Old article: Pakistani deported from America

Immigration crackdown shatters Muslims' lives

A plane filled with deportees provides a glimpse into an initiative aimed at men from Islamic nations. Justified in the name of security, it hasn't yielded a single public charge of terrorism.

By Cam Simpson, Flynn McRoberts and Liz Sly
Tribune staff reporters
Published November 16, 2003

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- The 75 passengers on the Icelandair jet sat strapped to their seats, cloth bands cinching their arms to their waists for all but the final descent of the three-leg, 20-hour flight.

Struggling to feed themselves, they spilled rice and meat onto the floor of the cabin. A trip to the bathroom required the escort of a federal agent.

After the plane screeched to a halt in the sweltering July heat, U.S. officials herded the men off the jet and onto the soil of their native Pakistan. The purpose of the flight: deportation. Why them? Their nationality.
Some of the men had been jailed for months before they were tossed out of America. Some had been convicted of crimes. All had been in the U.S. illegally. But the chief reason many were singled out is they were from one of the Muslim countries targeted by American officials trying to foil another Sept. 11.

One Justice Department initiative, first pitched primarily as a hunt for men from a handful of countries designated as state sponsors of terrorism, became an exercise in labeling tens of thousands of men from 24 predominantly Muslim nations as "high national security concerns."

"The message to entire communities--Arabs, Muslims and South Asians--is that you are suspect," Wishnie said.

The crackdown has set off an exodus from tightknit Muslim communities in the U.S., from the Pakistanis and Bangladeshis of Chicago's Devon Avenue to the Arabs of such cities as Dearborn, Mich. Even lawful residents have fled, fearing they might be next.

A few rows away sat Mohammad Akbar, 48, who had befriended beat cops and other customers over coffee at the 7-Eleven where he worked in suburban Philadelphia. He submitted in April to the administration's "special registration" for men from Muslim countries, only to be shackled before the afternoon was out.