Syrian student won't be deported

More than a month after he missed a registration deadline, the INS decides to drop its case against Abdullah Hatahet.

By SAUNDRA AMRHEIN, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times
published February 7, 2003

BRADENTON -- Abdullah Hatahet awoke before dawn Thursday in the home he shares with his aunt and uncle in Tampa. He placed his forehead and palms on his Muslim prayer rug, facing east.

"Oh, lord," Hatahet prayed, "help me with my case."

Help arrived four hours later, when government attorney James Grim walked into a Bradenton courtroom. There he announced that immigration officials will no longer seek to deport Hatahet to Syria.

Hatahet ran afoul of the law when he missed by one day a deadline for visitors from certain Arab and Muslim countries to register with the Immigration and Naturalization Service. The engineering student's excuse: He had chosen to finish a class project so he could graduate from the University of South Florida.

When he did show up on Dec. 17, he was arrested, detained for four days and threatened with deportation to Syria.

Hatahet, 22, emerged from the courtroom Thursday flashing a big grin.

"It was good news," he said wearing a dark blue suit. "It's been a hard journey for me."

His attorney, John Ovink, showed a more dramatic flair.

"Yes!" Ovink yelled, throwing a fist in the air. "Justice has prevailed."

The charges against him dropped, Hatahet's file now will be sent back to the Tampa INS office so his student status can be reinstated.

"He can go on with his life," said Ovink, who has criticized the registration requirement. It discriminates against certain ethnic groups, he said, and won't catch terrorists.

"If I were a member of al-Qaida, am I going to register? I don't think so," Ovink said.

The registration was launched last year by Attorney General John Ashcroft to improve haphazard tracking of foreign visitors. It affected men ages 16 and older on temporary visas from 20 mostly Arab and Muslim countries.

After hundreds of detentions in the first phase of registration in December, the Justice Department announced last month that men who had missed previous deadlines would get another chance to register between Jan. 27 and Feb. 7. Officials also said they would extend the registration requirement to five more countries.

Seven terrorist suspects have been detained since the start of the registration process, Justice Department spokesman Jorge Martinez said. The process also affects immigrants entering and exiting the country.

Since the end of January, 1,326 men have been temporarily detained. A total of 3,055 have been put into deportation proceedings.

Hatahet, ecstatic at the second chance to register, entered the Tampa INS offices with Ovink on Jan. 28. He re-registered but left in despair, his case still unsettled.

Despite the Justice Department ruling, INS officials said they needed approval from "the highest" levels before clearing Hatahet, Ovink said.

Hatahet was prepared to throw in the towel.

"I was ready to leave the country," Hatahet said. If he returned to Syria, his place of birth, before forcible deportation, he could apply to come back in about a year.

He avoided that option Thursday in the courtroom of immigration Judge R.K. McHugh.

Hatahet now plans to seek an internship or job in electrical engineering. A temporary work visa is pending. He said he hopes to attend USF in the fall or in January to seek a master's degree in electrical engineering. By finishing his project in December, he obtained a bachelor's degree in the same subject. For his class project -- the deadline he did make -- he got a B.

Maybe someday, Hatahet says, he'll apply for permanent residency and then citizenship. But he'll be sure to follow the deadlines.

"I'll never miss again."

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