Dream trip to America turns nightmarish for Kazakh visitors
Monday, August 11, 2008
By Daniel Malloy, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Despite it all, Zhanat Davletov still adores America.

From behind a Plexiglas screen in cell block 1-C of the Allegheny County Jail, Mr. Davletov smiled and laughed last week, recalling happier days.

He and two friends came from Kazakhstan last summer, a year shy of finishing college, to make some money and see the place they had dreamed of since childhood.

The dream turned sour in April when they were arrested for shoplifting. They have spent the last four-plus months in jail, ensnared by a pair of slow-moving bureaucracies -- immigration enforcement and the court system -- with no end in sight.

And yet Mr. Davletov still cherishes the opportunity America provides and wants to return to get his master's degree. If he's deported, that won't be an option.

"This was a great experience," he said. "Ninety percent of the people here were nice to us. The government was not."

Dmitriy Sementsov, 21, Almas Nurlanov, 20, and Mr. Davletov, 22, have been friends since the seventh grade. Since the fall of the Soviet Union, they saw gleaming images of America on television, and the boys agreed that they would travel here one day.

Always near the top of their classes, the students demonstrated enough English proficiency to make the grade at a Kazakhstani agency that placed them with American summer jobs.

Mr. Nurlanov and Mr. Davletov, with two other Kazakhstani students, first worked for Swank's Steel City Shows, traveling to fairs and carnivals around the Pittsburgh area. But the conditions were poor, Mr. Davletov said, as they slept in trailers, migrating though small towns and suburbs.

After about a month, they quit and ended up moving to Squirrel Hill. They worked construction and other small jobs around town for the summer.

With the men's J-1 visas set to expire in September, two of the Kazakhstanis departed, leaving Mr. Nurlanov and Mr. Davletov. They were joined by Mr. Sementsov, who had been living in New York City but was drawn to Pittsburgh by his friends, who sang its praises.

"I had been to New York," Mr. Davletov said. "It was too crowded."

Instead of returning, the three decided to stay another year, applying for extensions on their visas. Though they had expired visas, the three were still in the United States legally as long as their extension applications were pending.

They moved to an apartment in South Fayette, working two jobs with only Sundays off so they could save as much money as possible. What they could make in a week here would take a month and a half to earn in Kazakhstan, Mr. Davletov said.

They decided they would leave in early May, stopping off for visits in Washington and New York before returning to Kazakhstan for their final year of school.

To them, one the most fascinating pieces of Americana is the shopping mall. So on April 28 they went to South Hills Village, Mr. Davletov said, to buy gifts for their families.

According to police reports, that afternoon Mr. Sementsov was caught by Macy's security after removing security tags from merchandise with wire cutters. Using video cameras, security spotted Mr. Nurlanov and Mr. Davletov helping Mr. Sementsov, the report said.

The other two men were found outside the mall by Bethel Park police in a burgundy van with $960.70 worth of merchandise from T.J. Maxx, Banana Republic, J. Crew and Macy's for which they did not have receipts.

All three were charged with retail theft and criminal conspiracy, but Mr. Davletov steadfastly maintains his innocence. He said he and Mr. Nurlanov had paid for their items, and they have not been shown the security tapes that supposedly incriminate them.

After learning the Kazakhstanis' visas had expired, police officers contacted Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which put a detainer on them.

American citizens likely would have been released that day and told to appear in court. Instead, the three students were taken to the county jail, their $10,000 bail well beyond their means. They recently had received a request for more information regarding their visa extensions -- meaning they were still here legally -- but the deadline to respond passed while the students sat in jail.

It appeared a break had arrived May 5 at their preliminary hearing. According to Bethel Park police Chief John Mackey, the department agreed to drop the charges because an ICE official told them it would expedite the students' departure from the country.

Still, the men remained in county jail under ICE custody.

On May 31, a second ICE agent called to check on the status of the Kazakhstanis' case. After hearing that the charges had been dropped, Chief Mackey said, the agent reversed the previous request and told Bethel Park police to refile the charges because that would make it easier to deport the students.

A second preliminary hearing was held June 23, when all charges were held for court. Formal arraignment, at which the students' trial date will be set, is scheduled for Aug. 20.

"They don't care about me," Mr. Davletov said. "I could be in here six months, a year, two years. It doesn't matter, because I'm from Kazakhstan."

An ICE spokeswoman said last week that the agency can't process the students for removal until their legal matter is adjudicated. The agency could not immediately explain or confirm the apparently contradictory directives given to Bethel Park police.

Chief Mackey said that instead of letting the matter languish in the court system, the students should be allowed to go.

"If these people are going to remain in the country, it's important to us," Chief Mackey said of pressing the charges. "If not, we don't have an interest. It's not like a homicide or a rape or something like that."

The three students are represented by public defenders in the criminal matter, but their parents have sent $1,500 to retain May Law Group to handle the immigration charges. The firm denied requests for comment for this article.

"My father will have to work for another year to pay for this," Mr. Davletov said.

They have even tried to get the Kazakhstan consulate in New York City to intervene, but no clear progress has been made.

Mr. Davletov, a management major, said he eventually wants to return to Kazakhstan to run a small landscaping business. His experience here has been invaluable in learning about business, he said.

Even in jail, Mr. Davletov and Mr. Nurlanov, who are cell mates, have remained industrious. They weave picture frames and toilet seat covers from strips of colored paper -- painstakingly ripped by hand, because scissors are not allowed -- and sell them for items at the commissary.

"We're the businessmen of our block," Mr. Davletov said with pride.

He still looks back fondly on his time in the states, remembering the kindness of strangers like Peter Dworkin, who met them on the street in Squirrel Hill and helped them find a place to stay. Now Mr. Dworkin is coordinating efforts to free them from jail, along with their old landlord Ron Gaydos and Andy Pugh, who runs an immigrant welcome center in Squirrel Hill.

"Why don't they just send them on their way?" Mr. Gaydos asked. "Even if they're not allowed to come back for a while, it's better than this."

From roommates to inmates, the students continue their wait in jail. They worry about the effects of the criminal charges on their futures: Will they be able to travel abroad again? Will they be thrown out of school? What will their parents think of them?

But most of all, they want their freedom back.

"We're not angry, just desperate," Mr. Davletov said. "We gave up on being angry. Now, we just want to go home."

Daniel Malloy can be reached at dmalloy@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1731.
First published on August 11, 2008 at 12:00 am




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