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Again, forced apart

They had packed, said goodbye to friends and a pet turtle. But at the last moment, Sameeh Hammoudeh is not allowed to join his family's trip to the Middle East.

By MEG LAUGHLIN
Published February 8, 2006

TAMPA - Tuesday was the day that Sameeh Hammoudeh, an acquitted defendant in the Sami Al-Arian trial, was to be reunited with his wife and six children after three years in prison. But it didn't happen as planned.

It started off as a bittersweet day as the family said teary farewells to friends they had made in Tampa over the past 13 years and walked away from their home, never to return.

Hours before their departure for the West Bank, several dozen friends joined Hammoudeh's wife, Nadia, and the children at their Temple Terrace home for final goodbyes.

They brought lunch and helped pack last minute things, hoisting heavy black suitcases onto a scale to check their weight.

Alaa, 7, left her soccer ball behind, after her teacher assured her she was the best athlete in the second grade and would be again "over there."

Noor, 10, left her artwork on the fridge - a colorful painting called "Noor's World" of a house like the Tampa house, with an oak tree in the yard and sea gulls flying over.

Muhammad, 4, cried hysterically when he realized his small live turtle couldn't go on the plane with him. His sisters pried it out of his hands, telling him it would now be the school pet.

But, as the family drove to the airport, the mood lightened, and they looked ahead - to being reunited with Hammoudeh again and to starting a new life as a family together in Ramallah in the West Bank.

It was a choice made for them by government officials. But it was a choice that would at least allow them to be together, after his years of incarceration for charges that resulted in a six-month trial and acquittal. Several days before, Nadia got news of their imminent departure and reunion, when defense attorneys told her that Immigration and Customs Enforcement would put her husband on a plane with all of them, Tuesday afternoon.

They would fly to New York together and on to Jordan, as part of an agreement that they would leave the country when he was released. From Jordan, they would go to the West Bank.

Hammoudeh and his wife were deported as part of a plea agreement in an earlier case for not paying $8,000 in taxes on income, earned over 11 years. They received no jail time, as part of the agreement.

During Hammoudeh's three years in prison, before his acquittal on terrorism-related charges, he had been allowed only one two-hour visit with his family that was not behind glass.

But now, two months after the trial, Nadia and the six children, ages 4 to 19, would be able to hug him. Maybe Muhammad could sit on his lap, if the flight was smooth.

Maybe, he could read a book to Alaa. Maybe Nadia could put her head on his shoulder and sleep during the flight.

By the time Nadia Hammoudeh and the kids got to the Delta ticket counter to check their luggage Tuesday afternoon, they were excited.

ICE officials were already there checking in boxes of her husband's things to travel with them.

Defense attorney Steve Crawford, who met the family at the airport, was so encouraged by the delivery that he publicly thanked ICE for reuniting Hammoudeh with his family: "At last ICE officials are doing what they should. They're reuniting this family so they can fly to Jordan together, which shows you that there are some people at ICE with good hearts."

But when the family got to the gate where the plane was leaving, he was not there.

Instead, ICE officials brought in two other young men, who had been incarcerated with him in the Bradenton jail, and were being deported for overstaying their visas. But not Hammoudeh.

Nadia and the kids were trying to make sense of what was happening when her cell phone rang.

It was her husband in a panic: "They're not taking me to the airport, and I don't know why," he told her.

It was the fourth time in two months that ICE officials had set a departure date for Hammoudeh and canceled it.

It was the second time they had gutted the plan within hours of the departure. The last time, two weeks ago, the family had bags packed but had not left for the airport.

Nadia burst into tears. She and the kids had to leave on the scheduled flight. But they did not know when ICE officials would put Hammoudeh on a plane to join them. It could be hours, or days, or it could be months - or even longer.

An hour after the plane took off with the Hammoudeh family, ICE spokeswoman Pam McCullough in Tampa, told the St. Petersburg Times: "There has been a hold-up with Sameeh Hammoudeh. I don't know why. I don't know the details."

She referred the newspaper to the Miami ICE office.

But Barbara Gonzalez spokeswoman for the Miami office would not say why ICE officials had suddenly changed the plan to reunite Hammoudeh with his family, for yet another time.

"We can only say that he remains in ICE custody. We will not say why, or say when he is leaving for safety and security reasons," she said.

So, Tuesday night, Sameeh Hammoudeh sat in a cell in a Bradenton jail, trying to figure out what had gone wrong, while his family flew to the other side of the world, without him.

"I'd say something for him and the family," said his attorney, Crawford. "But at this point I'm too frustrated to talk."

[Last modified February 8, 2006, 01:14:12]