IP: Advise people to stay away if this is the norm

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Dave
This is from a friend of a friend. Please keep me anonymous if you
choose to post this. The terrorist attacks are an atrocity, but giving
broad powers to the INS and other organs of government seems to enable
abuses such as these, more than it enables any meaningful deterrence of
terrorism. Thanks...

 -----Original Message-----
 From Faisal Faruqi [<mailtoFaisal.Faruqi () oracle com]
 Sent Thursday, September 27, 2001 435 PM
 To indians_us; immigrate_us
 Subject [Fwd Harrasment]




 Masarrat Fareed-CFM015 wrote

 This is what heppened to my friend Usman Fazili's
 in-laws (Indian  [ NOTE INDIAN djf]
 citizens on visit visa) when they flew in to Philadelphia
 airport this
 week.

 Its relatively (that's the keyword) better to fly airports
 other than East
 coast and to fly on European airlines.


 -------------------------------------------------------------
 ----------


 I want to warn all of the people who are living in USA to ask their
 loved ones if they are planning to visit USA to delay
 their plans. What
 happened to us the last weekend is a pure harassment from INS.

 My in-laws were coming to see us from Malta. Both of them
 are doctors
 in Libya. They have visited us previously 4 times. They
 had 5 year
 multiple entry visa and on this visa they had travelled
 twice before. But
 when this time they reached the Philadelphia airport the
 INS termed them
 "National Security Threat" (father in law is in 60's and
 mother in law is
 in 50's). They were first interviewed by FBI who were
 very nice and
 professional. FBI cleared them but INS decided not to let
 these people in.


 So they were told that they are going to be deported. All
 of us dont mind
 this decision but what happened next has put my wife and
 me into mental and

 emotional trauma.

 (1) My father in law was handcuffed and his feet were put in
 shackles.
 (2) My mother in law was handcuffed too. When she
 tearfully said
 that she did not expected this, the officers remark was "We
 also did not expected lot of things".
 (3) They were separated from each other and put in
 jail cells. My
 mother in law with some shabby character females while my
 father in law with eqally bad characters. My father in law
 did not have the room or clean place to sit.
 (4) Both my in laws are hypertensive and my mother in law is
 diabetic. But no food was given to these people
 from 730 pm
 to 1030 AM next morning when my mother in law begged the
 officers for it.
 (5) Repeated requests of my in-laws to see or speak with their
 daughter were denied. At one point my father in law
 asked "Wont you let me see my family?" The answer was "At
 least your family is intact there are 7000 families who are
 not intact" (meaning victims of NY).
 (6) $800 were stolen from my mother in law who
 trustingly signed
 the papers when their belongings were returned to
 them. When
 she asked about it she was told "You have been playing mind
 tricks with us througout".

 This is what happened to them, now what happened to me and
 my wife is
 another story. We waited outside the international
 arrival door till 930
 pm (flight came 730 pm). My wife asked the British
 airways service people

 and they told her that her parents are with immigration.
 They made her
 talk to the INS office at the airport, my wife told them
 that if they have
 any questions they can ask her. At 1000 or 1015 pm I
 called again to ask
 what was going on and I was told that since I am not a
 blood relative so
 they cannot talk to me. I was told to put my wife on the
 phone. I guess
 this was done thinking that most of the eastern
 (especially Pakistanis and
 Indian women) dont talk English fluently so they can get
 away without any
 hassle.

 So they told her that her parents are going to be
 deported. She pleaded
 their case but to no avail. In the end she asked the officers and
 supervisors of INS to give her a chance to talk to them
 (as they said very
 strongly that they will not let them see her). The
 Supervisor on duty
 accepted it and asked her to call him after 30 minutes.
 She called but was

 asked to call back again after 30 minutes. After that all
 the phone
 circuits of the INS were made busy. We tried from 1130
 pm or so to 1230
 pm the number and every time got the answering machine
 that all circuits
 are busy. My wife finally pleaded to two police men at
 the Philadelphia
 airport. The afro american cop was the only one who
 showed compassion to
 us, he banged at the door of the INS and went in. After
 couple of minutes
 he brought the case officer out to meet us. This Nazi
 officer showed no
 remorse or compassion to my wife. After explaining in
 vague terms that
 there is something wrong with the visa of my in laws he
 said that he will
 let us talk to them over the phone if we will call. This
 Nazi gave us the
 same number which we were calling before. Upon objection
 from my wife he
 lied and told us to use pay phones instead of internal
 airport phones.
 Needless to say that from that time onwards we tried that
 number but were
 unable to get through. I dragged my wife back home and really felt
 helpless. In the night my wife called US Embassy in Malta
 and asked them
 about the problems with the visa. The Embassy called us
 back at 800 AM
 stating that they have gone over all the papers and
 everything is fine.
 The Counslar officers even gave his home phone number to
 us to pass to INS
 officer over here, so that they can clear the matter. But
 we were not able

 to get hold of anybody. Finally I called the
 congressman's office and
 somebody answered the phone. This nice person then took
 the whole report
 and called us after 30 minutes saying that somebody in INS
 is going to
 locate my in laws. Soon after that my mother in law
 called but she was
 only allowed to call for 1 or 2 minutes. After she told
 us that they are
 leaving at 600 pm flight. We asked her to give the phone
 number of the US
 counslar officer in Malta to the INS officer incharge.
 She asked for pen
 and paper from somebody who was standing next to her. We
 heard a distinct
 "NO", she then said "I have the pen can I at least get a
 paper", we again
 heard "NO".

 At that point phone was disconnected. We only heard from
 them when they
 reached Malta.

 This my dears is pure harassment. If this happened to my
 family today
 then it will happen to your family tomorrow. I hope this
 is not a message
 from INS "STAY OUT". I hope this is because of just few
 bad eggs within a
 big organization and will be purged by the department.

 I am planning to take some time off to stay home. I do
 not have internet.

 Wasalam,

 Usman Fazili







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