By Haider Rizvi
NEW YORK, Jul 8 2003 (IPS)

When he left his native Pakistan for the United States three years ago, Chaudhary just wanted to experience the U.S. way of life for a while. Now, he says, "I am done with this. I need to go home, but I can’t. I am stuck."

Chaudhary, 25, who hails from a wealthy land-owning family, entered the United States by paying 20,000 dollars to an agent who helped him illegally cross the Mexican border, hidden in a truckload of various goods.

"In Pakistan, the U.S. authorities had refused to give me a visa. That was insulting," he says. "So, I decided to make it to the U.S. at any cost." The smugglers made him stay in Thailand first and then flew him to Peru. He says he spent several weeks in the jungles of Mexico with snakes slithering next to him at night.

Chaudhry says although he did not come to the United States to make money, he started working at a smoke shop in the suburbs of New York to cover his day-to-day expenses. "It was nice in the beginning. I made a lot of American friends here," he says.

But late last year when the immigration authorities made it mandatory for Muslim and Arab male visitors to appear before the Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services (formerly the Immigration and Naturalisation Service), Chaudhry began to wonder about his future.

"I have no documents," he says. "I don’t know what to do."

"My father sold his farms to pay to the agent," he says. "I have to return this money. I have no option."

If arrested, they fear not only deportation but also possible long-term detention, as immigration jails have already been overcrowded in the wake of an intense immigrant round-up that began after the Sep. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

The special registration program required tens of thousands of men and boys over the age of 16 who were citizens of mostly Muslim and Arab countries to register with the local bureaus of citizenship and immigration services. The penalty to avoid doing so was possible arrest and deportation.

According to the Migration Policy Institute, a Washington-based influential think-tank, more than 1,200 immigrants have been detained and rounded up, most of them on charges of minor immigration violations or ordinary crimes.

U.S. media reports suggest that the controversial program may lead to the deportation of more than 13,000 men. Many immigrants chose not to appear before the immigration authorities after they learned about the arrests of hundreds of Middle Eastern men in Los Angeles who tried to register themselves.

Last week, two brothers, Hassan, 19, and Ahmed Amin, 17, both students in San Jose, California, told reporters how they were detained and arrested after they appeared before the authorities to participate in the Special Registration Program.

"In 1998 we sold our house in Pakistan to come to this country so that my sons could have a better education," said their mother Tahira Manzur, who teaches at a local children’s development center. "My sons cannot go back to Pakistan. There is no home for them there."

Both brothers have been asked by an immigration court to appear for deportation proceedings.

"This is creating a culture of anxiety, humiliation and despair in communities throughout this country," says Samina Faheem, executive director of the American Muslim Voice, a rights advocacy group working closely with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). "It has made people feel like common criminals."

Altogether, there are about eight million illegal immigrants living in the United States, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. But recently many Pakistanis and immigrants of Middle Eastern origin have fled to neighbouring Canada, and many more are planning to do so. Canadian law allows anyone who claims persecution to live and work there for a year or longer until an independent board passes a judgment on their claim for asylum.

Published reports indicate that last year more than half of Pakistanis who sought asylum in Canada were accepted. However, recently many asylum seekers who crossed the U.S.- Canadian border were sent back to the United States.

Shah and Chaudhary say they tried to seek help from the immigration lawyers, but in vain. "I will try the Canadian option," says Shah. "No, no Canada. I just want to go home. I miss my mother."

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