In the News: A Man's Existence Denied in Immigration Case

On Saturday, while many of us were participating in the nation's most patriotic holiday, the New York Times was finishing a story about a man's life forgotten in the wake of 9/11. 

The story describes what little the NY Times could find on the life of Tanveer Ahmad, who died in a U.S. immigration jail after suffering a heart attack. Ahmad immigrated from Pakistan to the United States in 1993. He was arrested in 2005, and for what crime? After entering his apartment with intentions to charge his roommate with a violation, immigration agents instead detained Ahmad because of a misdemeanor he committed in 1997 (while working at a gas station, Ahmad pulled out the store's unlicensed gun to stop a robbery. He had already paid the fine for this misdemeanor). 

Before the arrest, Ahmad had paid taxes and immigration fees and held permits for his jobs. He committed no other infractions of the law. He did fail an immigration interview in 2002, however, when the interviewer doubted that his marriage to an American woman was genuine. His visa officially expired in 2005. According to the article, when Ahmad was arrested that year he chose not to challenge his deportation. All he wanted was to go back to Pakistan.

Three weeks after being detained, he died. According to the NY Times, pressure from Congress and the news media caused Ahmad's death not to be included in the immigration agency's 2007 list of deaths in immigration detention. But his arrest was included in the agency's anti-terrorism statistics. Only in March, three years after his death, would officials confirm the man even existed.

To some of us, a story like this isn't all that shocking. We all know the discrimination that occurred after 9/11, that is still occurring. But for a man who had no connections to terrorism and who had abided the law to be treated in such a way is pretty appalling. His 1997 infraction was already paid for, and that should have been the end of it. If a white person, even a white immigrant had committed the same crime, he would never have ended up the same way. Undoubtedly there are other men out there like Ahmad, whose existences have gone unacknowledged. I just believe this article is something to consider. The United States is a pretty lucky place to live in, but we should all be reminded every once and awhile of its shortcomings, and the price some pay to even attempt to live here.