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The Immigration Lawyer Asylum
The Immigration Lawyer
The Immigration Lawyer Series
Category:
Action/Thriller
ISBN-10: 0615783783
Type: Fiction
Pages: 74
Copyright: Feb 3, 2014
ISBN-13: 9780615783789
Price: $2.99 (eBook)
The new novel, The Immigration Lawyer Asylum has something for everyone including, suspense, action, drama and romance. The story is inspired by a true story about a man from Iraq who is a suspected terrorist and wrongfully held by the US immigration. The story is centered on the immigration lawyer, Sarah, who handles the case and describes the entire immigration process to obtain his freedom. The story goes in great depth on filing immigration petitions.
This work of fiction covers the journey of Ahmad, a man fleeing Iraq during the rule of Saddam Hussein, to seek refuge in the United States. He is escaping because the Iraqi government has been torturing him for years thinking he is a CIA agent. Ironically, he faces an interesting ordeal in the hands of the United States Immigration. The US government, on the other hand, believes that he is a terrorist. While he is entering California on valid visitor B1/B2 visa, he is apprehended on immigration charges and placed in immigration custody. At this point, a new nightmare starts . The book is a very unique attempt to describe some of the important issues in immigration law including Asylum, marriage petitions, U Visas, a clear description of an immigration court case and other immigration issues. Written by Shah Peerally, an immigration lawyer , the book depicts the events inside the US Immigration court and the Department of Homeland Security. The book also echoes the sentiment of many immigrants who went through the difficult process. Moreover, the book brings to light the hate and discrimination of immigrants. Although a work of fiction, the book is a good guide on a number of immigration issues while depicting the triumph of the American justice system.
Excerpt
his is a work of fiction inspired by true stories. All characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
Series: The Immigration Lawyer
Paperback: 72 pages
Publisher: Shah Peerally Productions Inc.; 1 edition (February 7, 2014)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0615783783
ISBN-13: 978-0615783789
Amazon Sales Page:
http://www.amazon.com/The-Immigration-Lawyer-Asylum-Volume/dp/0615783783/
Dedicated to my wife, Feilah, my son, Abel, my daughter, Sarah, my parents and brothers, and everyone who fights for civil and human rights!
PROLOGUE
CHAPTER 1: Sarah, The Immigration Lawyer, Finds her Mission
CHAPTER 2: Anisha & Ahmad
CHAPTER 3: Violence Spills Over
CHAPTER 4: A Successful Court Case
CHAPTER 5: The American Sense of Justice Prevails
CHAPTER 6: Time to Rejoice
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will within limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others. I do not add ‘within the limits of the law’ because law is often but the tyrant’s will, and always so when it violates the rights of the individual.
—Thomas Jefferson
In the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, hundreds of individuals were arrested without being charged. While most of those arrested were never convicted of terrorism, their greatest vulnerability had been targeted—their status as immigrants, individuals with the vulnerable tag of being outsiders. The defunct Immigration and Naturalization Services were absorbed into one unit named the Department of Homeland Security. Under the Patriot Act and the Real ID Act, the immigrant community was forced to live in fear. Many were deported or disappeared. In this time of darkness, emerged a group of civil rights lawyers, guerrilla lawyers. These lawyers believed in the United States Constitution and were determined to fight for justice. Their faith and allegiance were often questioned, yet none of them gave up. Among this group was a less applauded group, which consisted of those faced with the actual challenge, the implementation of the immigration law and new challenges namely being considered guilty until proven innocent. These were the immigration lawyers. They fought for equal access to justice, which should never be decided by skin color, religion, or nationality. This is the story of some of those lawyers and their fight that helped others gain the courage to raise their voices against injustice.
PROLOGUE
The year is 2002. Somewhere in the Middle East, in a cold dungeon, sits a man named Ahmad. There is no light. The room is so cold the man’s presence can barely be seen or felt. The room is dirty and not furnished with anything—not even hope. From afar, one can see that the man is tied up and that he carries huge weights attached to his neck, which his body does not have the strength to bear. He appears miserable as he coughs and sweats. Peace is far, far away.
He bows to his death and awaits the torture that he knows will surely come again. His days and nights—he knows not which are which—are full of a peculiar kind of questioning that he does not understand. It is as if his torturers want him to say something that he has no idea about. He is asked over and over again whether he belongs to the CIA or whether he has any connection to the Islamic Brotherhood. He weeps, screams, and reads the Quran in between the torture sessions. There is neither food nor water—not even when they promise it—until he says what they want to hear. At times, the pain is too much for him to bear, and he lapses into silence.
In his dream-like stupor of pain and misery, he remembers the girl. The pain has made his head fuzzy, but he remembers her still. The torturer had brought her and dragged her in. They knew very well what effect this would have on him. They had looked at him and laughed while they ripped her clothes. “Not her!” he had screamed. Everything else was a blank after that. Ahmad had passed out: perhaps dying would have been more pleasant.
Chapter 1: Sarah, the immigration lawyer, finds her mission
It is a normal working day for Shah, an immigration lawyer with SPLG, an immigration law firm in California, when a sudden knock at the door reveals the long-lost face of a friend: Sarah. Shah and Sarah have been friends for a long time, and they greet each other with warmth. Born in Fiji, Sarah is a well-known corporate lawyer in her own right. As Sarah begins to talk with Shah, she confides that despite having a good career in corporate law and being happy on the home front, she craves doing something more that will both satisfy her soul and give her an opportunity to be associated with people in their hour of need. Her role as a corporate lawyer is not gratifying enough for Sarah. She is married to a Caucasian Muslim from Bosnia, who is a firm believer in the Constitution of the United States. She thinks she can only be satisfied in her career if she can protect innocent people, in trouble.
As a successful lawyer with zeal for working with the community, Shah understands this perfectly well. His own staunch and constant support of the United States Constitution and his decision to work with the government instead of against it has earned him the appreciation and respect of friends, well-wishers, and colleagues. Sarah has offered her services with the will and dedication that Shah has always admired in his team. However, he now wonders whether his firm can afford Sarah, who is a well-established lawyer herself. But like all good things, Sarah too has perhaps come to the SPLG office with a higher purpose in life. Both of them soon decide to work together for the benefit of the immigrant community. Sarah somehow reminds Shah of his beginning as an immigration lawyer. Shah is impressed with Sarah’s willingness to help, and he is delighted to have her on his team because he knows how important a good lawyer is to a case, especially for insecure immigrants who look up to their lawyers with a great sense of security.
Meanwhile, a drama is unfolding at the San Francisco International Airport. A man walks up to an immigration counter. He is weak and appears nervous. The man is Ahmad. He is confident, though, because he has a valid B1/B2 visitor visa. The B1/B2 visa is commonly used when someone wants to visit as a tourist or try to enter the United States for a casual prospect of business. While handling his rather heavy luggage, he hands over his passport and visa to the officer who is in charge and waits for his turn. Perhaps, like many other visitors to the United States, Ahmad is eager to be visiting the land of dreams and opportunities. However, Ahmad could not have imagined even in his darkest moments what is about to unfold. Like any other visitor, at the immigration counter, Ahmad is asked why he is visiting the US and how long he intends to stay. Ahmad informs the immigration officer calmly that he is on a personal visit to see his family and that this is his third visit to the US in the past three years. However, something in the officer’s tone and direction of questioning unsettles Ahmad, and he speaks with some difficulty. Then, as the officer begins asking questions that are clearly a departure from the routine, Ahmad senses trouble. The officer asks him why he keeps coming to the US, why he is arriving from Iraq, whether he has overstayed, what kinds of projects he works on, and so forth—certainly not questions one would expect an average tourist to be asked in the normal course of an interview. True to Ahmad’s suspicion, the tone of the officer quickly morphs from courteous and official to a practically rude bark. The officer asks Ahmad to step into a secondary inspection room, where an intensive interrogation begins.
The immigration supervisor, an officer from the Customs Border Patrol, a branch of the Department of Homeland Security, conducts the interrogation. The immigration supervisor asks Ahmad about his mother, his origins, and his previous arrest in Iraq. But in spite of Ahmad’s insistence that his arrest was purely political and that the purpose of his visit to the US is simply to see his family, the officers are unsympathetic. He is repeatedly asked about a notebook found in his bag, which has the names of various chemicals and US sites. Ahmad informs them that he is a chemical engineer, but to his dismay and utter shock, he finds himself being placed in custody by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials. He is told that holding a legitimate US visa does not guarantee him entry into the United States, and he could, quite conceivably, be sent back. Ahmad is now scared out of his wits, adamant that he cannot go back, as he believes he will be tortured again if he returns. He decides to seek political asylum and informs the officers that he wants the protection of the United States. In a stunning turn of events, however, Ahmad is soon handcuffed, put in an orange jumpsuit, and escorted to a maximum security facility. Desperate but strong, Ahmad’s only solace is now his faith and his prayers.
Here, the story begins to get interesting, and what unfolds before one’s eyes is one of the most appalling examples of abuses of discretion by the authorities.It is a peaceful day when the SPLG law office receives a frantic call from Muhammad. Once he has identified himself as Ahmad’s brother, Muhammad is directed to Sarah, who listens to him patiently. Muhammad is extremely anxious about his brother, but Sarah calms him down and then asks him to narrate once again the string of events leading up to Ahmad’s arrest, while she makes mental notes of the mysterious circumstances. She then reassures Muhammad and asks him to give the law firm the authorization for representation, and she immediately begins tracking down where Ahmad is being held. Several calls later, she discovers that Ahmad is being held at the maximum security prison in San Jose, California. For Sarah, her work for a given client begins the moment the clarion call comes in, and despite the fact that she has not been legally hired at the firm yet, she begins her job, conducting background checks on the prison facility where Ahmad has been incarcerated and will soon be relocated for custody. The law firm assures Muhammad, who is a dentist and a US citizen, that they will do their best to help Ahmad. Muhammad, nevertheless, feels helpless at this stage, unable to do anything, even as a US citizen.
Unlike many other immigration lawyers, helping a client who is in trouble goes well beyond Sarah’s job duties. She is driven, to say the least, and Ahmad’s release is now at the center of her thoughts. Driving quickly, Sarah soon finds herself in the confines of the maximum security prison in San Jose. A cold and dreary dungeon, it’s a scary place for anyone, let alone a woman. Here, in something resembling a scene from one of those disturbing prison movies, Sarah is guided down narrow, dingy corridors by a voice coming through speakers. She rides prison elevators and passes through dark chambers where ribald, lecherous prisoners make lewd remarks and gestures at her. Unfazed, Sarah soldiers on, ultimately finding herself in a small cell. Here she meets Ahmad, who in spite of his predicament appears surprisingly calm.
At first, to break the ice, Sarah makes small talk by inquiring about Ahmad’s family and his past. Then she gets to the crux of the matter, asking him about the interrogation process that he has been through and the reasons why he has gone through them. Suddenly, as they are talking, commotion erupts around them, and all of the shutters begin slamming down. To her disbelief, Sarah realizes that she, too, has been locked in. But before she can panic, a prison officer informs her that he is locking her in, along with all others, as they have a lockdown situation at the facility. Sarah, although an experienced lawyer, is not really familiar with the prison system. She is actually scared. Sarah wonders whether all of this is really happening to her or whether she is witnessing a sequence from a horror film. Just then, in a bizarre series of events, she sees a half-naked man run around and duck into the room she is in. Even though the security officials show up immediately, it is terrifying to find herself in this situation, despite Ahmad coming to her rescue and pushing her behind him. To everyone’s relief, however, the uproar is quickly quelled, even though the lockdown continues for another hour. Sarah eventually leaves the prison with poise and with her sanity intact, though she is a bit shaken at the turn of events. The experience has been one of the most frightening of her life. Still, as a professional, she takes it in stride. In fact, she considers it a learning process. Apart from being briefly terrified, she has learned more about Ahmad. She now knows that not only is he someone who has endured torture, but that he is a man who can come to the aid of a woman when necessary—a very small revelation, perhaps, but something that gives a clear indication of the nature of the person she is dealing with. She is now more determined than ever to secure Ahmad’s release.
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