Pubdate: Fri, 25 Jan 2002
Source: Wisconsin State Journal (WI)
Copyright: 2002 Madison Newspapers, Inc.
Contact:  http://www.wisconsinstatejournal.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/506
Author: Brenda Ingersoll

JUDGE: AFGHAN GUILTY OF DRUG TRAFFICKING

An immigration judge decided Thursday that an Afghan-born man raised in 
Madison was guilty of drug trafficking, making Mirwais Ali's deportation to 
Afghanistan all but inevitable, his lawyer said.

But a deportation order is not necessarily a certainty in the 22-year-old's 
case, an Immigration and Naturalization Service spokeswoman in Chicago 
said. The judge could decide against deportation if he thinks Ali would be 
persecuted in Afghanistan, or if he believes Ali's'crime is less serious 
than first appears, said Marilu Cabrera.

Ali is a 1998 graduate of East High School whose parents moved to Madison 
when he was 1 year old. He has lived all his life in their East Side 
apartment. He knows no one in Afghanistan. He does not speak the language. 
Due to a parental misunderstanding, he never became a U.S. citizen.

"The only thing Mirwais can hope for is a delay," said Ali's lawyer, Taher 
Kameli, after Judge James Fujimoto in Chicago concluded that Ali's 1998 
Wisconsin conviction for felony possession of marijuana with intent to sell 
should stand.

Kameli, who asked Fujimoto to delay deportation, said "There have been 
cases where a judge has delayed deportation indefinitely. That's what we're 
hoping this judge does."

The judge will revisit the case Feb. 14.

Kameli plans to argue that Ali, who has told him he would be willing to 
fight for the United States against Afghanistan, would be persecuted if 
sent to his birthplace. "What's important is that Mirwais hasn't seen 
Afghanistan since he was 1, during the Russian occupation," Kameli said. 
"He has absolutely no chance of survival over there."

Ali, who worked painting cars at Maaco Auto Painting after high school, has 
misdemeanor convictions for retail theft, marijuana possession, bail 
jumping and receiving stolen property. He has two felony convictions: Bail 
jumping and possession of marijuana with intent to sell it. It's the felony 
drug conviction that makes him deportable under immigration law, Cabrera said.

The felony drug conviction came after Ali was stopped by police on State 
Street. He had a plastic bag containing six, individually wrapped packets 
of marijuana stuck in his back pocket. "I smoked marijuana. That's it," Ali 
said in a telephone interview from the DuPage County Jail in Illinois 
earlier this week. "I just had it for my personal use."

Ali's parents' Najaf Ali and his wife, Saleha Ali, who speak little 
English, mistakenly thought that their son automatically became an American 
citizen when his mother became a citizen in 1991. "Somebody told my wife, 
you are citizen - your son is citizen," Najaf Ali, 60, said.

They traveled to Chicago for their only son's court appearance. "Mirwais is 
still very scared, but he was happy he had a chance to talk with his 
father," Kameli said. "It's the first time he's been able to see him since 
he was detained, so it was a very emotional day for them all."
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