Thread: Ala:Former SP runner faces deportation

Imad Mohammad (Center) talks with Spain Park track coach Michael Zelwak and a teammate during the 2008 Class 6A state track meet.
Former SP runner faces deportation

By Chris Megginson (Contact) | Shelby County Reporter

Published Tuesday, January 27, 2009

A former Spain Park track and field captain and his mother sit in a Jena, La. jail cell facing deportation.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents posed as Hoover police officers when they detained Imad Mohammad, 18, his mother Sana, and father Mohammad at their Hoover home Jan. 12 at 6:30 a.m.

The three were picked up on warrants of an invalid visa, while Imad’s five brothers and sisters were left behind, including 17-year-old brother Amin, a Spain Park offensive lineman.

The family was allowed one adult to return home as guardian of the five children and decided that Mohammad would return in order to run his Hoover cell phone business to pay the bills and provide for the family.

Imad is housed in a cement-floored, cinder blocked-room of 93 prisoners.

“I’m being told they’re just going to hold me until they find a place to deport me or until 90 days are up, and they have to let me go,â€

[quote]“The government is under perfect rights to let them go under supervised release until we find a country that will take them, which history has shown probably will not happen — especially with five U.S. children citizens,â€