Omar Jamal, Somali activist, targeted by INS

Omar Jamal, one of the most important local voices for civil and immigrant rights and against the notorious Patriot Act, was arrested by the INS on Monday, March 31. The Executive Director of the Somali Justice Advocacy Center in Minneapolis was released Thursday afternoon on $6,500 bond.

He expressed his deepest appreciation for the extraordinary support and encouragement shown to him by the community. A rally in support of Omar and immigrant communities in general was held Friday afternoon at 24th and Chicago.

Omar’s lawyers say that the government has still not provided any evidence backing their claim that Jamal gave inaccurate information on his asylum application, and that the immigration issues regarding the government’s allegations will be resolved in the next year or two. Unfortunately, the government has not only initiated deportation proceedings against Jamal, but criminal proceedings, as well.

For the same, alleged act of inaccurately answering questions on his application, the government is charging Jamal with six felonies, one for each of the questions which he allegedly answered falsely. The maximum penalty Jamal would face would be 30 years in federal prison!

Up until a year ago, for possible errors on an asylum application, an immigrant would be invited to INS in order to clear up the allegations and decide what to do next. What is unusual, and particularly chilling, is that in Jamal’s case, this precedent and protocol is being bypassed: He has been sent into immediate deportation proceedings, and is being charged with felonies. This is a totally new development in the government’s treatment of immigrants.

The government may be singling Jamal out for this unusual and aggressive treatment, or, even more frighteningly, this may be how the newly-formed Department of Homeland Security will be handling immigrants from now on.

Since 9-11 the large Somali community in Minneapolis has been targeted by the FBI and INS. Several businesses have been unjustly raided and shut down for allowing families to send money to relatives back in Somalia. And, the local police have continued their legacy of brutality against the community, including the shooting murder of a mentally disabled Somali man.

Omar Jamal has been a leading voice against the repression of the Somali community and an important bridge between Somali activists and other Minnesotans fighting for social justice, civil liberties and peace. His detention is an attack on all of us.

Keep calling Senator Dayton’s and Senator Coleman’s offices, as well as Representative McCollum’s office and ask them to make some statement of support for the good work that Jamal has done for our community, and of concern for the grave and chilling implications that this double jeopardy of putting an immigrant into immediate deportation proceedings and of charging them with felonies for errors on their applications has on the human and civil rights of all citizens, especially immigrants.