BY DAVID McFADDEN
Journal Staff Writer

A Cumberland resident appears in court today to argue that U.S. officials have treated him unfairly and to ask a judge to let him stay in the United States.

CUMBERLAND -- A Jordanian citizen facing deportation for allegedly entering into a phony marriage says that he's been targeted by immigration authorities because of his political beliefs.

Amer Jubran, a 33-year-old Cumberland resident who is a founder of the New England Committee to Defend Palestine, is scheduled to appear today in U.S. Immigration Court in Boston for a determination of whether he can stay in the United States.

Jubran and his lawyer, Nelson K. Brill, assert that the government's case was prompted by Jubran's antiwar and pro- Palestinian activism. Brill said that since his client's arrest on Nov. 4 occurred two days after he led a rally for Palestine, "this certainly leads to the assumption that he was arrested due to political reasons."

Brill said the government contends that Jubran's 1998 marriage to his former wife, Maria Ortiz, who was born in Puerto Rico, was fraudulent. Immigration authorities say that the marriage was to advance Jubran's bid for a green card, the nickname for a legal permanent residency document. His green card was approved in 1999, not long after his marriage.

Jubran and his ex-wife were married in May 1998, and divorced in February 2000. Divorce documents filed in Family Court state that the couple separated some six months after their marriage.

Jubran was arrested by immigration agents after an early- morning questioning at his apartment at 14 Lusitania Ave., which led to a 17-day incarceration at the Adult Correctional Institutions. He was charged with an immigration violation -- that he lied about the date of his marriage on his green-card application. This charge was dropped "almost immediately," said Brill, when it was shown to be a notarization error by Jubran's former immigration attorney, he said.

But by the time Jubran was released from the ACI on a $1,500 bond by Immigration Judge Leonard Shapiro, the new charge of marriage fraud was filed against him. The Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services (formerly the Immigration and Naturalization Service and now part of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security) can detain immigrants indefinitely if it is determined that they are either a danger to the community or a flight risk. Shapiro ruled that Jubran, who works in the admissions office at Cambridge College, was neither.

In a letter complaining about his arrest that he wrote after getting out of the ACI, Jubran maintained that he was mistreated and intimidated by immigration agents. The letter was written to Stephen J. Farquharson, INS district director, Boston.

Jubran wrote that "they told me that I was wanted for questioning and that I would be released and returned to my home at noon. They did not read me my rights. [An agent] denied me my right to a phone call, saying, "Show me where in the Constitution the word 'phone' exists."

Jubran alleges that FBI agents tried to "interrogate" him about his political organizing at a Providence INS facility. "[An agent] threatened me with indefinite detention . . . and forced me to put my fingerprints on a document admitting to false charges when I refused to sign it." After again demanding to call his lawyer, he said he was brought to the ACI.

When asked for comment, Special Agent Gail A. Marcinkiewicz, FBI public affairs coordinator for the Boston office, said only that "FBI agents conducted the investigation in a professional manner."

Paula Grenier, Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services spokesperson, said that Jubran's arrest by immigration agents was according to procedure and "went without incident." She dismissed Jubran's allegation that the federal agency was "targeting" him for his political organizing, and emphasized he was detained for "immigration violations."

Brill says that the FBI has attempted to intimidate his primary witnesses -- Jubran's ex-wife, 31-year-old Maria Ortiz, and members of her family -- by visiting them in their homes in recent weeks. On July 14, Ortiz's sister in Rhode Island "was taken from her home in the early-morning hours by a group of officers from the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI and held for over nine hours" in Providence, according to Brill.

As a result, Jubran's ex-wife, who now lives in South Carolina, declined to be a witness and has changed her phone number, according to Brill. Brill has delivered a letter to Judge Shapiro outlining his account of FBI agents' dealings with his witnesses.

"In light of [the July 14] detention of her sister, [Ortiz] has now expressed to me her deepest reservations on coming to Boston and appearing to testify before this court," wrote Brill.

Ortiz had previously filed an affidavit stating that her marriage with Jubran was not a fraud and she had originally agreed to being the primary defense witness, said Brill.

Jubran's case is one of about 250,000 going through the nation's 52 immigration courts this year. To fortify national security in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft ordered the FBI and then-Immigration and Naturalization Service to thoroughly inspect the nation's immigration cases, including those with questionable marriages and minor status violations.

Immigration advocates, critical of the government's counterterrorism strategy, argue that many detainees and suspected violators facing deportation are arrested simply for being from predominantly Muslim countries.

The many detentions "have really sent chills throughout the Arab-American community," said Carol Khawly, the legal adviser for the Office of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, based in Washington, D.C.