[Note: yes, we’ve already contacted our Congress Rep, have you?–gm]
Email from rita Zawaideh, Dec. 30, 2006
Start the New Year off Right, Please Help Save a Family
The Arab American Community Coalition (theaacc.org) has just learned of an entire Palestinian family – the Ibrahims – being held in jail in Texas while waiting an unjustified deportation. The Immigration and Customs
Enforcement (ICE) grabbed the family of five in a Gestapo-like raid on November 3, 2006.
The Ibrahims came to the United States legally and applied for asylum. They have been honest and forthright with immigration from the beginning. They were denied asylum and have filed to reopen their asylum case. In the meantime, the family is to be deported and is being held in jail! As an American citizen, the 2-year-old daughter was ripped from her mother’s arms and is in a foster home.
The plot thickens:
To make matters worse, as Palestinian refugees from the Occupied Palestinian Territories they have no travel documents. The US government has
attempted to obtain Jordanian passports for the family but the applications were denied. The family will have to languish another month in jail while ICE contacts the Israeli embassy. Even though Israel has no jurisdiction to issue travel documents to Palestinians to the Occupied Palestinian Territories , ICE insists on contacting Israel . In the past, Israel has issued illegal documents with ICE flying deportees into Tel Aviv and
the deportees marched across the border to the West Bank in Palestine . It is extremely dangerous for Palestinians to enter Palestine with Israeli travel
documents. The family would be marked with suspicion.
The family in jail:
The pregnant mother, Hanan Ahmad, is in one cell with her 5-year-old daughter, Fatem. The 7- and 12-year-old sisters – Maryam and Rodaina – share
another cell. The 15-year-old boy, Hamzeh, is in yet another cell at T. Don Hutto jail. The father and husband, Salaheddin Ibrahim, is being held in
another jail in Haskell , Texas . Born in the US , the youngest daughter, only 2-years-old, is living with strangers in a foster home.
The little 5-year-old girl, Faten, is constantly getting in trouble with the guards for not standing still during population counts, which are taken four times daily. Maryam, the 7-year-old cries for her mother at night.
Maryam, Rodaina and Hamzeh have missed nearly two months of school. The children miss their father, their baby sister, other family members and friends. The pregnant mother feels sick, tired and overwhelmed. The family is separated and scared not knowing what the future holds.
Not only is this a waste of our tax dollars ($95 per person per day), it is inhumane and unjust!
What can you do?
Please contact ICE Field Office Director, Marc Jeffery Moore, @ 210-967-7175 and ask him to release the family on house arrest. You can also contact U.S. Department of Homeland Security @ Operator Number: 202-282-8000 or Comment Line: 202-282-8495
If you live in Texas , please contact your Senators and State Representative and ask him or her to intercede in this tragic story.
Click on the link below to find out who represents you in the Congress.
http://www.congressmerge.com/onlinedb/index.htm
You can either right your own letter or use sample letters attched to this email [pasted below].
Donate money.
Legal fees to save the Ibrahim family will be costly. Please send checks payable to:
“Arab American Community Coalition” Legal Defense – Ibrahim Family
to:
P.O. Box 31642 , Seattle , WA 98103 .
All donations are tax-deductible with 100% of your donation going to the Ibrahim Family. Please don’t forget to check if your organization has a matching program.
For more information:
please contact info@theaacc.org.
Also you can check the links below;
http://www.counterpunch.org/moses12282006.html
Video showing the family on local news
http://www.nbc5i.com/video/10471070/index.html
Thank you,
The Arab American Community Coalition
Sample Letter/Email
January 2007
Congressman Sam Johnson
2929 North Central Expressway, Suite 240
Richardson, TX 75080
http://www.house.gov/formsamjohnson/IMA/issue.htm
Congressman Sam Johnson,
I am urging you to take action in stopping the removal proceedings against the Salaheddin Ibrahim family and join in their petition for asylum. If the family is to be deported, I am urging you to take action in releasing the Hanan Ahmad and Salaheddin Ibrahim family of Dallas, Texas from the T. Don Hutto jail during their deportation proceedings.
The Ibrahim family, which includes Hanan Ahmad, Salaheddin Ibrahim, their 15-year-old son, Hamzeh, and their 12-, 7- and 5-year-old daughters – Rodaina, Maryam, and Fatem, is being held at the T. Don Hutto jail in Taylor, Texas while they await deportation. As a U.S. citizen, the youngest daughter of just 2-years is separated from her family and living with strangers in a foster home. Not only are the children suffering, frightened and missing their baby sister, Hanan is pregnant and feeling ill.
The family has committed no crime, are not deemed a threat to the United States or are a flight risk. The three eldest children were enrolled and attending school until their arrest November 3, 2006. The Ibrahim family has been honest and forthright with Immigration communicating with them throughout the five years that they have lived in this country.
Thank you for your support of the Ibrahim family’s humanitarian cause and in stopping their deportation from the United States and their release from jail.
Your Name
Your Full Mailing Address
cc: Senator John Cornyn
Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison
Texas Civil Rights Review 