[NYTr] Immigration News Briefs 7/31/04

[nytr at olm.blythe-systems.com]

Immigration News Briefs
Vol. 7, No. 31 - July 31, 2004

1. Census Gives Immigration Arab-Americans' Stats 
2. Somali Immigrant Broken Under Torture?
3. Filipino Mass Deport Questioned

Immigration News Briefs is a weekly supplement to Weekly News
Update on the Americas, published by Nicaragua Solidarity
Network, 339 Lafayette St, New York, NY 10012; tel 212-674-9499;
fax 212-674-9139; wnu at igc.org. INB is also distributed free via
email; contact nicajg at panix.com for info.

*1. CENSUS GIVES IMMIGRATION ARAB-AMERICANS' STATS 

In August 2002 and in December 2003 the Census Bureau provided
specially prepared population statistics on Arab-Americans to
what is now the Department of Homeland Security's Customs and
Border Protection (CBP) bureau. The first set of statistics
listed cities with more than 1,000 Arab-Americans. The second set
gave breakdowns of Arab-American populations at the ZIP code
level, sorted by country of origin: Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon,
Morocco, Palestine and Syria. The remaining Arab-Americans were
categorized as "Arab/Arabic" or "Other Arab." The Census Bureau
disclosed the practice in response to a Freedom of Information
Act (FOIA) request by the civil liberties research group
Electronic Privacy Information Center.
 
"The information is not in any way being used for law enforcement
purposes," CBP spokesperson Christiana Halsey told the New York
Times. "It's being used to educate the traveler." She said the
statistics help identify airports where signs and pamphlets
should be available in Arabic. Critics of the practice questioned
why CBP would need breakdowns of countries of origin for this
purpose. "What are they hiding? Why do they need this?" asked
Samia El-Badry, an Arab-American member of the Census Bureau's
census advisory committee. The Times noted that in 2000 the
Census Bureau "issued a formal apology for allowing its
statistical data to be used to round up Japanese-Americans for
internment during World War II." [NYT 7/30/04]
 
*2. SOMALI IMMIGRANT BROKEN UNDER TORTURE?

The Ohio chapter of the Washington-based Council on American-
Islamic Relations (CAIR) is seeking an investigation in the case
of Nuradin Abdi, a Somali immigrant charged on June 14 with
plotting to bomb a shopping mall. In a June 24 editorial in the
Columbus Dispatch, chapter vice president Asma Mobin-Uddin wrote:
"While in federal custody for seven months, Nuradin Abdi changed
from a normal person to a damaged human being for whom the court
ordered a psychiatric evaluation." Mobin-Uddin said those who
knew Abdi were shocked at his June 16 court appearance, in which
he was "twitching, laughing inappropriately, banging his head
against the table, making noises, speaking to himself and staring
strangely into space." [US Newswire 6/25/04; CD 6/24/04] 
 
An article by columnists Harvey Wasserman and Bob Fitrakis
confirms that family and friends were "horrified to see Abdi
enter the courtroom smiling vacantly and failing to recognize his
own brother." Abdi's "ghastly court appearance...underscored the
high likelihood that the Bush Administration used variations of
torture to break this impoverished Somali immigrant," wrote
Wasserman and Fitrakis. [Free Press (Columbus, Ohio) 6/21/04 via
commondreams.org] On June 24, the US Marshals Service flew Abdi
to the Federal Medical Center in Rochester, Minnesota, for the
court-ordered competency evaluation.
 
Abdi was "stripped of his identity" following his arrest on
immigration charges last Nov. 28, according to his San Diego-
based attorney, Mahir T. Sherif. Sherif told AP that Abdi was
booked into an immigration jail under the name "John Doe," and
denied visits from family. "His jailers addressed him as John Doe
and any correspondence he received was addressed to John Doe,"
Sherif said. [www.nbc4columbus.com 6/25/04]
 
Hundreds of Somalis rallied on June 16 in front of the federal
courthouse in Columbus, Ohio in support of Abdi; they say the
charges against him are unfounded and politically motivated.
[Free Speech Radio News 6/17/04] 
 
*3. FILIPINO MASS DEPORT QUESTIONED

The US government flew 89 Filipino immigrants to the Philippines
on July 23, presumably on a chartered airplane. The timing of the
flight led Senator Manuel Villar, chair of the Philippine
Senate's Committee on Foreign Relations, to ask whether the
flight was in retaliation for the Philippines' early withdrawal
of its 51-member military mission from Iraq, where it had been
part of a US-led occupation force. The Philippine government
moved up the withdrawal date from August to late July after
Filipino truck driver Angelo de la Cruz was kidnapped in Iraq;
his captors threatened to behead him if the Philippine contingent
remained.
 
Officials from both the US and the Philippines rejected Villar's
suggestion. "Deportation removal flights are not related to
recent developments on the Philippine troops' withdrawal from
Iraq. These are routine immigration procedures," said Ruth Urry,
assistant information officer at the US embassy in Manila. The
flights "have been going on since 2003. This is the eighth
flight," Urry said. [The flights began in 2002; see INB 6/29/02,
12/20/02, 5/10/03, 8/30/03.] Urry said these flights were
arranged with the cooperation of the Philippine and American
immigration departments and the Department of Foreign Affairs.
[Philippine Daily Inquirer 7/28/04; Manila Times 7/29/04; ABS-CBN
News 7/30/04]
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