Canadian passport 'meant nothing' to U.S. immigration officials
CBC- Jan 13, 2003

SAN JOSE, CALIF. - Protests are growing in the United States over a new anti-terrorism measure that requires all foreign nationals of Muslim origin to register and be fingerprinted.

Since December more than 500 people who showed up to register found themselves detained for visa or other violations. Among those caught up in the anti-terrorism measures are Faramarz Farahani and his family.

The Farahanis, originally from Iran, moved to the U.S. from Toronto two years ago, lured by a six-figure salary that Farahani was offered as database manager for a big software firm.

But on Dec. 19, their comfortable life was shattered. "I decided to register on my own. That was my decision," said Farahani.

On his way to work that day, Farahani decided to stop in at the local office of the the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service. He had heard that foreign nationals with ties to the Middle East had already lined up to be registered and fingerprinted. And he wasn't sure whether, as a Canadian, he needed to join them.

When Farahani walked into the INS office in San Jose, Calif., he found out he was two days late registering. Within hours he was handcuffed and shackled in leg irons.

"They ignored the fact that I am showing them a Canadian passport." Farahani said being a Canadian "meant nothing to them."

At home, Farahani's Canadian wife Judy Shum got a phone call from her husband. She says she still can't believe what had happened. "I have seen this kind of thing happen in repressive regimes in other places 20 years ago," she said. "So this is very shocking to me."

Later that same day, Farahani and two other Canadians in a similar situation were flown to a grim prison near San Diego. They were held for five days, crammed with 12 other prisoners into a tiny cell.

"Have we been physically tortured there? No. Did they let us sleep properly? No. Did they feed us properly? No. So they tried to push the limit as much as possible."

Five days later, Farahani's attorneys were able to get him released.

Banafsheh Akhlaghi is a lawyer who represents more than a dozen detainees. She says her clients are being persecuted by U.S. authorities. "The only crime they committed was the crime of being born in the Middle East," said Akhlaghi.

This month the INS registration process that brought about Farahani's detention is being extended to foreign nationals with ties to just about every Muslim country.

Protests against the detentions are growing, but the complaints are not justified according to INS officials. They say they are just trying to make the U.S. safer from terrorism.

"We feel that is an important goal. The American people want us to do that and they have told us through the mechanism of Congress," said INS spokeswomen Sharon Rummery.

Faramarz Farahani is back home, but facing a deportation hearing in the near future.

After what he's been through, he says the prospect of returning to Canada has never been more attractive.
 

Source: http://cbc.ca/stories/2003/01/13/farahani030113