...K P F T news

LEAD-IN BY HOST DAVID STILES: As the United States Department of Justice and the Immigration and naturalization Service continues to carry out raids rounding up accused visa violators, most of whom are of Arab descent, a Houston wife struggles to understand why her family has been torn apart. Her husband of eleven years was detained and deported from the U.S. within a 6-day period, leaving behind not only family, but business and all hope in American Justice. Here with the details is KPFT correspondent Bernardo Fallas:

STORY: 38-year old Yemeni national, Latafat Abdul Ghani, was apprehended last October 18 along with his brother and 68-year old mother on overstayed visa violations, as he prepared to go to work at their family-owned convenience store in southeast Houston. From Houston, he was transported to the Newton County Jail where he was held for 4 days along with other inmates of Arab origin. In an exclusive interview from London with KPFT, Mr. Ghani stated that during his imprisonment, he was told by an INS official he only had two choices to consider regarding his situation.

"They brought some papers either you will stay in the jail or stay just sign those papers and take the one in deportation then you have more chances to come back in this country and you buy your own ticket. He said take the voluntary departure the deportation you will stay in jail so I had no other option. It doesn't make sense to stay in the jail if I can't get out you know."

According to Mr. Ghani, he was told by an INS official that he did not have a right to a court hearing, since he had entered the country for the last time with a visa waiver; Mr. Ghani is a naturalized British citizen.

"They are doing this today to Arab people tomorrow they will do it to any other one. This thing should stop. This is not justice. This is not the law that you are following right now. I mean, huh, how people can live in fear? If you are living in fear you are not free. And especially from the government agents."

Attorney, Yanpin Yang, deals with immigration cases in Houston. She comments on disparities in treatment and enforcement of the law:

"There shouldn't be a difference between Arab natives or Chinese or Mexican. There shouldn't be. As far as immigration concerns, probably they have because of September 11th, there may be security concerns, but if they don't have any evidence that this person had ever had any connection to a terrorist group and basically the immigration law offers every Arab or Arab native the same rights or privileges as to the people from any other country."

Attorney Yang also stressed the importance of knowing why the INS has the authority and jurisdiction to carry out raids, which some see as persecution against certain nationalities or race.

"I haven't heard of any legislative changes so far, and maybe INS was enforcing some part of laws that were not or were loosely enforced before, but there hasn't been any significant changes as of yet. So far, as far as I know, there is no such law that ... INS gives you two options; either leave or be in prison indefinitely. When you talk about being in prison indefinitely, that doesn't sound constitutionally right."

Less than three weeks have passed since Mr. Ghani's apprehension. He has since departed voluntarily to London. There, too, he has had problems being allowed to stay, regardless of his British citizenship. According to Mr. Ghani, the British authorities have allowed him to stay for a 6 month period before being forced to depart.

Meanwhile, in Houston, his wife, who asked not to be identified for fear of retaliation, had these thoughts regarding her husband's deportation and its effect on her family.

Translates into English "They [INS] has torn a family apart. They have disunited a family. I have a daughter, I depended on him. Now, who will look out for us? No one! Because of this, I have lost my car, I have lost our business and I don't know what is going to happen with our house. I don't know where we are going to end up because where am I going to get money from the pay for all this. Right now, I don't work. I have lost my job because of this. Today I don't know what to do."

Mr. Ghani's wife and the couple's nine year old daughter now face financial and emotional instability, while hoping for a prompt resolution to Mr. Ghani's situation in London.

Bernardo Fallas, KPFT News, Houston

E-mail Bernardo Fallas at News@kpft.org .