Crying Children Have Become The Faces Of War Against Immigrants

LAWRENCE, KS — This is what the battle lines in an immigration war — and it is a war, according to families who have been ripped apart by tough Trump administration policies — look like: Syed Ahmed Jamal, a law-abiding chemistry professor in Lawrence, Kansas, was getting ready to take his kids to school last month when immigration agents arrested and hauled him away. They didn’t have a chance to hug him goodbye.

Jamal, 55, who legally came to the United States from Bangladesh 30 years ago on a student visa, won a slight reprieve Monday after weeks of legal wrangling. He was on a plane to Bangladesh when the Board of Immigration Appeals granted a temporary stay of removal just after 4:30 p.m. and was pulled off the plane when it stopped in Honolulu, Hawaii, to refuel. His attorneys have filed motions to return him to Kansas City so his case can continue; however, the exact timing of his return is unknown.

But his shattered family, who don’t understand why he was targeted under policies ostensibly aimed at deporting dangerous criminals, remain anxious in an atmosphere of fear for hundreds of families like them. Jamal and his wife, Angela, also of Bangladeshi origin, have three children, ages 7 to 14.

America would be no safer if Jamal is removed, but his deportation would throw his family’s life into disarray and Jamal into peril. He provides the family’s only income.

Taseen, the oldest of the children, described some of the family’s anguish in a change.org petition to stop the deportation.

“My little brother cries every night, my sister cannot focus in school, and I cannot sleep at night,” he wrote. “My mother is in trauma, and because she is a live organ donor, she only has one kidney, so the stress is very dangerous. She could die if he is deported. If my father is deported, my siblings and I may never get to see him again.”

And, he wrote, deportation carries great risk for Jamal. As a U.S.-educated, liberal secular Muslim who is a member of the Bihari ethnic minority — the Stranded Pakistanis who have been persecuted since the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War — he “likely would face persecution or even death at the hands of radical Islamic extremist gangs back in Bangladesh due to his liberal and secular writings and postings on social media publications,” Taseen wrote.

“We are the children of Syed Ahmed Jamal, and we are requesting on behalf of our family for your kind help to get back our father,” he wrote. “A home is not a home without a father.”

Naheen Jamal, 12, says she’s like other kids from American families.

“I’m a normal 12-year-old with a dad like everybody else’s dad,” Naheen Jamal, his daughter, told The New York Times’ Nicholas Kristof. “I don’t understand why this is happening.”

Neither do the people in Lawrence who know the Jamal family. Family friend Marci Leuschen, who set up a crowdfunding campaign on GoFundMe to raise money for legal expenses, told the Kansas City Star that Department of Homeland Security officials seemed to be in a rush to get Jamal out of the country.

‘SOMETHING’S NOT RIGHT’

“I’d like to know how much taxpayer money has been spent to expedite his removal,” Leuschen, a high school teacher in Lawrence, told The Star. “Anytime (law enforcement) has to fly someone around and rush things this way, something’s not right.”

Jamal obtained his first visa in 1987, and he used it to obtain a graduate degree in pharmaceutical sciences. He voluntarily returned to Bangladesh for a short time, then came back to the United States on an H-1B work visa for highly skilled workers to do research at Children’s Mercy Hospital in Kansas City. He applied for another student visa and enrolled at the University of Kansas to pursue a doctorate in molecular biology, but never completed it and the visa expired.

Jamal was taken into custody by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in 2011 after a court found he had twice overstayed his visas, but the Obama administration exercised discretion and granted him — and other immigrants similarly situated — a temporary work permit that was good as long as he made regularly check-ins with immigration authorities. Jamal made his last check-in on Jan. 7, and nothing about it raised alarm

But on Jan. 24, ICE agents were waiting in his driveway. Jamal was held in a Missouri jail pending deportation hearings and appeals, which failed to resolve his situation. He was flown to El Paso, Texas, last weekend to await deportation.

Jamal led the kind of life in Lawrence that makes communities stronger. He volunteered at his kids’ schools and coached students in science and sports. He ran for the school board. He helps his elderly neighbors keep track of their prescriptions and helps them with their weekly shopping. On a professional level, he has participated in life-saving research at Children’s Mercy Hospital in biochemical genetics and oncology, and currently participates in community education in diabetes prevention and blood-pressure management.

“The truth is, the country needs more neighbors like Syed — always willing to go out of his way for others,” local pastor Eleanor McCormick wrote for CNN. Her church, Plymouth Congregational in Lawrence, is leading a grassroots effort to support Jamal and his family.

A FAMILY DIVIDED

A spokesperson for ICE offered a chilling warning to other families in similar situations in a statement to The Washington Post. The agency “continues to focus its enforcement resources on individuals who pose a threat to national security, public safety and security,” the statement read, but “does not exempt classes or categories of removable aliens from potential enforcement” if a judge has signed off on deportation orders, as happened in Jamal’s case.

“All of those in violation of the immigration laws may be subject to immigration arrest, detention and, if found removable by final order, removal from the United States,” the statement said.

President Trump said after his election that he intended to deport 2 million to 3 million undocumented immigrants with a focus on those with criminal records. Just days after taking office, he signed an executive order that said, in part: “Many aliens who illegally enter the United States and those who overstay or otherwise violate the terms of their visas present a significant threat to national security and public safety. This is particularly so for aliens who engage in criminal conduct in the United States.”

In a 2017 fiscal year-end report, ICE said it had arrested 143,000 immigrants — 110,568 after Trump’s executive order, a 42 percent increase over the same period the previous years. Of those, 92 percent had criminal convictions, pending criminal charges, were immigration fugitives or were attempting to re-enter the United States illegally, the agency said.

Jamal doesn’t fall among the majority. Except for a spattering of speeding tickets, his criminal record is clean. One of his attorneys, Rekha Sharma-Crawford, said Jamal’s case is foreboding for other immigrants and based on what she and his other legal representatives believe was a flawed ruling in 2011.

“If we allow flawed orders, which would never be tolerated in any other legal proceeding or in society in general, to be the basis of removing a beloved father, husband and community member, it is a bigger threat to the system than this one case,” Sharma-Crawford said in a statement. “To tear apart a family and drag them out of a country after having such meaningful ties, is a tragedy, plain and simple.”

Jamal’s attorneys want the Department of Homeland Security to recognize the legal issues at play and make the temporary hold on deportation orders permanent, but whether that will happen remains to be seen.

“In the meantime, a family remains divided and his wife and children struggle every day without him,” she said. “This is another American story turned into a nightmare by the current divisive climate regarding immigration. It sends a false message that immigrants are criminals and detrimental to America.”

Image: Kansas City Star photo via GoFundMe, a Patch promotional partner