Stateless Palestinian refugee Mohammad Bachir--a legal permanent resident in the US for 23 years--has been detained since February 2002 while INS/BICE officials try to deport him. No country will issue him travel documents, so Bachir's continued detention is illegal under the Supreme Court's June 2001 Zadvydas v. Davis ruling. BICE officials at the Batavia immigration detention facility have recommended his release, but David Venturella, who heads the Office of Detention & Removal in Washington, keeps reneging on promises to release him. Bachir just suspended a hunger strike to give Venturella another chance to do the right thing: it is crucial that pressure be kept up over the next couple of weeks.

Please contact Venturella and politely but firmly ask that he release Mohammad Bachir immediately.

Call, fax, email:

David J. Venturella,
Assistant Deputy Executive Associate
Commissioner, Office of Detention & Removal, BICE
Phone 202-305-2734
Fax 202-353-9435
David.j.venturella@usdoj.gov

Contact: Mac, 646-489-4375

PLEASE send copies of your correspondence to detentionalertnyc@yahoo.com

Immigration News Briefs (INB), a weekly English-language summary of US immigration news, is forwarded out to the email list of the Coalition for the Human Rights of Immigrants (CHRI). If wish to subscribe directly to INB, or to the CHRI email list (which includes INB and local NYC area events, average 4-5 messages a week), write to nicajg@panix.com (indicate "CHRI list" or "INB only").