Visa 'overstays' don't fit stereotype

Published: Dec 10, 2006 07:55 AM
Modified: Dec 10, 2006 07:55 AM


By Patrick Winn, Staff Writer

CARRBORO -- The illegal immigration debate inevitably conjures Hispanics creeping across a desert.
But Sima Fallahi, an Iranian-born Carrboro mom now facing deportation, arrived the way roughly one-third of America's estimated 11 million illegal immigrants do: She entered legally and didn't leave when she was supposed to.

Fallahi, 48, is one of 3.6 million estimated "overstays," according to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

They're unlike typical border crossers. This group tends to have more money, better schooling and comes from nearly every nation, said James Johnson, a UNC-Chapel Hill immigration expert.

"They don't fit the stereotype of an illegal immigrant," said Johnson, president of the Urban Investment Strategies Center. "They're diverse. They look more like America. They're more likely to blend into society."

More than just fitting in, Fallahi became a Carrboro fixture. A single mom, she joined the PTA at Carrboro Elementary, where her 10-year-old American-born daughter is in fifth grade. She even had her artwork displayed in Town Hall.

Mayor Mark Chilton, state Sen. Ellie Kinnaird and a handful of locals have rallied to keep Fallahi in Carrboro. On Tuesday, the town's Board of Aldermen discussed drafting a resolution supporting her.

Fallahi is now in the Mecklenburg County Jail. U.S. Rep. David Price, a Chapel Hill Democrat, has asked Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff to keep Fallahi there so that her daughter can easily visit.

Any trial would likely take place in Atlanta. "We're keeping close tabs on the situation," said Paul Cox, a spokesman for Price.

Overstays arrive on tourist, business or, as in Fallahi's case, student visas. The terms are clear: applicants are expected to return home after a certain period.

Homeland Security, acknowledging more than 160,000 annual visa violations, announced earlier this year it would do more to find and deport overstays.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement wants to expand a call center in Vermont that offers local police 24-hour access to offender information.

That's how police caught Fallahi, who never renewed a student visa issued in 1985.

After applying for a business permit at the Chapel Hill Police Department to sell art, a routine background check turned up her "final order of deportation" status.

Last year, more than 6,000 visa violators were arrested, according to Homeland Security.

But flaunting visa terms is still far too easy, said William Gheen, president of the Raleigh-based Americans for Legal Immigration Political Action Committee.

"If there's a terrorist in the world who hasn't exploited the lack of immigration enforcement yet, they're probably too stupid for us to worry about," Gheen said.

"The 'go home' aspect of immigration is something we have to work on," he said. "People around the planet know there's a fire sale in America."

Of the six Sept. 11 hijackers who actually flew the planes or were apparent leaders, two had overstayed visas, and one secured a student visa but never showed up at school, according to the U.S. Government Accountability Office.

Acquiring visas has become more difficult since the attacks, Johnson said, but U.S. policy has yet to find the right balance between security and a need for talent.

According to the nonprofit Institute for International Education, student visas are a huge part of the solution.

"We always benefit from having access to the world's best brains," said Allan Goodman, the institute's president. "The Arabs invented algebra, astronomy. Who's to say the next Egyptian we enroll doesn't discover the vaccine for HIV/AIDS?"

Last school year, nearly 565,000 foreign students attended American colleges, according to the institute.

Fallahi originally planned to return to Iran, according to a 1998 application for asylum.

"I was hoping that while I was getting an education in the United States, the government might change," she wrote. "Then I would return to my country to be a productive citizen."

Now, having had a child out of wedlock and having converted to the Unitarian faith, she fears she will be jailed or even killed if she is deported to the fundamentalist nation.

http://www.chapelhillnews.com/106/story/4138.html