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From: Aliza Becker <azbecker@mindspring.com>
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Subject: [NIFL-ESL:6453] FW: A Nation of Immigrants Rebuilds
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------ Forwarded Message
From: "Mbelanger" <mbelanger@immigrationforum.org>
Date: Thu, 20 Sep 2001 17:30:33 -0400
To: <mbelanger@immigrationforum.org>
Subject: A Nation of Immigrants Rebuilds
National Immigration Forum
Date: September 20, 2001
To: Forum Associates and interested advocates
From: Maurice Belanger
Re: Excerpts from Stories of Immigrant Victims of September 11, and
Immigrants responding to the tragedy
----------------------------------------------------
CONTENTS
1. Profiles of Victims, Newsday, September 14, 2001
2. Attacks unfurl patriotism all over, Washington Times,
September 14, 2001
3. Latin Americans anguished over missing loved ones,
Reuters, September 12, 2001
4. Quotes from Political Leaders
5. A Muslim Family in N.Y. Fears For a Son Who Loved
America, Washington Post, September 18, 2001
6. Bush moves to shield Arabs in U.S. from hate, New York
Times
7. Students share their fears about intolerance, war, Idaho
Statesman, September 18, 2001
8. Looked Forward to Becoming an American, Newsday,
September 19, 2001
9. Immigrants, with the motherland in their heart,
Univision.com, September 17
----------------------------------------------------
Among the stories that have emerged from the tragic events of September
11th are those of immigrants who were victims of the terrorist attack,
and immigrants who responded in some way to the disaster. Forum staff
have been compiling excerpts from some of the news stories that have
been published. We thought we would share some of those stories here.
Sprinkled about are quotes or stories about political leaders who have
spoken out or taken some other action against Americans turning on other
Americans who may be of Middle-East descent, who are foreign-born, or
who "look like" they might be Arab American.
FROM NEWSDAY
Profiles of Victims
Tom Maier, Richard Dalton, Roni Rabin, Eric Holm, Joie Tyrell, Chastity
Pratt, Indira Sen, Tom Demoretcky
Staff Writers
September 14, 2001
Bible Teacher And Family Man
Joon Koo Kang, of West Orange, N.J., worked for Cantor Fitzgerald on the
102nd floor of the World Trade Center. He had immigrated as a child to
the United States from Korea. A Bible teacher at the Antioch
Presbyterian Church, he was in his 30s, married and had two daughters,
ages 4 and 2.
-Roni Rabin
A Promising Life Put On Hold
Khalid Shahid, of Union, N.J., arrived at work unusually early on
Tuesday to attend a company meeting at Cantor Fitzgerald, on the 103rd
floor of World Trade Center. Son of a Pakistani father and Colombian
mother, Shahid, a graduate of Montclair State College and a talented
tennis player, was a practicing Muslim, a friend, Francis Chiumiento,
said.
Life was looking promising for Shahid, Chiumiento said. He was engaged
to be married in November to Jamie Castro. The couple had just bought a
house in Mount Olive, N.J.. "Everything was just fantastic. The future
was holding so much for him," Chiumiento said.
Stressing the fact that many victims, like Shahid, were Muslim,
Chiumento added, "Don't start looking at religion....This was cowards
using religion for their acts. There was every type of race, nationality
and religion in that building."
-Roni Rabin
>From Tehran To Beverly Hills
Touri Bolourchi, 69, of Beverly Hills, Calif., a retired nurse born in
Tehran, was a passenger on United Flight 175. She moved to the United
States with her daughters in 1979 following the Islamic revolution. Her
husband, Akbar Bolourchi, joined them two years later, moving his
medical practice to Beverly Hills. Touri Bolourchi, who was fluent in
six languages, had spent two weeks with her daughter and two grandsons
in Boston. Her husband said his wife had not been to Boston for two
years because she was afraid of airplanes.
====================================
Attacks unfurl patriotism all over
By Margie Hyslop
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
A Brazilian immigrant who wants to be a U.S. citizen planned to
paint all night, donating his time, to create an 8-yard U.S. flag above
a D.C. diner.
Elderly Army widows pasted star-spangled banners on their apartment
doors at a retirement home near Military Road.
Generation-Y college students who have flown the Stars and Stripes
from their row house since they moved in in May are frustrated that
their fixed-position flag can't be lowered to half-staff.
American University political science and justice major Joseph
Randazzo, 20, was decked out in a Lady Liberty-New York Rangers hockey
jersey despite the September heat.
Even before Congress passed a resolution yesterday asking Americans
to fly the flag for 30 days, residents of the District, Maryland and
Virginia mustered what red, white and blue they could find to show their
love of country, their grief and their resolve.
=============================
Latin Americans anguished over missing loved ones
Reuters, Sep 13 2001
MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - For Ivhan Carpio, a Peruvian waiter working on
the top of the World Trade Center's north tower in New York, Tuesday was
meant to be a celebration of the American dream.
It was his 24th birthday and he was working at the "Windows on the
World" restaurant on the 107th floor when hijacked airliners plowed into
the complex's twin towers.
He immediately called an aunt who lived nearby from a payphone in the
building. "Auntie, don't worry ... we're waiting for someone to come
rescue us," said Carpio.
His family has not heard from him since.
Hundreds of feet below at street level, Cesar, a 22-year-old Mexican
from the state of Puebla, was working in a restaurant in the shadow of
the giant towers when the streets started to fill with acrid smoke after
the towers were struck.
Cesar fled. "The owner told him to stay and clean up the restaurant but
he ran for it," said Juan Rojas, a friend of the waiter who owns his own
restaurant and heard Cesar's account of his lucky escape.
The two men's contrasting fortunes are mirrored in the drama of
thousands of families throughout Latin America, from Puebla to
Patagonia, with loved ones who worked inside or in the vicinity of the
World Trade Center.
Tuesday, knife-wielding hijackers crashed two planes into its twin
towers, another into the Pentagon near Washington and a fourth plane
crashed in a field in Pennsylvania. Thousands of people were feared dead
after the worst attack on U.S. soil since Pearl harbor.
SOME WERE BANKERS, MOST WERE CLEANERS AND WAITERS
Some worked in highly paid jobs as bankers, stockbrokers and investment
analysts but the majority were low-paid cleaners, waiters and
shoeshiners.
Thousands of Hispanic workers appear to have escaped with their lives,
hundreds more may have died and many are unaccounted for.
Many survivors now face the prospect of being without work.
Hundreds of Mexicans were believed to have died. Some 3 million Mexicans
work illegally in the United States.
"The situation is very serious ... for the families of the hundreds of
Mexicans who without doubt died in these terrorist acts perpetrated in
New York," Mexico's Foreign Secretary Jorge Castaneda told reporters.
Rojas said he would hold a vigil in his restaurant Friday in memory of
those who died. "I have many friends who say they cannot trace friends,"
he said.
Gabriela Garcia, director of the Casa Puebla in New York, an association
for Mexican immigrants, said she had fielded 100 calls Thursday morning
from anxious Mexicans trying to find out news of loved ones.
COLOMBIANS MISSING
The Colombian Red Cross reported at least 82 Colombians were known to be
missing in Washington and in New York.
Brazilian officials say they have not been able to confirm if any of the
estimated 150,000 Brazilians living in New York state were among the
dead or injured.
Edilberto Mendes, editor of "The Brazilians Newspaper" in New York, said
he was concerned about an army of Brazilian shoeshiners who worked in
the World Trade Center area.
"Up to 500 Brazilian shoeshiners worked in that area and we are still
trying to get news about what happened to them."
Brazil's Agencia Estado news agency reported that David Mancano, a
Brazilian shoeshiner, was trapped in the elevator when the planes hit
but he and fellow occupants managed to get out and stumble down 50
flights of stairs to safety.
"We were breathing dirt, it was like we were eating pure soil," Mancano
said.
Two Venezuelans who worked on the 82nd floor of the south tower were
unaccounted for, said Venezuela's Consul in New York, Pedro
Conde-Regardiz. One of the missing was Howard Boulton, a member of one
of Venezuela's richest families.
Elsy Osorio, a Salvadoran computer expert who worked for General
Electric on the 83rd floor of the south tower, called her mother after
the first plane crashed into the building.
"I said go to where your friends are ... she was hysterical and then the
second plane crashed into the other tower," said Feliciana, bursting
into tears as she recalled the conversation. She has heard no more of
her daughter.
=======================================
QUOTES FROM POLITICAL LEADERS
''We need to work harder to track terrorist groups through increased
surveillance, identifying and eliminating their ability to organize and
finance their activities here and abroad. As we seek to eliminate the
criminal element, we should remember that the overwhelming majority of
our immigrants are here for the right reasons: to work hard, raise
families and enjoy the American way of life.''
(Sen. Bill Frist (R-TN), The Tennessean, “Q&A with Senator Frist on how
immigration, defense will change,” September 18, 2001)
"There are going to be some who try to move us in a direction of
isolationism. I find that very troubling and I will do everything I
possibly can to counter that. The society we have of openness must be
continued."
(Rep. David Dreier (R-San Dimas), The New York Times, “Mood Swiftly
Changes on Immigration,” September 18, 2001)
===============================
A Muslim Family in N.Y. Fears For a Son Who Loved America
23-Year-Old Among Hundreds of That Faith Missing in Attack
By Glenda Cooper
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, September 18, 2001; Page A22
NEW YORK, Sept. 17 -- Sal has not been seen since 8 a.m. last Tuesday,
when he set off for Manhattan after shouting a cheery goodbye to his
bleary-eyed brother. Hoping to find him, his mother has traveled every
day from their home in Queens into Manhattan to scan the lists of the
missing at the Armory, search hospitals and paste photographs of her
handsome 23-year-old son onto bus shelters and mail boxes.
She asks everyone she meets if they have seen Sal, a "Star Wars"
fanatic, keen baseball player and police cadet. The answer is always no.
Similar searches have become a familiar, depressing activity for
thousands of families here since the terrorist attack on the World Trade
Center. But there is an added poignancy to the search for Sal: Sal --
or, to use his full name, Mohammad Salman Hamdani -- is an American
Muslim, whose family came to the United States from Pakistan.
Hamdani is one of as many as 700 Muslims who may be missing following
the attack, according to the Council on American-Islamic Relations
(CAIR). As many as 1,200 Muslims worked in the World Trade Center alone.
But while the Hamdanis pound the streets looking for their son, they are
constantly aware of the widespread assumption that Muslims were
responsible for the attack. They say they fear that American Muslim
casualties are being ignored while a minority of people are responding
to anti-Islamic sentiment by taking the law into their own hands.
"Do they not understand? The Islamic religion is one of peace, not of
murder," said Talat Hamdani, Sal's mother. "This terrible act is not the
act of a true Muslim. But it could turn the whole world against
Muslims."
===============================
Bush moves to shield Arabs in U.S. from hate
Visits mosque amid flood of reported attacks on Muslims
By DAVID STOUT
New York Times
WASHINGTON -- As the nation looked toward war, President Bush took time
for words of peace Monday, urging Americans to remember that Arabs and
Muslims in the United States are patriotic too.
As dozens of anti-Muslim incidents were being reported around the
country, the president also visited a mosque to urge Americans not to
harass Muslims and Arab Americans.
"In our anger and emotion, our fellow Americans must treat each other
with respect," Bush said during his visit to the Islamic Center of
Washington.
"Those who feel they can intimidate our fellow Americans by taking out
their anger, they don't represent the best of America."
Bush's visit to the mosque came amid a flood of reports about violence
against Muslims and immigrants in the United States.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations said it has verified 350
attacks and threats since last Tuesday. The FBI is investigating 40
possible hate crimes involving alleged attacks on Arab Americans and
their institutions, said FBI Director Robert Mueller. On Monday, the
Islamic Center of San Diego reported that a bomb had exploded at that
facility.
Muslim leaders have cautioned women who dress in Islamic fashion with
scarves, long sleeves and long skirts to avoid public places.
"I can't go outside. I think I will get threatened or maybe killed
because of what happened," said Aziza Sobh, 16, a junior at Fordson High
School in Dearborn, Mich.
She spent the weekend inside her home, afraid to go to the mall, a movie
or even to a restaurant to eat.
A man was charged Monday with murdering a turbaned Indian immigrant in a
weekend rampage prosecutors said was motivated by ethnic hatred.
Frank Silva Roque, 42, was jailed on $1 million bail on charges that
also included attempted murder. Prosecutor Rick Romley said Roque
targeted minorities during a rampage Saturday in which Balbir Singh
Sodhi died.
"Mr. Sodhi was killed for no other apparent reason than that he was
dark-skinned and wore a turban," Romley said. "He was killed because of
hate."
=====================================
Dan Popkey: Students share their fears about intolerance, war
The Idaho Statesman, September 18, 2001
Dan Popkey
If the perpetrators of hate crimes against Muslim Americans could meet
their children, perhaps cold hearts might be touched.
I spent Monday at Jefferson Elementary, where last week's attacks on the
World Trade Center and the Pentagon brought back nightmares for refugees
from the Islamic world.
The school has 59 kids for whom English is not their native tongue.
Bosnians are the largest group, but there are also Muslim students from
Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran and Sudan, as well as children from nine other
nations.
"I feel scared," said 12-year-old Aldijana, who came to Boise from
Bosnia in April. "In Sarajevo, they have many buildings like that. We
have a war. We don't want any more."
"That's why we came here -- to run away from the war," said Bahar, 11,
who fled Iraq six years ago.
"When I watched TV that night, I didn't sleep," said Helai, 12, an
Afghan girl who settled in Boise in February. Helai's father and
brothers were conscripted to fight with the Taliban. "They told them,
'If you don't fight, I'm going to kill you.' " They later joined the
opposition, but Helai hasn't heard from her father in a year or more.
She hopes he's alive in Pakistan.
Dzevad, 11, who came to Boise two years ago, would only say that he
remembers the bombs in Bosnia. He was silent when I asked about his
father, who is missing and presumed dead. "If I talk about that stuff,
it makes me cry, and I don't like to cry."
The terror is all too fresh in Aldijana's mind: "They cut people. Eyes.
Mouths. Noses. Fingers. Arms."
"Legs," interjected Helai.
"And they do bad things to girls," continued Aldijana. "They are killing
babies."
Fear of a new war and of being singled out as Muslim terrifies Aldijana.
"I feel like they're looking at me," she said between sobs, hands
covering her face.
When the attacks appeared on TV last Tuesday, 5th grade teacher George
Raino could distinguish refugees by their faces. Most students watched
with jaws dropped. Refugees put heads in hands.
"They've seen this before," Raino said. "They're not shocked. The grief
is there, but not the disbelief."
=======================
Excerpted from “Looked Forward to Becoming an American,” Newsday, Olivia
Winslow, 09/19/2001
Hagay Shefi was “proud to almost be a citizen of the United
States,” Shefi’s father, Dov, recalled yesterday. “He admired this
great state” and was just “one step away” from becoming a citizen.
But on Sept. 11, Shefi, 35, was among the thousands who perished at the
World Trade Center when terrorists attacked.
That the Israeli immigrant, who leaves behind a wife and two children, a
5-year-old son and 3-year-old daughter, in Tenafly, N.J., should die
because of terrorist attacks in the United States and not in his
strife-torn homeland was not lost on his father, a retired lawyer and
former Israeli diplomat.
“The tragedy of fate,” is what Dov Shefi called it. “He was here in one
of the most safest places in the world, I would say.” But yet, he was
not safe.
=============================
Translated and excerpted from “Immigrants, with the motherland in their
heart,” Univisión.com, Fernando Almánzar, 09/17/2001
On Monday, the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) swore in
8,300 new citizens (including three thousand in Florida) who, in 22
cities around the nation, renounced alliance to their native lands and
promised to “defend the Constitution and U.S. laws from any enemy,
foreign or domestic.”
. . . . “Today I feel more American than ever,” underlined
Nicaraguan-born Arturo Navarro, 27 years old, who cried while raising
his right hand to take the oath in front of the American flag. “This
tragedy has served to unite this country even more,” added Navarro. . .
.
Roberto Antonio García, 69 years old, came to the U.S. from Cuba 19
years ago. Although he is retired and far from “military age,” he
insists that he would “do whatever is necessary” to repay this country
for all that he has received.
“This country has given me a lot. . . I don’t know how to repay it,”
García underlined. “If a war comes about I would be willing to help in
any way, to the extent that my age permits.”
. . . . Dr. Donna Shalala, president of the University of Miami,
reaffirmed that the United States is “a nation founded by immigrants”
that has been successful because “it has known how to tolerate different
cultures.” Shalala emphasized that it is not right to lash out against
the Arabic community in the United States because “they are not
responsible for what happened.” “We must tolerate each other and learn
to live with others, regardless of their heritage or religious creed,”
she added.
==============================
Maurice Belanger
Senior Policy Associate
National Immigration Forum
mbelanger@immigrationforum.org
http://www.immigrationforum.org
------ End of Forwarded Message
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