Technicality over an earlier marriage an impediment.
By Deepak Chitnis
WASHINGTON, DC: A New Jersey teenager is pleading with US immigration authorities not to deport her father, who has been taken into custody for being in the country unlawfully.
Thirteen year-old Noora Ferdoucy, of Elmhurst, New Jersey, is the daughter of 54 year-old Wadud Mohammed, who is being held at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention center in Hudson County, NJ. Mohammed is married to a US citizen named Ferdoucy Akhtar, and his daughter, Noora Ferdoucy, is also a citizen herself. But Mohammed is in danger of being sent back to Bangladesh due to at least two technicalities that only recently surfaced.
The Queens Chronicle reports that in addition to being here illegally since he first came to the US in 1994, Mohammed may also still be married to another woman in his home country. If that marriage is indeed valid – which Mohammed has denied, blaming it on a clerical error – it would nullify his marriage to the US citizen, and be grounds for deportation.
Since being in the US, Mohammed not only started a family, but a small business, which is also in danger of collapsing in his absence. The irony is that Mohammed’s current plight would never have even been an issue if he hadn’t come forward on his own. That’s right – the only reason Mohammed is in jail right now is because in January, he wanted to come clean so that he could apply for a green card, and become a legal permanent resident after 20 years.
Now, Ferdoucy and her mother are appealing to the ICE to grant Mohammed a humanitarian reprieve from deportation. To help them, they’ve hired Indian American attorney Naresh Gehi, who has been fighting their case in public forums to get Mohammed released and reunited with his family.
The clock is ticking, however. ICE has already reportedly tried to put Mohammed on a plane, but the deportation attempt failed because the pilot, adhering to the Ethical Standards of International Pilots, would not fly Mohammed against his will. Mohammed’s health is also said to be declining; he is apparently in need of an operation to treat an enlarged hernia, but ICE is allegedly blocking all attempts to get him treated.
On top of all that, Mohammed has accused ICE officials of physically harassing him, saying that he has been “tortured” and roughed up by the staff at the detention facility. These claims have not been addressed by the ICE.
As Gehi fights to free a man who wants to be American, Akhtar and Ferdoucy struggle to survive now that their primary source of income has been taken away. Complicating matters is that Ferdoucy, who is in seventh grade, has said that she is unable to concentrate on her schoolwork, which could put her at academic disadvantages if the case is not immediately resolved.
Gehi told the Queens Chronicle that he has been trying to work with political leaders and Congressional Representatives to get the word out there about Mohammed’s plight, but there doesn’t seem to be much interest in the case – a disturbing sign, especially if Congress is to be believed when it says that immigration reform, especially pertaining to undocumented immigrants, is a top priority.
However, New York Congressional Representatives Grace Meng and Joe Crowley are reportedly helping the family out, and so is New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, all of whom are Democrats. Crowley, in particular, has long been a friend of the Indian and South Asian diaspora in the US.
Meanwhile, Mohammed’s green card application is still officially pending.