Desi family needs help?

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I received thsi in email, I will post it fior everyone. I do have some questions here but will post those seperately.

Asalaam Alaikum.

Now that the fantastic May 1st March for Immigrant Rights is over, I am asking for your help to keep an undocumented Pakistani and Muslim family united. Syed Mujahid, the father of the family, has a hearing in immigration court this coming Thursday, May 11. We are asking both individuals and organizations to write letters of support ASAP. You can simply email or fax the letters of support to me. The Mujahid family’s attorney and I will forward them to the judge.

You have likely read about this family’s story a few years ago, either on the front page of the Chicago Tribune or Chicago Reader. The Mujahids were caught up in the federal government’s disastrous Special Registration program, and simply wanted to stay here to give quality medical attention to their daughter Tooba, who suffered from cerebral palsy. After quick organizing from the South Asian and Muslim community, the federal government allowed the family to stay. However, just two months ago Tooba passed away and the family is left with little recourse. This family has been through so much and showed guts, love and determination by speaking out. Separating the father from his wife, his other daughter and the resting place of Tooba would be immoral, especially for a family that has been through so much.

We are asking individuals and organizations to please complete these letters of support and either email or fax them to me ASAP (all information is attached).

Thank you.

Mehrdad Azemun

You can read the Chicago Tribune story here: http://www.aaiusa.org/news/must_read02_8_03.htm
You can read the original Chicago Reader story below.
<<Mujahid_letter_of_support.pdf>> <>

–
Mehrdad Azemun
Senior Organizer
Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights
36 S. Wabash Ave., Suite 1425
Chicago, Illinois 60603
tel 312/332-7360 x14
fax 312/332-7044
web http://www.icirr.org
email [email protected] mailto:[email protected]

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Re: Desi family needs help?

Okay here are my questions. First of all lets call a spade a spade. its notundocumented, its illegal immigrant, whether its because someone got here through illegal means or overstayed his or her visa.

Secondly, if the family was here for the treatment of their daughter and the reason for their stay is sadly no longer valid i.e. she passed away, why not go back? I mean the preimse here was that they came here to get her treated. I would be the first one in a line to shout for support had she still been alive, and needed treatment and they were expelling the family.

This may sound extremely cold, but they could have moved the body back to their home city in home country and moved back. I really dont understand this well.

My fear is that by mobilizing community to speak up on cases where the premise seems a little questionable, it would turn into a cry wolf so when someone who really is in a jam needs help either people will be too tired of this or authorities would be so used to getting letters that they just would not have an effect.

would be interested in your views

karrain, keejiye, karriye...
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Re: Desi family needs help?

totally 100% agree.

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Re: Desi family needs help?

so they are only deporting mujahid (husband) but not the remaining family? how's that working out?

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Re: Desi family needs help?

No clue, maybe the rest of the members were in status or maybe he is the only one who got caught and had a deportation case against him.

Fact remains, whatever and however he was caught is irrelevant. He was illegal and purely on humanitarian grounds his request to stay for his daughter's treatment was approved. But she has passed away now. So the basic reason claimed earlier is no longer in play.

It seems a little off, and seems a little desperate by making something an issue which really should not be or should not have been an issue. I know several people who passed away here and their families had their bodies flown back and buried in the home country.
I dunno.

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Re: Desi family needs help?

I agree.
If the sole reason for being here was cerebral palsy......which I would like to know more about anyway because from what I know there isn't much in the way of "treatment" or "cure", just therapy to improve the quality of life.....and this child has now, sadly, passed away, then the need to remain here is gone.
Go home.

If your family has become accustomed to a certain lifestyle now, then by all means, go back and apply for immigration on merit. Surely you will be approved.

Finally......the crux of this argument is not whether they will get to stay or not.....it's the impact of supporting such cases when clearly there is no more "humanitarian" background. If desi communities get into the practice of taking up such causes then, as Fraud mentions, legitimate cases will suffer.

My two cents.

and yeah, yeah, I know it's easy to say that since I have landed status and I don't have to go back......

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Re: Desi family needs help?

US cents or canadian ones cuz if they are canadian ones they are not quite 2 cents ya know

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Re: Desi family needs help?

I see no problem with the case. If he wants to stay, Desi community needs to help him out. I know many Desi American would cry law and law but it really does make sense to help someone in need. Many of you and other came here for better future and if someone wants the same, there is no harm in it.

I think the Immigration laws are very outdated. They all want money, if you have money you can stay and that's it. They really need to show some heart and accept people on their will to stay and start a better life. These so called 'illegal aliens' if allowed to stay will go find work, send their kids to school and start a better life. What's wrong with it? Remember just few decades ago, African Americans were not allowed to drink from the same fountain. It was a law, people spoke against it and did the right thing.

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Re: Desi family needs help?

I think i agree with you 100% here.

I hope they are not expecting big islamic organization to come forward and support them because thats not going to happen - as far as i think.

PTI’s Hamid Khan Stands with Dogar Group
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Re: Desi family needs help?

It does make sense to help someone in need, but is this really a need or a want? It was a need when his daugter was going through treatment, they needed to be here to be with her and to provide her with the attention and treatments she needed.

Now its a desire, a want, a wish to stay in this country, but thats not what they said earlier. This is a different situation and a different scenario, their lawyer seems to try and place this current situation on the coat tails of the previous situation and utlize the momentum of that sympathy to get the client a favorable result.

There are many other people who want to be here, and they try legally. There are desis working their butts off in companies to try and get ther H1 converted into a green card. tons of them, and in many cases their employers know this and take advantage of it by paying them on the lower scale for that job, or intentionally giving them projects where they will spend more time and work more hours. I am all for supporting them and making life easier for people who want to go through the legal route.

If a US citizen sponsors his sibling from Pakistan for immigration, the process takes a decade, but thats what it takes and people live with it. I am all for fixing that process and making it faster for families in need. People getting here with one reason or another and then getting out of status and then it becoming an issue is a whole different situation.

People come here for temporary stays, whether its visit or whether its education, those who choose legal routes to begin their process of becoming residents and citizens have my full support and I agree the process for them needs to be made faster and easier but for cases like these I dont know.

The gentleman can go back, and apply for immigration on the basis of need, skills, persecution or whatever and will have my support in getting a fair and fast assessment of his situation, needs and skills etc in comparison with the other pool of applicants and then live with whatever the outcome is.

Why give people who are out of status or illegal a preferential treatment compared to those who played by the rules?

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Re: Desi family needs help?

So what if he want to stay? He is not going to kill anyone.... Yes, according to the 'Immigration Laws' he needs to go back and try from his country but as I said the current laws are very unfair and make really no sense. All it is to basically exploit the immigrants whether they come here legally or illegally or some how over stay/ loose their status. Common word, exploitation. These laws need to be changed and we need to speak against it. What's wrong if we or the community that he is living in, tries to help him out in anyway to stay here, even if he wants to. There is nothing wrong with it.

I admire people who live here legally and get their status but life is not straight and if you know anything about U.S visa system, it has money written all over it. If you can afford to pay double tution fee, you can stay here as a student. Now how many Desi family can afford it? Very few, others with their kids who want to study can't because they don't have the money. Is this their fault if they want to stay here and study, work or start a better life? Definatly not, than why should we become and obstacle to it. Let's help'em out.

You cannot judge or question the ethics of illegals who live here, they work too, even harder. It's just that they are poor. We should accept people on basis of their will to work and have a better future. That's what everyone wants...opportunity.

Our parents lived even tougher life, did they ever say that 'Hey kid, you need to go through exactly what I've been through.' No, they want their kids to have better life. We need to do the same, speak out and do something to help our community.

You are not giving any preferential treament to illegals by accepting them, you are just making their life easier. They don't have the same 'playing field' as most of us. So we really can't say they will get the better of us.

In this case, right now, yes he should got back according to 'law' but I don't agree with the current U.S Immigration Laws so I'll tell my Desi buddy to fight till the end or the community to help him out.

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Re: Desi family needs help?

Why help this person over others? just because he has a sad tale? everyone who wants to move here, or well almost everyone has some need. What makes this person's needs so important that entire community gets mobilized?

I am all for helping community, as a matter of fact had supported the same gentleman earlier when he wanted t extend his stay to be with his daughter during her treatment.

I am not convinced of the argument or case here. I am also not convinced that this case needs community mobilization. This case needs to be reviewed by the same set of rules that every other applicant has to face.

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Re: Desi family needs help?

Sure, you have your own way of helping people. You believe that some other person is more eligible for the help. Great...help them out. Also, its great that you help him out personally when you thought it was the right thing to do. What I am trying to say that his 'will' to stay is not wrong. His 'wish' for a better future is not bad...either we participate or not that's our choice but, helping him won't hurt the community or anyone else.

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Re: Desi family needs help?

I have 2 concerns

  1. community activism fatigue- if teh community is called upon very frequently for very borderline type of cases, at what point do they get tired of it
  2. Starting some mass community wide movement in cases like these could devalue the effort, so when a serious case or issue is at hand, and community is out in support en masse, do they people get so desensitized to it that they say ..oh yeah these ppl start letter campaigns at every small thing. I am not even going to bother.
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Re: Desi family needs help?

Yes, if you do activism at every simple or sigular incident, there will be a fatigue but I think as a organizer you should look at the whole picture. What part of Immigration Law you disagree with? What is that you or your activists want to accomplish as a unit that can help the mass? Does this qualify as the 'goal' if not is it a part of it? Even if you look at from the legal point of view, I think its unfair to send him back. There should be some law or way for aliens to help them stay here not just marriage or kids. I think that law sends the bad message. If we put 'will' and 'hard work' into the equation, we would see very few marriages on basis of green card. Just immigrants working, studying and marrying when they want to and who they want to. I think you can collectivly argue that the system deals with immigrants unfairly.

About the effectiveness and fear of loosing it in the mainstream is a very valid point. That's your decision, you really don't want to loose the 'voice' among Americans so yes if you find a better 'case' than this that qualifies than prefer it, but in any case the bottom line is unfair laws that are meant to exploit immigrants whether they come here legal, illegal or loose their status. We can and should argue about reforms.

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Re: Desi family needs help?

it comes down to needs and wants.
he "wants" to stay ..... nothing wrong with that at all. we all want to stay.
It's how he's going about achieving his "want'' that we take issue with.

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Re: Desi family needs help?

Please elaborate on ‘going about achieving’ and your ‘issue’ with it. I think that majority of illegals who come here are basically desperate because they don’t have the money to get the visa legally or stay here legally. That’s why we see so many illegal workers that get expolited on daily basis.

I think the problem is the law not the person, his will or want. If anyone is staying, he/she is going to work for America, live here, pay tax and expand economy. Living illegally is no fun at all.

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Re: Desi family needs help?

Firstly, I know very little about the law. So I cannot argue on that basis.
What I do know is that if cases like this are fought by "communities" there will come a point when the "community" will no longer have credibility.

My comments in this thread are not directed towards the general "illegal" population. We are talking about a specific example where a family is abusing the system.

And regarding the "he/she is going to work for America, live here, pay tax and expand economy" --- anyone that is so keen to abuse the system to begin with is not going to prove to be the "upstanding citizen" that you want to make him/her out to be. Most people that work, work for themselves and their families. If given a choice, 99% of them would not want to be paying taxes and would give a damn about the economy. People are generally short-sighted and selfish -- it's nature.

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Re: Desi family needs help?

Would you believe a little over 1.90 cents US right now?

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Re: Desi family needs help?

dyamn boayyyyyyy