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Article published Apr 9, 2006

Some immigrants watch issue debate
Leaders say many from Muslim countries fearful of speaking out.

SARAH KARUSH
Associated Press Writer

DETROIT -- Imad is an illegal immigrant, but his story is not the one being shouted from megaphones or dominating the debate on Capitol Hill.

The 35-year-old is not from Latin America and did not get here by crossing the Mexican border. He arrived from Jordan on a student visa in 1990 and never left, even though his visa expired in 1997.

As Congress debates whether to legalize undocumented immigrants or make it a felony to be one, Mexicans and other Latin American immigrants have been at center stage. They, their relatives and their supporters have taken to the streets for rallies in Michigan and across the country, chanting in Spanish and waving the flags of their homelands.

In contrast, Michigan's large Muslim and Middle Eastern communities have been mostly quiet during the debate, though many of their members, like Imad, could be deeply impacted by the legislation. Community leaders say immigrants from Muslim countries are fearful of speaking out in the post-Sept. 11 climate. But despite the lack of public demonstrations, they're watching the developments closely, with a mixture of hope and anxiety."Immigration is the No. 2 issue after civil rights," said Osama Siblani, publisher of The Arab American News of Dearborn. "Civil rights right now is what's keeping people from demonstrating."

Imad, who did not want his full name used, echoed that sentiment. "Everybody thinks we're terrorists," he said. "If we go have demonstrations, it's going to make it worse for us."

Many non-Arab Muslims say they feel the same scrutiny. "If you're illegal in this country and you're a Muslim, people are going to automatically assume that you're into fishy business," said Kazi Miah, a Bangladeshi community activist in Hamtramck.

Southeastern Michigan has an estimated 300,000 people of Arab descent. Another 100,000 Chaldeans -- Christians mostly from Iraq -- live in the area, community leaders say. The Bangladeshis, though smaller in number, are a highly visible presence in Hamtramck, where they, as well as Yemenis, Bosnians and others, have recently joined a more established Polish community.

Despite their impressive numbers, these groups had little presence at a mostly Hispanic rally over the legislation last week in downtown Detroit. A few representatives of the Arab Community Center for Economic and Social Services, or ACCESS, which has been lobbying on the bills in Washington, did attend.Though the bills in Congress are broad, the focus of the debate has been the country's estimated 11 million illegal immigrants. On Thursday, Senate Republicans and Democrats said they were nearing a deal on legislation that would offer a path to legal status and eventual citizenship for undocumented immigrants who have been here more than two years, though those here less than five years would have to briefly return home first.

In December, the House passed a much different bill, which would make it a felony to be an illegal immigrant or to assist one.

While the vast majority of undocumented workers in the United States are from Latin America, illegal immigrants come from every part of the world and all kinds of circumstances.

Immigration lawyer Lisa McGuire Ahmed said illegal immigrants in Hamtramck, a small city completely surrounded by Detroit, are typically people who arrive legally as students or visitors and overstay their visas.

In February, U.S. and Canadian authorities announced the arrests of 18 people accused of operating a human smuggling ring that charged Asian and Eastern European migrants thousands of dollars to send them across the Canadian-U.S. border on freight trains, in car trunks and in the cargo trailers of semi-trucks.Ahmed said she has been getting a lot of calls lately from people who have heard about the bills inquiring about amnesty.

One Bangladeshi immigrant and Hamtramck resident who spoke on condition of anonymity because of his illegal status said he is hopeful that the legislation will offer him and his family, who arrived in 1987, a path to legal status.

"Then again when you see the other side saying they want to lock the people up for working ... and find the employers, that kind of scared me," said the 25-year-old restaurant worker, whose case is pending in immigration court.

The government started deportation proceedings against him and his family after they complied with mandatory registration for immigrants from certain, mostly Muslim, countries following the 2001 terrorist attacks.

Ilham Georjis, a Chaldean who arrived from Iraq in 2002, is hoping the legislation will help reunite her with her son.Georjis, 60, of Farmington, came to the United States on a visitor's visa and petitioned for asylum, but her request was denied. She said her husband had been active in the Kurdish movement under Saddam Hussein and was assassinated. She and her son fled to Jordan, where they both applied for visas to the United States, but her son was denied.

Georjis said her son, who was 15 when she left and just turned 19, is monitored by the Jordanian government because he is Iraqi and was arrested for two days following the November hotel bombings in Amman. He cannot work, so she sends him money she earns sewing clothes.

Taleb Salhab, national outreach director for ACCESS, said his organization supports legalizing undocumented workers.

But his group is also concerned about many other provisions in the bills. One provision, for example, would deny citizenship to a legal resident who gave money to a charity it believed to be legitimate but that the U.S. government later designated a terrorist group, Salhab said. Another would speed up the deportation process for people with even relatively minor convictions, denying them a full hearing and access to counsel, he said.