Immigrants 'Fearful' of Government

By: Rupa Shenoy Kevin Dixler rushes to federal Immigration Court at 55 E. Monroe St. in Chicago weighed down by thick case files and two or three textbooks, marked in places by pens that jut out. On a morning in mid-January, Dixler, an immigration attorney, was thinking about how to convince the court that one of his clients, a student from Azerbaijan, deserved asylum.

The north suburban Highland Park native began practicing law in 1992. His interest in immigration issues began when his sister-in-law, who is Filipina, applied for U.S. citizenship.

As part of its terrorism investigation, the U.S. Department of Justice sent hundreds of letters last fall to people of Middle Eastern background in the Chicago area, requesting they voluntarily report for interviews. Dixler recently represented two who were among the first to comply.

On his way to a recent hearing, Dixler stopped to share some of his and his clients’ experiences with The Chicago Reporter. What follows is an edited transcript of his comments.

How did your clients react when they got their letters?
Some of them may have a fear that, by interviewing, a brother or sister who has had immigration problems might have them come to life again. But many of the people who are being interviewed are just people who are here on work visas, or they may just be students. I don’t know if they told anyone they were being interviewed. Obviously this would perhaps prejudice people. They have a future and don’t want to ruin that future.

The American Civil Liberties Union in Chicago estimated that officials have interviewed as many as 200 people of Middle Eastern background in the Chicago area since Sept. 11. None of those who came to the ACLU for legal help wanted to speak to the press, even anonymously. This is true for your clients as well. Why?
They’re fearful of the law. The law is so complicated and there seems, to them, to be inconsistencies. This has been the history of the Immigration and Naturalization Service. People who’ve been here for years, who have family, hide in the closet. It’s a fear of not knowing what the law is.

How often does the law change?
God. There’s probably a change every year, in different visa areas. Sometimes you get lucky, but the regulations [for interpreting the laws] change annually, too.

Why do they change so often?
The wind. You know it’s easy to pick on immigrants, or people who want to be immigrants to the United States. Also, there are laws that are passed, and sometimes it takes years and years before the INS can agree on regulations that will make sense. Laws that are 10 or 12 years old don’t have regulations—just a bunch of memorandums. And sometimes the memorandums contradict themselves.

Have Arab Americans in the Chicago area been detained by the INS since Sept. 11? Have you represented anyone?
Yes. Some of them are just routine cases regarding people with criminal arrests and convictions who are considered to be a priority by the INS—convictions that would make them ineligible to stay as permanent residents, even if they have families here.

These detentions for long periods of time in county jails—they happen, and they happened before Sept. 11. We had one case where a Brazilian was detained last April and he wasn’t sent back to his home country until September.

Unfortunately, now [detentions] are happening for reasons that deal with expired visas and things like that. In the past, the INS placed more of a priority on people who enter the United States unlawfully or people who were allegedly involved with criminal activity who really shouldn’t have been here.

Are people who are detained allowed to have attorneys?
They are, but it’s very hard for the average attorney to find out about the hearings. Sometimes the client is being held as far away as Racine, Wis.

Why are people being held so far away?
Bed space. The government doesn’t have a facility of their own to detain people.

What happens to their families if their loved ones are detained?
The families have a choice to either remain here or leave the country. Many will stay here and, of course, the family will be without a parent.

How do they support themselves?
That’s a good question.

Is Chicago ready for increased activity by the INS?
The problem is that Congress doesn’t realize the power they’ve given to the Immigration and Naturalization Service in deporting people.

People don’t understand what’s at the root of the issue. Why do people come here? Is it such a bad thing? There are jobs available, and people don’t want those jobs. But we want those services and products. The only way that we as a nation will have those products produced here is by immigration—whether it’s unlawful immigration or immigration that’s regulated by the government.
Where there’s a will, there’s a way, and that’s just how it’s going to be.