Yassir was born in Gaza and moved to a refugee camp in Libya at age 10. He briefly lived in Syria and England before arriving in New Jersey as a stowaway on a Wallenius Lines ship in 2000. He has been held ever since at the immigration detention center in Elizabeth, New Jersey. On Aug. 9 the Third Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia ruled that Yassir had established his identity, and sent his habeas case back to the district court for a new hearing, now set for Sept. 13. The district court had ruled that the government could not release Yassir because it couldn't confirm his identity. "The government was out of options," said Yassir's attorney, Joshua Bardavid. "They had to go to a judge and get a final ruling in the case. So instead of releasing him, they try to take him in the middle of the night and put him on a ship."

In June 2001, the Supreme Court ruled in Zadvydas v. Davis that immigrants ordered deported should not be held over 180 days while authorities seek their removal; later this year the court is to decide, in Benitez v. Mata, whether this principle applies to people deemed "inadmissable" upon arrival. The government will not say how many detainees have been held over 180 days following a final removal order. In January 2004 the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) released a list of 128 such detainees; when attorneys in the Detention Watch Network checked the list, they found at least 84 of their clients in this category were unlisted. [Star Ledger (Newark, NJ) 8/28/04; AP 8/28/04]

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