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Subject: [NIFL-ESL:6554] FW: A Nation of Immigrants Rebuilds
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------ Forwarded Message
From: "Maurice Belanger" <mbelanger@immigrationforum.org>
Date: Wed, 10 Oct 2001 17:39:29 -0400
To: <mbelanger@immigrationforum.org>
Subject: A Nation of Immigrants Rebuilds
National Immigration Forum
Date: October 10, 2001
To: Forum Associates and interested advocates
From: Forum Policy Staff
Re: More Excerpts from Stories Relating to the Aftermath of the
Events of September 11
----------------------------------------------------
CONTENTS
1. "First Burn Victim Goes Home," Newsday, October 3, 2001
2. “Gone Without Proof," Newsday, October 1, 2001
3. "Red Cross Begins Outreach Program," Newsday, October 2,
2001
4. Quotes from Leaders
5. “Immigrant pilot takes off to raise millions for relief
effort,” The Indianapolis Star, September 27, 2001
6. "Central Valley town gropes with specter of hate
slaying," San Francisco Chronicle, October 4, 2001
7. "Coming Home," Newsweek, October 3, 2001
8. "Immigrants to U.S. May Face Terror," Associated Press,
October 3, 2001
9. "Spouses, children of attack victims left in immigration
limbo," Associated Press, October 9, 2001
10. "Haitian Churches Show Support," South Florida
Sun-Sentinel, October 3, 2001
11. "Out of work, but not hope," Dallas Morning News,
October 3, 2001
----------------------------------------------------
NEWSDAY
AMERICA'S ORDEAL
First Burn Victim Goes Home
Critically hurt by a fireball on 83rd floor
By Bobby Cuza
STAFF WRITER
October 3, 2001
When the first blast came, Manu Dhingra prayed for a swift and merciful
death.
Dhingra had just stepped out of an 83rd floor elevator, headed to his
office in the World Trade Center's north tower, when he was swallowed up
by a fireball.
"I was just thinking to myself, 'Please, God, make it quick. Make it
painless,'" he said. "I thought it was over."
Three weeks after the Sept. 11 attack, it is treatment and release that
have come quickly for the 27-year-old securities trader. Yesterday
Dhingra became the first critically burned victim discharged from New
York Weill Cornell Center.
Wearing a Yankees cap on his head and heavy bandages over his arms,
Dhingra moved gingerly but spoke easily before a roomful of reporters.
Though eager to return to his Manhattan apartment and visit with loved
ones, Dhingra also confessed to a nagging sense of guilt about his
speedy recovery.
"I don't why, [but] I don't feel that I deserve this," he said. "I don't
deserve this second chance. But I have it, so I have to make the best of
it. And I will."
Despite his searing pain and severe dehydration in the moments following
the blast, Dhingra found himself alive and standing. Aided by
co-workers, he descended 83 flights of stairs and was taken to an
ambulance, burns covering a third of his body.
"Every part of my body was burning. My ankles were burnt, my chest, my
back, my face, my neck, my arms, just everything," Dhingra said. "I
couldn't touch anything. Nobody could touch me. It was excruciating."
Dhingra was initially taken to St. Vincent's Hospital Manhattan and
later to Weill Cornell. His face was so swollen that it looked "like a
basketball," said Weill Cornell burn center director Roger Yurt, "so bad
that he couldn't even see."
As Dhingra spoke yesterday of the road ahead, it was clear the past 22
days had profoundly altered his outlook on life and the world
surrounding him. His employer, Andover Brokerage, continues operating.
But Dhingra said he has "no intentions, no interest in going back to
work right now."
Instead, he plans to soak up as much time as possible with his friends
and family. A native of India, Dhingra, who is single, is also anxiously
monitoring the United States' response to the terrorist attacks. He said
he has entertained the idea of returning to school.
Though expected to make a complete recovery, Dhingra still lacks
flexibility and relies on medication to ease his pain.
"I don't want to be at work. I don't want to treat it as life as
normal," he said. "Because it's not normal. Life will never be normal
for me and a lot of other people who've been affected by this. And now I
want to try to do something. I want to give back.
"I just can't let it go to waste."
=============================
Excerpted from “Gone Without Proof: Financial aid alludes families of
undocumented immigrants”
Newsday
By John Moreno Gonzales
10/01/2001
Luz Mara Mendoza cannot embrace her husband, so she embraces the
remnants of his New York life. "I sleep on his mattress, on the same
side I used to," she said, her eyes scanning the Brooklyn basement that
her spouse settled in after leaving Mexico. "It's a small bed, but it's
a comfortable one."
A week ago, Mendoza, 31, came to the United States with assistance from
her home state of Morelos to search for her husband, Juan Ortega, 33, a
deliveryman working at the World Trade Center complex when it was
destroyed.
But as hopes for his survival have dimmed with each news report on
Spanish-language television, Mendoza now finds herself searching for
financial help for herself and her three school-aged children. But when
Mendoza went to the same place as other families who have already
received help - the city's family assistance center on 12th Avenue in
Manhattan - she walked away empty-handed.
The problem: Though Ortega and thousands of undocumented immigrant
workers like him contributed mightily to the downtown economy, they were
"off the payroll, so there are no records," explained Joel Magalln, a
Jesuit brother and executive director of Asociación Tepeyac de New York.
"And employers are not going to report them missing because they're
afraid of sanctions."
Magalln says his group has compiled a list of 65 immigrant workers,
missing in the trade center disaster, the "disappeared," and about 400
workers who are now unemployed, their livelihoods unreachable in the
barricaded zone around the center. These are people whose daily labor
was "helping three economies," he said. "The economies of the U.S., of
their families here, and their families in their own country."
During the year and a half Ortega was away, he sent home about $400 a
month from his job at the World Trade Center, Mendoza said. While most
of that money helped Mendoza properly care for their children, Juan
Carlos, 13, Edgar Santiago, 11, and Giovanna, 9, she said she also put
aside a little each time so the family could one day afford to leave a
crowded house they shared with relatives. "He wanted to build another
home when he came back," Mendoza said. "Something where we'd all fit."
He also called frequently, she said, detailing his new world - the
Hasidic families who passed his door; the quirky roommate Miguel, who
woke up the old apartment with bright wall paint; the sight-seeing trip
to Washington, D.C. "Now I'm afraid that I'll go home without his body,
without anything that proves his death and life here," Mendoza said.
"I'll have to face our children empty-handed."
=======================
AMERICA'S ORDEAL / Red Cross Begins Outreach Program
John Moreno Gonzales
10/02/2001
Newsday
(Copyright Newsday Inc., 2001)
Reacting to the lack of aid for undocumented immigrant families affected
by the World Trade Center tragedy, the American Red Cross yesterday
began an unconventional outreach program to help them.
Jan Cole, a human relations liaison with the Brooklyn offices of the Red
Cross, yesterday visited the Manhattan offices of Asociación Tepeyac de
New York, a nonprofit group that has counted 66 mostly undocumented
immigrant workers who have "disappeared" as a result of the Sept. 11
attack.
Through ongoing interviews with low- wage workers downtown, Tepeyac also
has tallied about 700 mostly undocumented people left jobless because
their jobs are behind Ground Zero barricades.
Cole said the Red Cross would create assistance teams that would take
referrals from Tepeyac, which has Spanish-speaking volunteers reaching
out to employers and co-workers of the undocumented in an effort to
verify their places of work. Traditional employment verification, such
as Social Security numbers or pay stubs, aren't required, Cole said,
noting, "The only thing we're asking for is that an applicant have some
form of I.D., a rent bill, or a phone bill, or a utility bill of some
kind."
The aid, she said, could include food, clothing, rent payments and
funeral expenses, with needs evaluated on a case-by-case basis.
Mayor Rudolph Giuliani on Saturday promised to use "whatever influence I
have over benefits" to help undocumented workers receive equitable
benefits. But the mayor's office did not return calls yesterday seeking
specifics on Giuliani's efforts.
Brother Joel Magalln, executive director of Tepeyac, said his group is
applying for up to $30,000 in assistance for each family with relatives
missing in and around the site.
Caroline Quartararo, a spokeswoman for the New York State Crime Victims
Board, which will administer the aid, said each family will get a $1,500
check after submitting required affidavits at the city's Family
Assistance Center at Pier 94 in Manhattan, regardless of their
immigration status.
The remaining $28,500 will be dispersed in connection with acquisition
of state-certified death certificates.
Luz Mara Mendoza, a Mexican woman who walked away empty-handed from the
help center last week after seeking assistance related to the
disappearance of her husband, Juan Ortega, was in meetings with Mexican
consular officials yesterday. She is expected to once again apply for
help at the family center later in the week.
Tepeyac also is seeking $1,200 in assistance for each of the unemployed
through a crime victims board program administered through Safe
Horizons, a nonprofit company. Last week, 15 of those unemployed because
of the tragedy were turned away by Safe Horizons because they didn't
have Social Security numbers.
Quartararo said she would review what could be done for this group,
while Safe Horizons officials did not answer calls for comment.
===============================
Vice President Dick Cheney
“This [attack] is a perversion, if you will, of some of these religious
beliefs by an extremist group. We have extremists associated with, you
know, every imaginable religion in the world. But this is by no means a
war against Islam. We’ve got a great many Arab Americans, for example,
who are first class, loyal American citizens. We need to make certain
that we don’t make the mistake of assuming that everybody who comes from
a certain ethnic group or certain religious background is somehow to be
blamed for this. Clearly, that’s not the case. They are as appalled by
it as we are.”
(Meet the Press, 09/16/2001)
Dr. Donna Shalala, President of the University of Miami and former HHS
Secretary
“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.
(Excerpted and translated from “Immigrants, with the motherland in their
heart,” Univisión.com, Fernando Almánzar, 09/17/2001)
========================
“Immigrant pilot takes off to raise millions for relief effort,” The
Indianapolis Star, Associated Press, 09/27/2001
A Polish immigrant took off Thursday on a cross country trip to raise
money to help victims of this month’s terrorist attacks. Indianapolis
pilot J.J. Jaworski said his mission is to donate $10 million to the
American Red Cross in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks on New York
and Washington D.C.
Jaworski, a private pilot, is flying a four-winged experimental airplane
called a Quickie. The plane is equipped with a patriotic exterior
designed by local artists.
The aircraft’s underside is decorated with an American flag. A bald
eagle is painted on the side, and the plane’s tail features an image of
the Statue of Liberty with a silhouette of the World Trade Center towers
in the background.
The top of the plane’s wings are mostly empty. That’s the space that
Jaworski plans to sell. For $1,000, a company or person can have their
name added to the wings.
During the next 15 days, Jaworski is planning 150 stops on a trip
spanning 15,000 miles. His flight is for freedom, Jaworski told The
Lebanon Reporter. “I came here to the states from Poland,” he said.
“And I want to make sure we protect the freedom we have here.”
Jaworski, who immigrated in 1964, has also lived in New Jersey and New
York, where he said he spent many days at the World Trade Center.
===========================
Central Valley town gropes with specter of hate slaying / Arab American
shot in his Reedley store
Elizabeth Bell
10/04/2001
The San Francisco Chronicle
(Copyright 2001)
Abdo Ali Ahmed moved to the United States 35 years ago from the Middle
Eastern Republic of Yemen and eventually settled just outside this small
Central Valley town, often working 14-hour days in his convenience store
to support his eight children.
Like many U.S. citizens, Ahmed taped a small American flag along side
the beer and cigarette advertisements in his store window after the
Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. America had done right by Ahmed's family,
and he, too, felt stung by the attacks.
Last Saturday afternoon, Fresno County law officials say, someone shot
him to death in his store. As family members prepare to say goodbye at
his funeral tomorrow, Reedley is struggling to embrace their small
Yemeni community and determine whether Ahmed, 51, was killed in a hate
crime that came in response to the East Coast attacks.
Until now, many local residents have known little about their handful of
Middle Eastern shopkeepers except that they are friendly and helpful.
They don't want to believe that one in their town could have been
murdered for revenge.
After the shooting, witnesses at an adjoining bar saw two males between
13 and 18 years old run out of Ahmed's store and hop in a car with two
other males before taking off. Nothing appears to have been taken, not
even a bag of cash the family says was under the register.
Ahmed's family believes that he is the victim of a hate crime, but the
town of Reedley isn't sure what to think of the killing.
Townspeople wonder if it was a robbery gone afoul, or if the assailants
are the same people who left a note on his front windshield a few days
earlier, threatening to kill him because of his Middle Eastern heritage.
Someone also recently came into his store and threatened him.
Reedley is a diverse town where 65 percent of the residents are Latino,
about 20 percent are white, with a healthy mix of Japanese Americans,
and a few hailing from Middle Eastern countries such as Jordan and
Yemen.
The mayor and Chamber of Commerce director can't fathom that people in a
town accustomed to such diversity would lash out at Muslims.
"This town is not a town for a hate crime. This is very devastating,"
said Reedley Chamber of Commerce director Betty Crum. "We are a united
family."
But some people on the street admit they have caught themselves feeling
suspicious of local residents who come from the Middle East.
"They've been here forever, but then you hear about these other people
(involved in the attacks) who've been around for years," said Liz
Gallardo, 34. ". . . You think everybody's undercover. It's not right,
but it's the paranoia."
If Ahmed's killing was motivated by the Sept. 11 attacks, it would be
one of several such hate crimes that came in response to the attacks.
Just days after Sept. 11, a former San Francisco cabdriver who was a
Sikh was gunned down outside a Mesa, Ariz., gas station he owned. The
FBI is investigating the death as a hate crime, believing that the
victim was mistaken for an Arab.
Reedley -- a town of 20,000 -- is surrounded by fruit trees about 12
miles from Highway 99, southeast of Fresno. Its economy is based on
agriculture, fruit packing plants, and fruit storage facilities.
In the 1960s, people from Yemen seeking economic opportunity and
political stability began settling in such San Joaquin Valley towns,
said Republic of Yemen Consul Monsoor Ismael of San Francisco.
The Republic of Yemen is about twice the size of Wyoming with about 18
million residents. Most Yemeni work in agriculture, as did Ahmed, which
is why they chose to settle in the Central Valley.
Gradually, they began opening small markets because they made better
wages, said Ismael.
Ahmed owned a small convenience store in nearby Sanger for about 10
years, before buying his shop in Reedley 10 years ago.
His customers and family remembered him as friendly, generous, quiet and
dedicated to his family. Relatives said he let regular customers buy on
credit.
Customer Elena Arevalo, 44, said he would tease her when she stopped for
a six-pack, saying upstanding women shouldn't drink beer. Another
customer said Ahmed had given her son a free lolly pop when he came in.
There are about 25,000 people from Yemen in California, with about 6,000
scattered between Fresno and Bakersfield.
In Reedley and nearby towns, Yemeni emigrants say they've gotten along
well with their neighbors, and their larger communities say the Middle
Eastern residents are good citizens.
Yet there is a feeling of disconnect between Yemeni immigrants and the
larger community. In Reedley, many residents say they know from
interactions with Middle Eastern shopkeepers that they are good and kind
people.
But except for in the schools and stores, they have few dealings with
them. The local Chamber of Commerce said no Middle Eastern business
owners had become members.
"I've approached them for membership, but they just don't see the
benefit," said Crum of the Chamber of Commerce. "I haven't been able to
break through."
Schools superintendent Jean Fetterhoff said her principals had been
vigilant since the Sept. 11 attacks and hadn't reported any harassment.
Students at Reedley's high school organized a Peace Day on Tuesday, and
the student body president, a Japanese American, told his peers how his
grandparents had been locked in U.S. internment camps during World War
II. He encouraged them to be accepting of others' differences.
According to Madram Shuaibi, a longtime family friend of Ahmed who owns
a convenience store in nearby Dinuba, people from Yemen don't feel
separated from the larger Central Valley community.
"We don't want to divide ourselves up. We are united with everybody,"
Shuaibi said.
Yet some Middle Eastern shopkeepers now feel fearful. Hareez Hussein,
24, works in his family store, the Reedley Supermarket, which now opens
one hour later and closes one hour earlier out of concern for employees.
Ahmed's wife, Fahtima, is left to fend for six children between the ages
of 1 and 13. The other two children are adults living away from home. As
relatives from as far as Alaska and Louisiana gathered at the house,
some of the older sons tossed a football among their uncles in front of
the family store this week. The younger children don't understand their
father is gone.
Sheriff's deputies say they have made no arrests. They are tracking
leads and don't know whether Ahmed's shooting was a hate crime.
People of all races who shopped in Ahmed's East Reedley Market have been
leaving flowers outside its locked doors.
"It is with deep sorrow we write this letter for the loss of your
husband, son, father, brother, uncle and friend" wrote one woman. "This
dreadful crime is so very cruel and senseless. . . . Your pain is felt
in our home."
=====================
Coming Home
A Saudi Arabian doctor was arrested in Texas on Sept. 12, then jailed,
questioned and finally released 12 days later. But Al-Badr Al-Hazmi may
never be the same
By Ellise Pierce
NEWSWEEK WEB EXCLUSIVE
Oct. 3 — By last Friday afternoon, all seemed back to normal in the
Al-Hazmi home in San Antonio, Texas.The cartoon show “Clifford the Big
Red Dog” played on the television while Ebitihal and Afnan, aged 8 and
6, danced like ballerinas around the living room and shared M&M’s with
their 2-year-old brother, Abdul Rahman. Their mother, Entizar, cooked
spaghetti.
BUT IN REALITY, their lives have been greatly altered, perhaps
permanently.
On Sept. 11, just two and a half weeks earlier, the children’s
father, Al-Badr Al-Hazmi—a fourth-year radiology resident at the
University of Texas Health Science Center—was studying for his boards
when he saw the news of the terrorist attacks on TV. “I cried,” says
Al-Hazmi. “My eyes filled with tears. It was absolutely evil.” When he
went to the mosque that day, as he did every day, Al-Hazmi prayed for
the victims. It would be his last day of freedom for some time.
The next morning at 5 a.m., just as he was readying himself for
his dawn prayer, Al-Hazmi heard a knock on his door and found FBI,
immigration and customs agents with a warrant to search his house.
“There were six men with guns,” he says. “They asked me if I knew
Mohamed Atta, and I said that I’d never heard that name. They mentioned
another name, Khalid-something, and I said I never heard that name.”
The agents searched his house for six hours and removed his home
computer, medical textbooks and Islamic magazines. Al-Hazmi called Saudi
Aramco, the Saudi Arabian oil company that had sponsored his residency
since 1997 and asked them what to do. They said to videotape the search,
but the FBI told Al-Hazmi that he couldn’t. At 10:30 a.m., another group
of agents arrived. “I knew something was wrong,” said Al-Hazmi. Outside
his house, they handcuffed him. “I said, ‘What is my guilt?’ And they
said, ‘We’ll tell you in the office’.”
Al-Hazmi was put under “administrative arrest” and taken to the
FBI office in San Antonio. There, agents questioned him about the
whereabouts of his five brothers and three sisters. Around 4 p.m. that
day, he was allowed to call a lawyer, and he telephoned his wife to let
her know that he was all right. It was the last time that he would speak
to her for 11 days.
That evening, Al-Hazmi was put in jail in nearby Comal County.
Suffering from bronchitis, he asked for an antibiotic, but received only
Tylenol. His eyeglasses, used to correct his severe nearsightedness,
were confiscated and never returned. Two days later, he was transported
to the Immigration and Naturalization Services building in San Antonio,
where he was fingerprinted again and had his photographs taken. “I kept
asking them to let me call my lawyer,” he says, “but they wouldn’t let
me. ‘Maybe in one hour. Maybe at 4.’ The whole day went like this.”
Al-Hazmi still didn’t know why he was being held.
On Friday, Sept. 14, Al-Hazmi—his 5-foot-4, 110-pound body now
in shackles—was driven to the airport. Hours later, he arrived at New
York’s John F. Kennedy International, where dozens of U.S. Marshals
stood on the runway with automatic rifles in their arms. “I knew things
were getting worse,” he says. His hunch was correct. At the Metropolitan
Correctional Center in Manhattan, Al-Hazmi says he became a target for
physical abuse. He says that FBI agents routinely kicked him in the
small of his back, shouting at him, while asking him his name. (The FBI
has said they have “no information of any such allegation.”)
On Tuesday, Sept. 19, six days after he was handcuffed and
taken from his home, Al-Hazmi was officially informed of the allegations
against him. They told him he shared the same family name of two of the
hijackers, Salem Al-Hazmi and Nawaf Al-Hazmi, and they knew that in
1999, he had twice contacted Abdullah bin Laden, one of the family
members of Osama bin Laden. His travel to Washington and Boston earlier
this year was questioned, too, as was his planned trip to San Diego with
his family on Sept. 22, which was booked and paid for through the
Travelocity Web site, which some of the hijackers allegedly used, as
well. Authorities wanted to know why there were two other men on the San
Diego flight with the same surname.
Al-Hazmi, he told them, is a common name in Saudi Arabia. “It’s
like John Smith in the U.S.,” he says. And Al-Hazmi says he had
contacted Abdullah bin Laden in reference to his nonprofit World
Assembly of Muslim Youth, which teaches people about Islam.
That Sunday night, he was questioned about every trip that he
had taken while living in San Antonio for the last four years, which
hotels he had stayed in and what airlines he had flown. His bank
accounts were scrutinized and questioned.
After more hours of intense questioning, Al-Hazmi’s case was
dismissed. Just before 5 p.m. on Sept. 24, he was released in New York,
without his glasses, without his clothes, in blue jail pants and black
top.
“I was happy to smell the fresh air and see the sun,” he says.
Escorted by his attorney, Al-Hazmi ate a Milky Way candy bar, went to a
nearby hotel and called his mother, his brothers and his wife, who, at
the urging of the Saudi Embassy, had taken their children and moved
temporarily out of their house.
Al-Hazmi arrived at home at 3 p.m. on Sept. 26, to dozens of
friends and family, who poured sugary mint tea and passed around dates.
His son cried the entire time that he was gone, says his wife,
and still doesn’t seem quite the same. His oldest daughter saw some of
the dozens of reports on television. “She said, ‘You were in jail,’”
says Al-Hazmi, his eyes filling with tears. “How can you explain to
innocent kids what happened? I’m embarrassed, ashamed to explain,” he
says. “It was painful for me and my family to lose my freedom for two
weeks.”
In the 13 days that Al-Hazmi was held by federal authorities,
his name and photograph was splashed all over newspapers and television.
It was widely reported that he was connected to two men taken from a San
Antonio-bound train with box cutters, hair dye and several thousand
dollars in cash.
Newspapers also reported that he had an alias, Khalid al-Midar,
and a passport to go along with it. He was frequently described as
someone who was thought to have provided money and other support to the
hijackers, in addition to having the same last name as two of the
suspected suicide pilots.
Al-Hazmi may not stay for the rest of his residency, slated to
end in June 2002, or to take his final board exam. Some people at
University Hospital, where he works, don’t want him to come back.
Despite his exoneration, he says, it might be risky. His mother is
urging him to come home to Saudi Arabia, where he and his family would
be safe. And he says he’s thinking seriously about it. These days,
friends are pitching in to pay the $15 an hour fee for the security
guard that sits in a truck in his driveway at night. But Al-Hazmi is
even more afraid of the “three-letter agencies that can abuse the law
for whatever reason that they want,” says his friend, Abdulla Mohammad.
Either way, the price of staying in America may be too high.
© 2001 Newsweek, Inc.
======================
Immigrants to U.S. May Face Terror
By DIEGO IBARGUEN
10/03/2001
AP Online
Copyright 2001 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
NEW YORK (AP) - Victor Paz always wanted his family to follow his lead
and trade the violence of their native Colombia for the peace and
security of America.
He settled in New York, became a pastry chef at one of the city's
premier restaurants and told his sister back home that he would help
them to safety.
Instead, the violence he feared was here. Paz died Sept. 11 when
American Airlines Flight 11 crashed into the north tower of the World
Trade Center.
"The one who was always the safest was my brother who was here," said
his sister, Julia Paz. "We never thought he would be the victim of a
terrorist attack. Never, never, never."
Each year tens of thousands of people from countries embroiled in civil
strife or suffering through natural disasters apply for asylum in the
United States, said Bill Strassberger, a spokesman for the Immigration
and Naturalization Service in Washington.
For some immigrants, the attack on New York that left more than 5,000
people dead or missing has served as a chilling reminder of the places
they left behind. They include people from 80 nations, some from
countries like Colombia, Lebanon and Sri Lanka where violence has become
a part of life.
"We thought we went so far away from where we were," said Randa Tohme, a
mother of three who emigrated to the United States from Lebanon as a
teen-ager to continue her studies postponed by civil war.
The attacks "brought everything back to the surface: the terror, the
insecurity, the fear, the madness," Tohme said.
Her 43-year-old cousin, Robert Dirani, is among those missing in the
disaster. Dirani, who was born in the United States to Lebanese parents,
was at a technology conference in one of the towers when it was struck
by a jet.
"I did not expect this to happen right outside our doorstep," Tohme
said.
Tohme said reaching closure will be difficult without first knowing his
remains have been found. The uncertainty, she said, reminds her of a
friend who disappeared during the conflict in Lebanon years ago.
"He was kidnapped and we never found his body," she said. "It's another
experience I'm reliving. ... I don't know if it's easier or not, it's
just more familiar. It doesn't make the pain less."
Victor Paz arrived in New York about 15 years ago, before his Colombian
hometown of Cali became overrun with violence from drug trafficking.
That terrorism claimed the life of one of his brothers a decade ago.
Now three weeks after the Sept. 11 tragedy, Julia Paz is staying in the
New York apartment where her brother lived for 10 years, beginning to
"take on the pain and take on the reality. That's how life goes on."
Far from the violence in Cali, another immigrant from that city, Luz
Piedrahita explained why she came to the United States.
"You seek refuge here in America," she said. "In this country you feel
exceedingly safe."
Her son, Wilder Gomez, was a waiter and bartender at Windows on the
World, the restaurant where Paz also worked. A father of four, Gomez
moved here in 1992 and, with his mother, raised his youngest daughter.
Piedrahita burst into tears as she recounted seeing flames on the towers
as she walked in Manhattan. Another son called Gomez's cell phone from
Colombia and learned that his brother was trapped in heavy smoke on the
103rd floor of one of the towers, she said.
"Sometimes I think I hear him coming in," Piedrahita said, though she
knows it is her imagination.
"New York has changed," she said. "Now it's not the same."
=========================
Spouses, children of attack victims left in immigration limbo
10/09/2001
Associated Press Newswires
Copyright 2001. The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
NEWARK, N.J. (AP) - Days after her husband was presumably killed in the
Sept. 11 attack on the World Trade Center, the news got worse for Deena
Gilbey - she learned that she might be deported.
The Chatham Township woman and her husband, Paul, were British nationals
who had lived in America for eight years. Their two young sons were both
born in the United States.
Paul, a money trader with the Euro Bank, worked on the 84th floor of the
South Tower. The couple was here on a long-term work visa for
specialized workers that allowed Deena to live in America but prohibited
her from working.
When she phoned the Immigration and Naturalization Service a few days
after the Sept. 11 attacks, she was told the visa was no longer valid
once Paul died. Gilbey said she was told she would have to leave the
country or face possible deportation.
Although INS Commissioner James Ziglar has said that the agency would
not pursue immigration claims against victims' families, Gilbey remains
concerned about her future and her sons Max,7, and Mason,3.
"This is their home. They're American," Gilbey told The Star-Ledger of
Newark for Tuesday's editions. "This is the only security they've got."
Federal lawmakers are reportedly working on legislation to help people
like Gilbey. However, Chris Nugent, a lawyer with the American Bar
Association, said the INS has several options to help these people that
would not require a change.
"If the INS wants to do the right thing, they don't have to go after
her," Nugent said.
===================
COMMUNITY NEWS
HAITIAN CHURCHES SHOW SUPPORT ; COMMUNITY GATHERS TO PRAY, RAISE FUNDS
FOR TERRORISM VICTIMS
R.S. Pollack Special Correspondent
10/03/2001
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
West Broward
Page 3
(Copyright 2001 by the Sun-Sentinel)
For many who gathered in the chapel of the Eglise Baptiste Bethanie on
Sept. 23, the United States is an adopted homeland. For all, whether
U.S. citizens or not, it is now home.
So it came as no surprise when more than 800 members of South Florida's
Haitian community banded together to show support, both spiritually and
financially, for those who felt the effects of the tragedies in New
York, Washington, D.C., and Pennsylvania on Sept. 11.
"We wanted to be able to show the community we care," said the Rev.
Usler Auguste, pastor of the Fort Lauderdale church that conducted a
special service for terrorism victims. "We live here, we want to show
our love to the people."
The Sunday afternoon service, sponsored by the Haitian Pastors'
Conference of Broward County, drew members from 15 to 20 Haitian Baptist
churches together for prayer and fund raising.
"People showed their love for America by praying and crying," Auguste
said. "They spoke and said, `We want to stand with the American people
and to win this war.'"
Those attending the ceremonies listened to speeches and songs, including
a rendition of God Bless America.
"There was a strong sense of patriotism there," said John W. Fleming,
executive director of the Plantation-based Gulfstream Baptist
Association, an organization of more than 160 churches in Broward
County. "There was a tremendous outpouring of appreciation for America."
Fleming, whose organization includes churches with congregations from
many different parts of the world, says the support for America is
universal, with almost all of the churches either holding special
services or including special prayers in their regular services.
In addition to offering prayers and opening hearts to those who lost
loved ones in the tragedy, those gathered for the service also opened
their wallets.
Even Auguste was taken aback by their generosity. "Collecting $5,200
from 800 people was a surprise to me," Auguste said. "Compared to what
some other churches collected, it may not be much, but for us that is a
lot."
A large portion of the money raised, according to Auguste, will go to
the Metropolitan New York City Baptist Association, which is channeling
money collected from all over the nation to those in need. "One hundred
percent of what they receive goes to help victims and to support the
workers involved," said Sylna Rego, director of Community Ministries for
the Gulfstream Baptist Association.
The remainder of the money collected, Auguste said, will be given to
Broward County firefighters, who are collecting as part of a national
drive to help families in New York of those killed or injured in the
line of duty. He said the Haitian Pastors Conference wanted to
contribute through a local organization. "We live here in Broward," he
said.
Auguste said the idea for the community service was hatched at a meeting
of the Haitian Pastors Association only a few days before the service.
Had there been more notice, he said, chances are the crowd would have
been even larger.
"Everyone was thinking about getting together as a group to pray for the
families of the victims," he said.
Rego, whose organization works with many churches that support immigrant
communities, said she was not surprised by the support from the Haitian
community.
"They have a love for this country and they want to show it," she said.
============================
Out of work, but not hope: Thousands in NY unemployed after terrorist
attacks.(NEWS)
Jennifer Emily
10/01/2001
The Dallas Morning News
Page 1A
Copyright 2001 Gale Group Inc. All rights reserved. COPYRIGHT 2001 The
Dallas Morning News, L.P.
NEW YORK - Shailesh Shrestha lost his restaurant job and 80 friends and
co-workers when the World Trade Center collapsed. Still, the Nepalese
immigrant says that he loves America and that his family is living out
their dream.
He worked for 10 months busing tables at Windows of the World, a
restaurant on the 107th floor of the first twin tower to be hit by a
hijacked airplane Sept. 11. He's now one of thousands of New Yorkers
scrambling to find work after the terrorist attack.
"I'm an immigrant . I don't have an educational background for this
country," Mr. Shrestha said, sipping hot tea at his kitchen table with
his wife and 5-year-old daughter. "What can I do? I'm worried I won't be
able to get such a good job."
Despite the millions of dollars available to assist the newly
unemployed, Mr. Shrestha won't apply for aid because he fears receiving
government assistance could jeopardize his green card application. He
and his wife, Anjana, have been in the United States for four years on
work visas and have spent more than $5,000 in attorneys' fees to obtain
the cards.
More than 10,800 people have submitted unemployment applications to the
state Department of Labor, citing the attacks as the reason they lost
their jobs. And the agency expects more. But Mr. Shrestha and others who
do not apply for aid will not be counted in the final tally of the
unemployed.
"I don't feel comfortable having unemployment. But we have to survive.
We have to pay the rent," Mr. Shrestha said. "We have big dreams. If we
give some sort of negative impression and we don't get our green cards
.." His voice trailed off. "I want to work. I will work in a week or
two."
Range of aid offered
Food stamps, medical care, rent or mortgage assistance, college tuition
and even subway fare are available to victims of the attacks. The Family
Assistance Center in Manhattan, organized after the attack, allows
victims to travel to one place for help instead of filling out forms
with agencies all over the city.
Some who sought assistance at the center last week said they received
more than they had expected.
"People over here are really helpful. We can never repay what they have
done for us," said 25-year-old Mohammed Ahad of Yonkers, who lost his
job as a waiter at a hotel near the Trade Center. "They are taking care
of us. They are taking care of our needs. I will tell anyone who lost
their job to come here for help."
Mr. Ahad, who moved to New York from Bangladesh, supported his parents
with his tips. The Family Assistance Center will help him pay the
mortgage and other monthly expenses while he searches for work.
More than 1,100 people visited the center one day last week to apply for
assistance, death certificates and counseling, New York Mayor Rudolph
Giuliani said. And officials expect more in the coming weeks, especially
those seeking health care and unemployment.
"Once they get resettled and decide what they're doing next, we expect
more people. Right now, the focus is on their families," said Betsy
McCormack, a spokeswoman for the New York Department of Labor.
Aid is available from a variety of sources.
Low-interest loans are being offered through the Small Business
Administration for businesses affected by the attacks. Families can
receive grants of up to $13,900 to cover medical, dental and funeral
costs. Other loans are available to help pay rent and other monthly
expenses. Lawyers are offering legal counseling, and more unemployment
centers are scheduled to open this week.
Those who lack health care only need to fill out one form at a social
service office by Jan. 31 to receive benefits from Medicare and other
government health programs for up to a year. And those already on the
health program do not need to renew the paperwork.
Green card worries
The Shresthas say they would not think twice about applying for aid if
they weren't waiting for green cards.
Rent on their studio apartment in Queens will jump $35 to $613 in
October, and they recently signed a two-year lease. The couple and their
daughter share a queen-size bed in the 650-square-foot room in the
seven-story building. A play area for Suyasha, with a pallet of
blankets, dolls and paints, separates the bed from a kitchen table. The
back door opens to a blacktop roof.
They easily paid the rent with the $700 Mr. Shrestha brought home weekly
from his job at Windows of the World. Now Mrs. Shrestha is supporting
the family on less than $300 a week with a job she found at a Manhattan
coffee shop. The Shresthas said they could last two months without other
income.
"It's totally different. My money is for survival," Mrs. Shrestha, 29,
said. "We are surviving."
Mr. Shrestha, 36, seldom leaves the apartment since the attack except to
walk Suyasha to her morning kindergarten classes. A subway trip to the
assistance center for employment information was an exception. Posters
of the missing plastered throughout New York remind him of those he will
never see again.
"It's hard to be out there. I go to Times Square and I see a lot of my
friends smiling, although they are not here. I go to Union Square and
there they are," Mr. Shrestha said. "It's very stressful. I see my
friends' pictures everywhere."
Mr. Shrestha was scheduled to begin work Sept. 11, but the tower
collapsed hours before his 3 p.m. shift.
'The American dream'
The Shresthas stay glued to their television for news about survivors
and the investigation into the attacks. Like tourists and other New
Yorkers, the couple bought a picture from a street vendor of the New
York skyline with the twin towers still standing.
Suyasha, who watched television footage of the planes hitting the
towers, repeatedly asks her parents why the pilots did not see the
towers. They could have swerved, she insists.
Despite the uncertainty of their future, the Shresthas steadfastly
believe their lives are better because of their journey to New York four
years ago.
"All over the world people dream the American dream," Mr. Shrestha said.
"Everyone wants to be here."
==============================
Maurice Belanger
Senior Policy Associate
National Immigration Forum
mbelanger@immigrationforum.org
http://www.immigrationforum.org
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