Ben Sangari, once powerful British citizen, now sits in detention, awaiting deportation

By Phil Fairbanks | News Staff Reporter
October 15, 2014 - 6:38 PM

There was a time not long ago when Ben Sangari rubbed elbows with the likes of Bill Clinton, Colin Powell and Rudy Giuliani.
Clinton went so far as to write a letter in 2009 thanking Sangari for taking part in the Clinton Global Initiative and suggesting his presence at the annual meeting “symbolizes an unwavering dedication to empowering our communities and building a stronger future for the world."

Five years later, Sangari finds himself in a far different venue – the federal detention center in Batavia, where he is awaiting deportation to the United Kingdom.

A British citizen and native of Iran, Sangari, 53, admits he overstayed his authorized time here as a non-immigrant visitor, but thinks the government’s response has been heavy-handed. He was supposed to leave in August.

“They intend to make an example of me,” he said during a phone interview this week. “What I’m unclear of is how that example is going to help the community I was going to live in.”

Since his arrest during a routine traffic stop in Amherst last month, Sangari has fought his deportation.

He and his longtime partner, Arlita McNamee Sangari, a Buffalo native, went so far as to get married while Sangari was in custody in Batavia. They celebrated their 10-day anniversary on Wednesday.

“The decision is heavy-handed, akin to whipping a 4-year-old with a switch for failing to clean up their toys,” said Matthew Kolken, Sangari’s immigration lawyer.

In Kolken’s eyes, deportation is an extreme punishment for a man whose only violation was overstaying his visa waiver by a few weeks. The Visa Waiver Program allows citizens of specific countries, such as the United Kingdom, to travel to the U.S. without a visa for stays of up to 90 days.

Kolken is also quick to remind anyone who will listen that Sangari is a respected businessman and philanthropist, a man prominent enough to earn a seat on the board of the Eisenhower Foundation in Washington, D.C. Colin Powell is chairman of the organization’s board.

Even more important, perhaps, he is known for helping to create the Sangari Active Science Program, an interactive digital science curriculum for elementary and junior high students. The Brazil-based company behind the idea later fell on hard times, and Sangari was forced to sell it to investors.

“He’s a self-made millionaire and a self-made former millionaire,” said Arlita Sangari. “He lost his company and his fortune."

After years of traveling the world looking for new business opportunities, they returned to Buffalo, where Arlita was raised and still has family. They decided to settle here and get married and, over time, developed a proposal for an urban farm on Buffalo’s East Side.

Arlita says they raised $150,000 from friends and family with the intention of buying a building on Archie Street and harvesting their first herbs and salad greens by January. Those plans are now on hold, she said.

“We love the idea of doing something green, sustainable and, of course, profitable,” she said. “We’re giving back to Buffalo but Buffalo is also giving back to us.”

Immigration officials would not comment on Sangari’s case except to confirm the details of their decision to remove him.

They acknowledge that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement had sole “prosecutorial discretion” in the case and, in the end, thought it best to deport Sangari. They also noted that, under the visa waiver program that allowed him to come here, Sangari was subject to mandatory detention.

The final decision to deport Sangari was made, not by an immigration judge, but by Michael T. Phillips, ICE’s field office director in Buffalo.

“As a recent visa overstay, his case is a priority under the agency’s current enforcement strategy, which focuses on individuals who recently violated the controls at the border, at ports of entry, or through the knowing abuse of the visa and visa waiver programs,” said ICE spokesman Khaalid Walls.

For Kolken, the government’s stance is, at best, an overreach.
His client has no criminal record or any other blemish in his past, he said, and yet his punishment is deportation from his adopted home, the country where his new wife still lives.

Kolken claims the government’s general policy is to allow “visa waiver overstays” like Sangari to apply for green cards if they marry U.S. citizens. He wonders why his client was denied that option.

“Ultimately,” he said, “it is the City of Buffalo that is being punished, as our community has just lost a dynamic individual who intended to contribute to our renaissance.”

Even now, weeks after his arrest, Sangari thinks he’s being made an example of something, but exactly what, he’s not sure. He thought it might be the fact that he’s a native of Iran, but he admits that would be pure speculation.

He also wonders why he is being deported when the federal agents who interviewed him, not once but twice, left him with the impression that he should be allowed to stay.

“When they finished the interview, they stood up, shook my hand and said, ‘You’re the type of person we should want to keep here,’” he said.

In an 11th-hour appeal to Phillips, the local ICE official who ordered Sangari removed, Sangari’s wife recently sent a letter asking him to reconsider.

“As a U.S. citizen, you are taught to believe that you belong to this country, that you are protected, that you are free,” she said. “When I think about what my experience has brought me in the United States, it feels very far from free.”

Arlita says her family – her mother, father and brother are still here – has been torn apart by the government’s decision to deport her husband. She vowed never to leave his side again and indicated, if necessary, they would leave together for the United Kingdom.

“We’ve been together through thin and thin as we like to say,” Arlita said with a laugh. “There’s no way we’ll wait in separate countries."
She’s hoping the government will give them another choice.

 http://www.buffalonews.com/city-regi...ation-20141015