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1) York organization sends volunteer to visit Farouk This morning (2/20/03) CHRI contacted CIRCLE (Coalition for Immigrants'
Rights at the Community Level), a local grassroots organization,
and they immediately got a volunteer to go see Farouk. Here is the
report from CIRCLE: My volunteer just came back from the prison. She said that Farouk
was very chatty! He must have been happy to have some contact from
the outside. He is housed in IEB-15A. He arrived at York at about 3PM yesterday afternoon. INS told him
that prison doesn't allow him to have his own clothes so they took
all his clothes from him in the INS office. He wasn't able to bring
all of his underwear from NJ because he had just washed some. They went through his papers and took his foreign language documents
and said they would have to be cleared by the deputy warden. He has
not been given his meds since yesterday morning. You may want to have
his attorney call the medical department at the prison. The main number
is 717-840-7580. [This was taken care of later.] He apparently was very happy to see our volunteer and called her
Gabriel because she is like the angel who always brings good news.
Hope this helps. ==================================================================
2) AP 2/20/03 story on Farouk's transfer Detained Palestinian activist transferred to Pa. jail By WAYNE PARRY Associated Press Writer February 20, 2003, 3:26 PM EST NEWARK, N.J. -- The U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service
transferred a detained Palestinian activist from a New Jersey jail to one
in Pennsylvania. Supporters of Farouk Abdel-Muhti claim Wednesday's transfer was
retaliation for his role in leading a hunger strike by detainees at the
Passaic County Jail in Paterson. They also say sending him to the York County Jail, about two hours
west of Philadelphia, will make it more difficult for his lawyers
to pursue a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Newark challenging his
continued detention and demanding he be allowed to remain in the
United States. "This transfer interferes with Farouk's constitutional right to
legal representation," said MacDonald Scott, one of several lawyers helping
Abdel-Muhti challenge his detention. "The removal so far from the venue where
his case is being heard goes against his due process rights." Abdel-Muhti is suing the government, claiming it has been holding
him longer than its own standards permit. He also claims that as a
stateless Palestinian, there is no nation to which he can legally
be deported. The case is pending. Ben Jacob, a spokesman for the Newark INS office, said the agency
"routinely, for administrative purposes, moves detainees." He declined
comment on the claims of Abdel-Muhti's supporters that the transfer
was punitive in nature. Abdel-Muhti was arrested in April 2002 on the basis of a 1995 deportation
order. The arrest came a month after he began working with a New
York radio station, WBAI, to arrange live telephone interviews with
Palestinians in the West Bank. Last month, Abdel-Muhti and five other detainees in the Paterson
jail carried out an eight-day hunger strike to protest conditions
there. Five of the detainees were transferred to the Hudson County Jail
in Kearny, where they claim conditions are better, including the granting
of contact visits. But Abdel-Muhti refused an offer to be moved there,
instead demanding his immediate release. Copyright (c) 2003, The Associated Press -------------------- This article originally appeared at: http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/ny-bc-nj--palestiniandetain0220feb20,
0,4967151.story Visit Newsday online at http://www.newsday.com ========================================================
3) Philly Inquirer 2/16/03 story on Farouk and other
detainees Subject: Philadelphia Inquirer | 02/16/2003 | Many detainees still
not charged X-URL: http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/5193612.htm
___________________________________________________________________
Posted on Sun, Feb. 16, 2003 Many detainees still not charged They were picked up after 9/11
for immigration reasons. N.J. jails hold many who, by law, should be free
now. By Gaiutra Bahadur Inquirer Staff Writer They came twice, before dawn, for Farouk Abdel-Muhti. The vendor from Queens, N.Y., was not at home the first time. The
second time, police and federal agents hauled him away in handcuffs,
he said. That arrest launched Abdel-Muhti on an odyssey through New Jersey's
county jails that, nine months later, has not ended. After Sept. 11, 2001, hundreds like him - men from the Middle East
and South Asia with immigration problems - found themselves in the
same place: behind bars in the Garden State. Rounded up in waves after the terrorist attacks, most have been
deported. But others are still being held, although they have not been charged
with any crimes. Some have been detained longer than a U.S. Supreme
Court decision allows in most cases once someone has been ordered
deported. Abdel-Muhti and five others at the Passaic County jail stopped eating
for eight days last month in protest. Five asked to be moved to the
Hudson County jail, where Plexiglas would not separate them from visitors
as it does in Passaic County. Abdel-Muhti demanded to be released. The Immigration and Naturalization Service ultimately moved the
five. But Abdel-Muhti, a Palestinian activist and the leader of the hunger
strike, was still in an 8-by-10-foot cell in the Passaic County jail
last week. Convicts surround him. A spokesman said he was being kept apart
from other INS detainees because he had coerced some into complaining about
conditions. Before the hunger strike, Abdel-Muhti was in a dormitory reserved
for INS detainees. It is only the most recent jailhouse depot for Abdel-Muhti, who
has not been charged with a crime. He began his journey at the Middlesex
County jail. Two days after protesting conditions there, Abdel-Muhti found himself
in a Jeep, a gun in his face, on the way to a "cage" in Camden County,
he said in an interview. He spent three days in solitary confinement
there. The trailers in Camden reserved for detainees gradually emptied
as the INS deported one after another. But Abdel-Muhti stayed put - until
he complained again. Next stop, Passaic County. "I'm not going to pay my life here - to pay like the Japanese Americans
did," he said. "Why I have to pay nine months? Why I have to pay
for one day?" Abdel-Muhti, 55, was born in a village in the occupied West Bank.
He crossed into the United States from Mexico in 1976. His son, Tarek,
is a U.S. citizen. Immigration officials say Abdel-Muhti defied a 1995 deportation
order. He contends that, as a Palestinian, he is a stateless person who
cannot be deported. He is suing the government in federal court for his
release. The U.S. Supreme Court in 2000 ruled it unconstitutional to hold
detainees ordered deported for more than six months unless there was
"a significant likelihood of removal in the reasonably foreseeable future."
And most Palestinians ordered deported have been released, said
David Cole, a law professor at Georgetown University in Washington. "They're not citizens of Israel, and there's no such thing as a
citizen of an occupied territory," Cole said. "Many Palestinians don't have
anywhere to go." The court decision applies only to those already ordered deported.
It covers Abdel-Muhti and another hunger striker, Saleh Hamze, 31,
a nightclub manager from Queens, sentenced to probation for fraudulently
using someone else's cell-phone account. Fourteen months ago, Hamze was at his pregnant wife's side in a
hospital when his probation officer summoned him. When he arrived, the INS
arrested him. His first child, Aliyah, was born soon after. Hamze first held her
in his arms this month, as prisoner No. 133854 at the Hudson County
jail. The Passaic County jail was cold and the food terrible, he said.
But little of that mattered. He stopped eating, he said, because
Plexiglas at the jail kept him from hugging his newborn. For more than a year, Hamze has resisted being deported to Lebanon.
He said a terrorist group would kill him if he returned. But a judge
ordered him deported in June, and another rejected his appeal in December.
There is no limit on how long a detainee can be held if not yet
ordered deported. Yet - before Sept. 11 - most foreigners were released
while judges considered their cases unless they were deemed dangerous or
a flight risk, said Cole, the law professor. "With 9/11 detainees, the government has essentially reversed that
and said, 'We're going to lock you up and presume you're dangerous,'
" Cole said. "It's unconstitutional. They've abused the immigration authority
to lock people up." The percentage of detained noncriminals from South Asia and the
Middle East who have been held for more than a year rose from 6 percent
in September 2001 to 11 percent last September, according to the INS. The Newark and Philadelphia districts lead the nation in the number
of long-term detainees. The reason is the supply of prison beds for
rent, said Kerry Gill, an INS spokesman in Newark. The immigration crackdowns took place largely in New York City,
and many arrested ended up at the York County jail in Pennsylvania and in
New Jersey. Since Sept. 11, DRUM, a community-based social-justice organization
of South Asian immigrants, has visited about 200 detainees in New
Jersey. Half are still in jail. "In many cases, they had to fight for bond hearings," said Namita
Chad, a DRUM organizer. "Even when the INS did grant them bond, it
was high. They couldn't afford to pay it, and they've stayed in jail
for months." Abdel-Muhti's case has become a cause celebre, with a Free Farouk
Committee and a documentary filmmaker behind him. But most detainees are anonymous. They were waiters, cabdrivers
and deli workers who overstayed visas. Gill declined to discuss specific cases, but said those denied bond
or parole could appeal those decisions in immigration court. Hamze's case has not collected dust, but he has languished in jail.
He has been afforded due process, but he cannot afford to continue
his legal fight. "I lost already," he said. "I lost everything. They hurt me a lot.
They broke my family." _________________________________________________________________
Contact staff writer Gaiutra Bahadur 856-779-3923 or bahadug@phillynews.com.
========================================================
4) Farouk's greetings to the 2/8/03 NYC fundraiser Thanks and greetings. I am incarcerated under the Ashcroft Plan
and Homeland Security, which are using the INS as a base of operations against
thousands of Middle Eastern, South Asian and Muslim detainees held
in jails all over the US without any criminal charges--people who are
abandoned, dispossessed and humiliated in dirty jails. INS detainees
are not criminals; we are all victims. The majority came here as students
or workers to build this country, not to destroy it. In my own case,
last month I was on hunger strike for eight days to protest my situation.
Afterwards they kept me isolated for 11 days before they moved me back
into the dorm; then, three days ago, they moved me into an eight-by-10
two-man cell, taking some of my papers and personal effects. Now they say
they are planning to move me to another jail. I appeal to you for support,
to send letters protesting my treatment. To me, Bush's rightwing policies
are solely in the interest of the international corporations. His war plans
against Iraq are not just to get oil but to gain economic control over
the entire region. It is very clear now that Bush is identified with Israel
and the rightwing Likud Party and is taking money from US taxpayers to continue
massacres in Palestine and destroy the infrastructure there. Israel is a
central base of action for the US in the Middle East, and its policies are
parallel to the US plans to invade Iraq. The tie between imperialism and
Zionism is now clear. We oppose the US sending its children to war, just
as we oppose the killing of the people of Iraq. And at the same time that
people here will suffer from the war, they continue suffering from the economic
downturn. I want to express my thanks to and solidarity with my brother
Roger and my sister Lynne, and my thanks to human rights and legal organizations
fighting for the detainees. Left and progressive forces need to stay united.
Our struggle is not about race or religion--it's against exploitation, oppression
and the big corporations. We demand the release of all political prisoners.
We support the struggle of the Cuban people, and demand the release of
the five Cuban prisoners and an end to the embargo. We support the struggle
of the African American people and demand the release of Mumia and all the
other African American prisoners. We support the struggle of the indigenous
people and demand the release of Leonard Peltier. We support the struggles
of Latinos and demand the release of the remaining Puerto Rican independentistas.
We need to impeach Bush, who is like the Roman emperor Nero, fighting for
an empire while his country collapses. We must not return to the days of
McCarthyism or of the internment of Japanese Americans. No war on Iraq!
Free Palestine! La lucha sigue, y venceremos. Farouk Abdel-Muhti Passaic
County Jail February 7, 2003 =========================================================
After an Entire Year, Farouk is well known in the new York activist community for his work on a variety of issues, including Palestinian self-determination, immigrant rights, and a hlat to the bombing of the Puerto Rican island ofr Vieques. In March of this year, Farouk began working regularly at the local Pacifica radio station, WBAI-FM, arranging interviews with Palestinian splkes people at a time when the israeli military was invading West Bank cities and towns. The INS arrested Farouk on April 26. Farouk's legal team is working to have Farouk released pursuant to the Supreme Court's 2001 decision in Zadvydas v. Davis, which limits detentioin to six months for most immigrants facing deportaiton. But public pressure is likely to be the decisive factor in freeing Farouk. We need to tell the government:
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