Family: Pakistani immigrant unjustly held
They, advocates say detention is evidence of racial profiling
A week after a Muslim immigrant re-entered the United States with a student visa and found himself detained by federal officials, family members and community activists on Monday called for action against what they consider a pattern of racial profiling by the U.S. government.
Mohammad Sarfaraz Hussain, 23, a citizen of Pakistan who grew up in the Arabian Gulf nation of Bahrain, arrived on July 3 at HobbyAirport. He had a student visa that did not expire for another five days but was detained without apparent cause, said his sister, Shahla Shahnawaz.
“They interrogated my brother for four hours, confused him and made him sign documents that he didn’t understand,” said Shahnawaz, adding that she is a naturalized citizen and was in the process of sponsoring Sarfaraz to become American.
Sarfaraz was arrested by the Customs and Border Protection agency and placed in the Immi gration and Customs Enforcement’s Core Civic detention center north of Houston, where protesters gathered outside with signs calling to “unite the families now” and “Injustice for one is injustice for all,” among other messages.
‘Fell on the ground’
His sister said she “fell on the ground” when an officer told her on the phone that her brother was going to be deported. She said it was “totally unexpected.”
She explained that Sarfaraz went to Mexico and came back because “that’s the advice a lawyer gave him to extend his visa. That he needed to leave and reenter” the country to complete the visa process, she said.
Immigration authorities said they have clear grounds to deny entry to Sarfaraz.
Sarfaraz “confirmed under oath that he never attended school and that he was illegally working in the United States,” said ICE spokesperson Tim Oberle in Houston. “Both are violations of the terms of his nonimmigrant visa.”
“Conditions for maintaining a valid F1 student status require that the visitor be enrolled in a degree-seeking program at a college or university,” the CBP said in a statement.
Shahnawaz said her brother was studying computer science and took a semester off due to financial hardship.
The family is now represented by the Quan Law Group, a firm specializing in immigration in Houston.
“This person just got poor legal advice from people who don’t know what they are doing, sending (Shahnawaz) to go and re-enter from Mexico,” said Gordon Quan, managing partner and co-founder of the firm.
“Every time (a non-citizen) person goes out and comes back to the country, immigration authorities have the right to review the case and make a decision” about it, Quan said. “This could happen even if you are a green card holder or permanent resident.”
‘A grave injustice’
Community members at the protest said the immigration administration policies are racially profiling immigrants of color.
“It’s a grave injustice that somebody with a valid visa is treated and intimidated like that,” said Dona Kim Murphey, founder of the Pantsuit Republic Texas who is a resident of Houston. “This is the way communities of color are being treated by this administration; this isn’t just a Hispanic problem; it’s affecting all communities of color.”
The country is “only talking about the separations at the border, but families are being separated everywhere” with the no-tolerance immigration policies from President Donald Trump’s administration, Murphey said. She is concerned that “Asians are not getting traction in calling attention nationally about their immigration struggles.
The detained student was placed in expedited removal proceedings.