EDITORIAL: The U.S. government is in a hurry to deport Kansas chemist Syed Jamal

Reprinted from The Kansas City Star

March 9, 2018

THE U.S. GOVERNMENT  is determined to deport Lawrence scientist Syed Jamal back to his native Bangladesh, loaded onto a flight shackled and handcuffed.
Due process and the rule of law appear to be of lesser concern.

The Department of Homeland Security has asked the Board of Immigration Appeals to lift the stay that is keeping Jamal’s feet planted on U.S. soil, although in this case that means locked up at the Platte County jail at a cost to taxpayers of $169 a day. Now, the government wants his case expedited.

The goal appears to be to send him back to his native Bangladesh as fast as possible — even before he has the opportunity to plead his case at a March 20 hearing in the Western District of Missouri.

The government’s March 2 motion argues that Jamal’s not likely to win his appeal. And, that it is the U.S. government, not Jamal, who will be “substantially” injured if the stay isn’t lifted because the public interest is in the finality of immigration proceedings.

Jamal, the government says, “will not be irreparably harmed.”

Essentially, the government’s stand is that being sent back to Bangladesh, ripped away from your wife and three children and stripped of ties to work and community that have been forged over 30 years is a trifling matter.

That’s not how Jamal’s case is viewed by the thousands of Americans who’ve been outraged by the effort to deport him. For many, his story has offered a peak at an immigration system that many assumed was orderly and fair. Instead, they’ve been shocked by the decision-making regarding immigrants and the cruelty in the system’s lack of regard for family.

Now, the well-liked chemist has the support of some of the top legal minds in the region. The law firm of Polsinelli is on board, offering three of its top litigators and additional staff pro bono.

Most immigrants do not have that kind of leverage. They live in fear of this system without legal counsel. But even high-end legal firepower might not make a difference for Jamal.

Polsinelli’s attorneys are helping with a private bill that has been introduced in Congress by U.S. Reps. Lynn Jenkins and Emanuel Cleaver. But the Trump administration notified Congress last year that such pleas would no longer halt deportations until the bills could be addressed or allowed to die without a vote.

Rekha Sharma-Crawford, the attorney handling the bulk of the immigration work in Jamal’s case, filed a response to the government’s motion with the Board of Immigration Appeals Friday. The fear is that the board will make a decision and Sharma-Crawford will not be notified in time to make a legal counter move.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement included an additional rationale in its request to swiftly deport Jamal. His travel documents might expire.

“This isn’t who we are as a nation, Sharma-Crawford said. “The preservation of the rule of law and the preservation of due process both are under attack here.”

Indeed, if the government succeeds in quickly deporting the Kansas chemist, both Jamal and our faith in due process could be “irreparably harmed.”

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Professor's deportation halted half-way across the Pacific

Syed Ahmed Jamal's wife and three children.

ICE didn't waste anytime in deporting Syed Ahmed Jamal.

Jamal, a Kansas chemistry teacher, who is fighting efforts to deport him to Bangladesh, was whisked into a plane Monday (Feb. 11) as soon as the temporary stay against his deportation ended and before an appeal could be granted. He didn't even get a chance to say goodbye to his wife and three children.

His attorneys immediately filed an appeal but it took a few hours to get a judge to agree to another stay. By then, he was in the air on his way to Bangladesh when the appeal was granted. He was taken off the plane and placed in detention in Honolulu where the plane had stopped to refuel.

"Not much new development today," said Jamal's attorney Rekha Sharma-Crawford said Tuesday (Feb. 13). "Syed is still in the Honolulu Federal Detention Center."

Jamal, 55, has lived in the United States for 30 years, overstaying his second visa in 2011. He was arrested in his driveway Jan. 25 as he was about to drive his daughter to school.

Jamal's case has led to a massive outpouring of support from friends, neighbors and critics of Donald Trump's immigration policies. Jamal's supporters held a rally Saturday protesting his pending deportation.

Jamal's supporters emphasize that he has committed no crimes during the time he has lived in the United States.

They say his case is an example of how the recent crackdown by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has swept up law-abiding immigrants, despite Trump's initial promise that deportations would target dangerous criminals.

Republican Rep. Lynn Jenkins introduced a bill Tuesday would provide for the "relief" of 55-year-old Syed Ahmed Jamal.

Sharma-Crawford said in a Facebook post that government attorneys have indicated they are coordinating efforts to bring Jamal  back home to the Kansas City area.
Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, D-Kansas, to whom Jamal's supporters appealed for help, said the case was an example of the country's "broken and unfair immigration system."

He pledged to offer a bill that would allow Jamal to stay in the country.

"The system is broken. We need to fix these laws that criminalize hard-working, contributing members of society like Mr Syed Jamal," Cleaver said.

Jamal has worked as an adjunct professor and researcher at Kansas City-area colleges. He entered the U.S. legally in 1987 to attend the University of Kansas but overstayed his visa while pursuing a doctorate. He was ordered deported in 2011 but had been allowed to stay in the U.S. and check in regularly with immigration authorities

(UPDATED Feb. 14 9 a.m. to include info on Jenkins' bill.)
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ICE policies target law-abiding immigrants, net college professor

Syed Ahmed Jamal and his three children.

IMMIGRATION AGENTS continue to go after the law-abiding undocumented Americans in their stepped up efforts to comply with Donald Trump's harsh immigration policies.

The latest case is Syed Ahmed Jamal, a Park University adjunct professor in chemistry, in Kansas City who was arrested Jan. 24 in his driveway as he was preparing to take his daughter to school.

Jamal arrived in 1987 on a student visa to attend Kansas Universityi, according to his wife. He returned briefly to Bangladesh and obtained an H-1B visa to work at Children’s Mercy Hospital. Then he returned to KU to pursue his doctorate, trading his H-1B status for another student visa.


In 2011, after Jamal’s visa status became invalid, he was given a “voluntary departure” order. The following year, an immigration judge ruled that Jamal was allowed to remain in the country, as long as he checked in with ICE regularly to maintain his work permit.

Despite Trump's claim of keeping America safe and going after undocumented immigrants who have committed crimes, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents are targeting immigrants who were granted supervised stays. This policy contrasts with President Obama's policy that gave less emphasis on immigrants such as Syed and instead focused their efforts on those with serious offenses. According to a Public Radio International story in May, about 2.5 million immigrants fall under this category and almost 80 percent have no criminal record.

The law-abiding immigrants who comply with instructions to report to ICE annually are easy targets for the agency. ICE know the whereabout of these immigrants, most of whom have been living in the U.S. for many years, have contributed to their communities and raised their U.S.-born children.

Cambodians in California, Sikhs in New England, Indonesians in New Jersey and New Hampshire, South Asians in New York or Mexicans living in the heartland, the low-hanging fruit have been swept up by overzealous ICE agents looking for quick and easy deportations.

Trump’s new immigration policies have targeted immigrants who were granted supervised stays. According to a Public Radio International story in May, about 2.5 million immigrants fall under this category and almost 80 percent have no criminal record.

As ICE agents placed handcuffs on Jamal, his daughter, a 7th-grade girl ran into the house to alert her mother and brother, while Jamal, a chemist, was handcuffed and led into a car. When his wife tried to hug him, an agent said she could be charged with interfering in an arrest, according to the Kansas City Star.

Jamal, a Park University adjunct professor in chemistry. Jamal, who received a doctorate in molecular, cellular and developmental biology from the University of Kansas, has been in the U.S. three decades. Besides teaching, he volunteers at his children's schools and even ran for the local school board. 

ICE officials released the following statement:

"Syed Ahmed Jamal, 55, from Bangladesh, initially legally entered the United States in July 1998 on a temporary nonimmigrant visa. After he overstayed that visa, a federal immigration judge allowed him voluntary departure until Aug. 26, 2002. He abided the judge’s order and departed for Bangladesh on July 24, 2002. Three months later, Jamal legally re-entered the United States on Oct. 25, 2002, on a temporary nonimmigrant visa. He again overstayed his visa, and a federal immigration judge allowed him voluntary departure until Oct. 26, 2011. However, Jamal violated the judge’s order and failed to depart the United States, and the voluntary departure order instead became a final order of removal (deportation)."

The ICE spokesman said federal immigration judges make final decisions “based on the merits of each individual case.”

Jamal’s family, friends and neighbors have rallied to support Jamal. They are hoping to persuade immigration officials to allow him to stay. A Change.org petition went up Feb. 2 Jamal's behalf, and it has since garnered more than 15,000 signatures urging ICE to grant him a stay of removal. He is now being held in a Morgan County jail in Missouri, according to the petition. Jamal, they argued, was the very sort of model citizen who should be allowed to remain in the country.

After decades of living the American dream, the Jamal family fears this is the end of that dream.

"People who don't do anything wrong shouldn't have to face things like this,” said daughter Naheen Jamal.

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Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/news/politics-government/article198215114.html#storylink=cpy