[Dryerase] The Alarm--Eye on the INS

[Alarm!Wires]

Michelle Stewart, who wrote our editorial this issue, does a weekly 
column focusing on the INS and immigration policy, mostly in the 
southwest.

Eye on the INS
A weekly focus on the INS and immigration policy
Was it really news on July 4, 2002?
By Michelle Stewart
The Alarm! Newspaper Collective 
Case Study: Mohammad Nour al-Din Saffi
On Wednesday, July 3, 2002, federal agents stormed a hotel suite across 
the street from the Miami International Airport. Their target was 
Mohammad Nour al-Din Saffi.
Saffi, a naturalized New Zealander and employee of Tiger Lines Cargo (a 
New Zealand-based airline company), entered the US last Wednesday via 
LAX where he was detained and questioned about his visit. Saffi stated 
he was going to Miami to take a recertification course for flight 
engineers; he was entering on a tourist visa. He had the appropriate 
documentation from his employer and the flight school had confirmed his 
immigration status with the Department of Justice. Despite his long 
interrogation by a battalion of INS and FBI agents, he was eventually 
allowed to continue on his trip.
As Saffi boarded the plane for Miami, the agents at LAX called the 
Florida INS authorities to inform them that he was on his way. A 
surveillance operation was offically underway.  INS agents then called 
the flight school, Aeroservice Aviation Center, to ask Saffi’s intent. 
They were informed he was scheduled to take a course to recertify his 
license to fly Boeing 747s. The INS identified this as a different act 
than was reported by Saffi, and declared that he had lied to an INS 
official upon entry into the US, and that he entered without the correct 
visa. Saffi was picked up at his hotel room that same evening and the 
news broke on July 4, 2002.
Who is Mohammad Nour Al-Din Saffi? Why was this news?
To an outsider, Saffi is a 36-year-old man of Arab descent who works as 
a flight engineer for Tiger Lines Cargo, and has been a naturalized New 
Zealander for the past six years. To the FBI and INS, Saffi is a man of 
Arab desent who was  last in the United States just days before 9/11, 
and  this latest visit would have been to go to a flight school on the 
July 4th weekend... oh, and his stepfather is Saddam Hussein.
“The circumstances are somewhat disturbing,” said Jim Goldman, INS chief 
of investigations. “It’s an awful long way to come to take a refresher 
course. Post 9-11, an individual such as this definitely comes onto our 
radar screen.” But are the circumstances really so disturbing? Not 
really, once the facts become evident.
According to Saffi’s employer and the flight school, they followed all 
of the immigration rules related to entering the US and taking the 
flight engineering class. The school ran all of Saffi’s immigration 
information per the instructions on the new Department of Justice 
webpage to ensure that he was cleared to attend the class. Both the 
school and employer are stumped, and contend that the incident is just a 
simple mistake of failing to acquire a student visa.
Berton Beach , Vice President of operations at the flight school 
outlines the confusing immigration polices regarding student visas and 
flight school, “There is no requirement on any information we have from 
the Department of Justice or from the FBI or from INS that a [student] 
visa is required,” (CNN, 7/6/02). Indeed, the Aeroservice Aviation 
Center is likely one of the best-informed flight schools because it 
holds the dual distinction to be the best flight school in the nation as 
well as one of the schools to train an alleged 9/11 hijacker.
It is only under recent immigration reform that Saffi is required to get 
a student visa for this type of course, and, according to INS, he is 
being detained and deported for failing to get the student visa, not 
for “lying” to an INS officer about his intentions at  the flight 
school.  Saffi has admitted to misunderstanding the need for a student 
visa to attend the class, and the school has broadcast that they were 
misinformed. Yet Saffi sits in detention, waiting to be deported, and 
will be barred from entering the US for five years. A rather steep 
penalty for a simple mistake.
Well, there are a few inflammatory details that need to be addressed. 
First, Saddam Hussein, many years ago, married Saffi’s mother. There is 
much gossip surrounding the affair that pre-dated the marriage, and the 
incidents of violence surrounding the marriage. Suffice it to say, that 
I will not be further engaging this gossip, but feel free to visit CNN’s 
webpage for the whole soap opera. At the end of the day, Saffi has no 
relevant ties to Saddam Hussein since the connection is only through his 
mother and he lives a totally autonomous life. The second factor is his 
presence in the US days before 9/11. The Department of Justice claimed 
this was suspicious. The simple fact was that he was here on a flight 
(he is a flight technicican) en route to London. Finally, there is the 
question of why he came to the US on the 4th of July weekend to go to 
flight school. According to his employer, it is the best school for the 
training he needed and it seems obvious that the school would have had 
openings and smaller classes on the Independence weekend.
What do we do with all of this then? Do we chalk it up to an 
under-handed deed by Saffi—as did the federal authorities? Do we 
recognize that immigration law is changing so rapidly that no one really 
knows what type of paperwork to file and when—as is the contention of 
all of the affected parties in this case? Or do we admit to the larger 
issues?
Mohammad Nour al-Din Saffi made the mistake of entering into the US as a 
man of Arab descent looking to go to a flight school. This is the 
baseline fact, all that comes before and after are secondary. His link 
to Saddam Hussein is simply the icing on the cake; first and foremost, 
Saffi was seen as an Arab looking to fly. If it were anything less, the 
feds would not have stormed the hotel room, made a big splash on 
Independence Day, and then deported him for something as silly as a visa 
mistake.
Saffi entered the US and declared his intention, and when he made a 
mistake he admitted fault. Yet, he sits in detention. And there are 
dozens more stories like this; stories where immigrants are not aware of 
the varied nuances of immigration policy and paperwork. Immigration law 
changes at such a rapid pace, little time or attention is devoted to 
disemminating the facts. Post 1996  immigration law was changing at this 
same speed; again there was no effort to really explain to immigrants 
and visitors the policy changes, and it has extreme effects on many 
people. In many cases, small mistakes then resulted in people being 
barred from the US for five to ten years. This recent mistake for Saffi 
will result in a five year bar from the US. We are in ridiculous times, 
measured easily by this ridiculous hysteria and penalties.
The only reason we heard about this case was because the headline could 
read that Saddam’s stepson was in jail, that he wanted to fly a plane, 
and that he was caught just before the 4th of July. Many in the country 
read the first paragraph of this story last week and breathed a 
collective sigh of relief.  We need to read past these shock-value 
headlines and see what is happening to people in this country. One close 
read of  any  of the details of this story should have instigated a 
collective outcry. And yet, these stories are only on the increase.
Since detention is still a secretive process there is limited 
information available, and there are currently over 1,000 people being 
held in INS detention with infractions that range from the mundane to 
the exteme. Until we bring all of these cases out into the open we will 
continue to hear about stories such as that of Mohammad Nour al-Din 
Saffi.
Your comments are welcomed and encouraged at michelle at the-alarm.com

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