Wednesday, March 26, 2008
The INS has denied a Navy-Marine Corps Achievement award-winner's application for citizenship. Of this stunning bureaucratic error, Michael Totten writes:
Saman Kareem Ahmad is an Iraqi Kurd who worked as a translator with the Marines in Iraq's Anbar Province. He was one of the few selected translators who was granted asylum in the U.S. because he and his family were singled out for destruction by insurgents for "collaboration." He wants to return to Iraq as an American citizen and a Marine, and has already been awarded the Navy-Marine Corps Achievement Medal and the War on Terrorism Expeditionary Medal. Secretary of the Navy Donald C. Winter and General David Petraeus wrote notes for his file and recommended he be given a Green Card, but the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) declined his application and called him a "terrorist."
The INS says Ahmad "conducted full-scale armed attacks and helped incite rebellions against Hussein's regime, most notably during the Iran-Iraq war, Operation Desert Storm, and Operation Iraqi Freedom" while a member of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP).
The KDP is one of two mainstream Kurdish political parties in Iraq.
Like many bureaucracies, the INS needs to engage some brain cells every once in awhile. Hopefully, the publicity will cause them to reconsider. There may be others like Mr. Ahmad who've worked with the US in Iraq, and who should be given citizenship.
Can a story published in a newspaper or a blog change the way a government does things? Well, it helped upgrade the Dungeons of Fallujah.
The story in the Post only captures part of the story. I do pro bono legal work for Iraqi translators and the bs I run into from DoS is unimaginable. At least the translator in the story got out. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of others trying to escape - many will end up dead in an alley because of DoS.
Last summer I went to a panel discussion about the plight of Iraqi journalists and translators who worked for Americans and who want to come to the US. This is a serious problem.
About Saman Kareem Ahmad - According to the Washington Post,
The U.S. immigration service said yesterday that it will temporarily stop denying green cards to refugees and other legal immigrants tied to groups that sought to topple foreign dictatorships, placing their cases on hold while it determines more "logical, common-sense" rules for judging them.
It's very important to try to change immobile and counterproductive bureaucracies like the INS and DoS.
One of my fears is that some of the Iraqis the US accepts as refugees MIGHT, MAY, decide to change sides once in the US to undo the damage they did to their reputations back in Iraq.
Changing sides during the War on Islamofascism happens all the time in Iraq and Afghanistan.
"Policemen" take off their uniforms and join their former opponents.
An Arab man in the US military was a double agent.
It may be a chance the US has to take, but I hope the activity these people engage in is monitored for the duration of the War on Islamofascism.