Thread: Mass. man held in NYC bomb probe ordered deported

BOSTON - A U.S. immigration judge has ordered a man arrested in Massachusetts during the probe into the failed Times Square bombing deported to his native Pakistan.

The ruling in the case of 27-year-old Aftab Khan was made Thursday by Judge Robin Feder and announced Friday.

Khan was one of three men arrested on immigration charges May 13 and suspected of supplying money to the primary suspect, Faisal Shahzad (FY’-sul shuh-ZAHD’). But authorities say the men may not have known how the money would be used.

Khan’s lawyer had asked the judge to allow his client to voluntarily leave the country. Federal authorities had asked the judge to keep Khan in the United States.
AP

Khan says he never heard of Shahzad before his arrest. But federal authorities say Khan had Shahzad’s name in his cell phone and written on an envelope.

Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/mass ... z0pFxPnShq

The same immigration court which gave Obama's aunt Zeituni Onyango asylum after failure to leave the country.

Dixie

Man arrested in Times Sq. probe fights deportation

Man arrested in Times Sq. probe fights deportation

BOSTON (AP) -- A judge on Tuesday scheduled an August deportation hearing for a Pakistani man arrested in Massachusetts on an immigration violation during an investigation of the failed Times Square bombing, finding that he has been living illegally in the country since 1991.

Pir Khan, 43, of Watertown, was one of three men arrested last month as authorities followed the money trail in their inquiry about Faisal Shahzad, who's accused of trying to set off a car bomb in New York City on May 1.

Authorities have said the men may have given money to Shahzad through a network used by immigrants without knowing how the money would be used.

On Tuesday, U.S. Immigration Judge Matthew D'Angelo found Khan is eligible for deportation because he entered the United States illegally through Mexico in 1991. D'Angelo scheduled a hearing for Aug. 10.

Khan's lawyer, Saher Macarius, said he'll argue that Khan should be allowed to stay in the United States because he has lived here for more than 10 years without any arrests and that his deportation would pose an "extreme and unusual" hardship for an American woman he married in 2008.

Khan, a cab driver, was arrested on May 13, along with his cousin, Aftab Khan, and Mohammad Shafiq Rahman, of South Portland, Maine. All three have been charged with immigration violations. None of the men have been charged criminally in the Times Square plot.

Khan applied for political asylum in 1994, but lost that bid to stay in the United States in 2007. He was appealing that ruling. His lawyer said he married a Lewiston, Maine, woman in December 2008.

Macarius, who represents both Pir Khan and Aftab Khan, said both men vehemently deny having any connection to Shahzad.

But during a hearing last month, an official from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said that Shahzad's cell phone number was stored in Aftab Khan's phone and written on an envelope seized from his possessions.

An immigration judge ordered Aftab Khan deported last week. Macarius said he will appeal the ruling.

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Judge says Watertown man, grabbed in terrorism sweep, is in US illegally

June 1, 2010 02:49 PM

By Shelley Murphy and John R. Ellement, Globe Staff

A federal immigration judge today said Pir Khan has lived illegally in the United States since 1991 and is subject to deportation, but he put off a decision on the deportation until August, when both the government and Khan's lawyer will make arguments about his future.

Khan, a 43-year-old taxi driver from Watertown, was arrested May 13, along with his cousin, Aftab Khan, 27, on immigration charges as part of the investigation into the May 1 car bombing attempt in Times Square.

Neither man is facing criminal charges in connection with that case.

At a brief hearing today, US Immigration Judge Matthew J. D'Angelo said the evidence shows that Pir Khan entered the country illegally on Aug. 1, 1991, when he crossed the US-Mexico border.

"I will find removability is established,'' D'Angelo said in court. "The evidence is clear and unequivocal.''

Khan's lawyer; Saher Macarius of Framingham, acknowledged that his client had entered the country illegally. But he said he will argue that Khan's lack of a criminal history and his marriage to an American citizen, among other things, justifies allowing him to remain in the United States, and not be returned to Pakistan.

Khan has previously sought the right to stay in the United States legally. He applied for political asylum on Oct. 24, 1994, but that was denied on Sept. 21, 2007. Khan was appealing that decision when he was married to Rebecca May Barry, then 22, of Lewiston, Maine, by a justice of the peace at Watertown City Hall on Dec. 6, 2008.

During a May 20 hearing in Immigration Court in Aftab Khan's case, Richard D. Neville, deputy chief counsel for US Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Boston, disclosed that Aftab Khan had the number of Faisal Shahzad, the Times Square plot suspect, stored in his cellphone and written on an envelope in the bedroom of the Watertown apartment he shared with Pir Khan and a couple of other men.

Aftab Khan was ordered deported last week. Macarius, who also represents Aftab Khan, said neither of his clients knew Shahzad. If federal authorities could have linked Aftab Khan to the cellphone, he would already be facing criminal charges in that case, he added.

"My opinion is if that was his, the government would have brought evidence before the judge to show that he touched that phone,'' he said. "They don’t know the guy at all.''

During an earlier hearing in the Pir Khan case, Neville said it appeared that Pir Khan had two wives because when applying for political asylum he indicated he had a wife in Pakistan.

But Macarius said that Khan was never legally married to the woman in Pakistan and that she died in 2001.

The next hearing date is Aug. 10. Pir Khan appeared via video link from the Plymouth County Jail, where he is being held for the alleged immigration violations.

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