationals in the USA
The reports in this attachment concern actions by the U.S. Government after 11 September, specifically the effect of measures taken in the fight against terrorism and the implications of the PATRIORT Act on non-nationals from “Islamic” or “Arab” nations. These reports include actions by the U.S. Government to arrest, detain, deport, register, and deny political asylum under the PATRIOT Act and related Executive Orders and Operation TARMAC (Report 4.3).
The reports all appeared in the book, “Challenging U.S. Human Rights Violations Since 9/11” (edited by Ann Fagan Ginger for Meiklejohn Civil Liberties Institute, Berkeley, California, USA 2005). Each report alleges violations of ICCPR articles 1, 2 and 16, and additional articles listed at the beginning of each Report. The Report numbers correspond to the report numbers in the “Challenging” book. The sources of information are given in the notes at the end of each report; the numbers of the notes are from the book.
Report 1.1: Asylum Applicant Deported, Then Killed
ICCPR articles: 1, 2, 6, 9, 13, 16, and 17
On January 25, 1991, Ahfaz Khan entered the United States in San Ysidro, California, from Pakistan. On August 11, 1993, he filed his application for political asylum with the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS).
In his application, Khan reported that he “was harassed by Karachi police, who ransacked his house. ‘If I were to return back to my country, I know I would continue to be persecuted, harassed, abused and even put in jail on fake charges. I would not be safe in the country. The police don’t forget very soon when you report them to the authorities. They want to get even and they usually do’” (Louis Salmoe, “Deportation Becomes ‘Death Sentence,’” Palm Beach Post, June 8, 2003, p. 1–A).
It was not until July 12, 1995, that an Immigration hearing officer in Los Angeles received Khan’s application, and Khan’s original asylum hearing was scheduled for July 7, 1995. Khan didn’t know about the hearing because he had moved around and at that time was living in Boca Raton, Florida, so he was unable to attend. On the morning of February 8, 1996, an Immigration hearing officer ordered him deported in absentia.
On July 23, 1997, Khan’s wife, a legal US resident, filed a petition to sponsor her husband for a residency visa. The Khans were scheduled to be called for an interview on Mrs. Khan’s spousal visa petition on September 12, 2001. Then the September 11 attacks occurred.3
On January 8, 2002, officials arrested Ahfaz Khan in a post–September 11 Government sweep. On February 1, 2002, Khan was deported. His wife and two small children, US citizens, remained in the United States. On July 9, 2002, more than four months after he had been deported, his visa application was approved. Mrs. Khan was not interviewed until after her husband had been deported to Pakistan. The Immigration officials who interviewed her didn’t even know that Khan had been deported.
In Khan’s case, some Immigration officials knew that a visa was in the works for him, but nevertheless he was deported (Salmoe, “Deportation Becomes ‘Death Sentence’”).
A story dated September 12, 2002, stated that “the INS had deported over 750 people” with stories similar to Mr. Khan’s. “These are people the government could not and did not charge with any terrorist related crimes.”4
On March 26, 2003, Ahfaz Khan was murdered in the streets of his hometown in Pakistan, when he was close to receiving the documents necessary to return to the United States (Salmoe, “Deportation Becomes ‘Death Sentence’”).
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