Exiled Frisco student one step closer to return

by STEVE STOLER
WFAA
Posted on May 4, 2010 at 10:00 PM
Updated yesterday at 11:57 PM

Related:
•Student from Frisco deported to Bangladesh
•'Bring Saad Nabeel Back Home to America' Facebook page
•Saad Nabeel Web site

FRISCO — A 19-year-old Frisco student who was deported to Bangladesh along with his parents hopes to return home to North Texas soon.

News 8 first told you about Saad Nabeel in March. He was sent to a country he hadn't seen since he was three years old.

There’s a new development that could help pave the way for Nabeel’s return.

He has been accepted into SMU’s School of Engineering. The university also issued what's known as an I-20, which would let him study in North Texas.

What happens next is up to the Federal government.

News 8 spoke to Nabeel from his Bangladesh apartment by using Skype. He told us the last six months have been filled with power outages, intense heat and numerous bouts of food poisoning — all while living in what is to him an unfamiliar country where he doesn't speak the native language.

“I really want to come home, because it's the only home I know," Nabeel said.

Since we aired our first story on the student's dilemma, immigration advocate Ralph Isenberg went to work to secure his return.

"Nabeel had never left the country. He was a straight-A student. He volunteered hundreds of hours of community service. And then he finds himself deported overnight," Isenberg said. "I got involved because that just doesn't seem right."

Isenberg and an SMU engineering professor successfully persuaded university officials to admit Nabeel to study environmental engineering as part of the Class of 2014.

He can start immediately — when and if he gets here.

“I feel great, because now I actually have a place to come back to when I come to America," Nabeel said. "That makes me feel really good because I was able to get into SMU based on my academic achievements."

The next step is up to the federal government.

First, the U.S. Homeland Security Department must issue a waiver on Nabeel's 10-year ban from returning to the U.S. Then the State Department would have to issue a student visa.

“There are a lot of things that could go wrong, but there's also a lot of things that could go in my favor," Nabeel said. "I'm just praying everything works out on its own."

Nabeel said he often gets depressed, but when his friends back in Frisco write him, it always lifts his spirits.

E-mail sstoler@wfaa.com

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