Serbian Bar Association of America
cid:[email protected]
5315 N. Clark St., PMB 279, Chicago, Illinois 60640
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Saturday, December 30, 2006
www.serbbar.org <http://www.serbbar.org/>
REFUGEES HUNTED BY OVER-ZEALOUS U.S. GOVERNMENT AGENCIES
CHICAGO At least 45 U.S. citizens and permanent residents across the
country have been selectively targeted, indicted and arrested on federal
charges related to their refugee and immigration applications. Many more
face immigration related deportation charges on similar grounds. The
Serbian Bar Association of America has joined with the Serbian Orthodox
Church of America and other national organizations in calling upon the U.S.
Attorney General and or Congressional leaders to review and reject what
appears to be an abuse of prosecutorial discretion by the various United
States Attorneys Office and the United States Department of Homeland
Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
During the past fifteen months, legal immigrants currently living in
Arizona, Utah, Colorado, Florida, North Carolina, Wisconsin, Ohio and
Illinois have been arrested on immigration charges related to refugee
applications completed nearly ten years ago. In many instances, U.S.
contracted refugee agencies assisted these individuals with their
applications which are now the subject of the charges against them. By
way of example, one woman was arrested for omitting military service due
to her position as a cook for local military personnel.
Of major concern is the manner and method of prosecution of these
individuals. Many had little or no knowledge of English, and wholly relied
on these agencies to assist them with their immigration in order to leave
their war torn country. Also disturbing is the fact that, no matter of
ethnicity, all refugees from Bosnia were conscriptive soldiers during the
war, yet only Serbs are being singled out in what appears to be a
discriminatory purge of Serbian refugees.
The Serbian Bar Association of America questions the manner and method of
these charges. In almost all instances, U.S. Department of Homeland
Security agents made early morning raids of individual homes and made
arrests at gunpoint frightening innocent women and children, where
communication and notice to individuals would have sufficed. While the U.S.
Governmental agencies purport the premise for these arrests was to capture
those in this country known to commit atrocities, no such charges are
leveled against any of these individuals. Moreover, no indictment carries
war crimes charges yet these individuals are being treated like terroists.
It is of grave concern that the U.S. government is targeting Serbian
refugees from the former Yugoslavia while other ethnic groups from the same
region with ties to terrorist organizations are not being investigated.
"These poor people fled the wrath and oppression of a fascist mujahadeen and
relied upon the counsel of US appointed immigration officials in order to
seek refuge and legal entry into the United States. Unfortunately, they
again find themselves inappropriately targeted by authorities simply because
of their ethnic background," says Metropolitan Christopher, the senior
Serbian Orthodox Bishop in North America.
The SBAA demands full disclosure of all files of all refugees from a similar
time period, regardless of ethnicity, to determine whether this is a
discriminatory purge of one ethnic group, and calls for all indictments to
be held in abeyance until an investigation is fully conducted.
The SBAA strongly encourages all those interested to donate to the Serbian
Refugee Defense Fund SRDF, sending those donations to the address above,
and view specific information regarding these arrests on the SBAA website at
www.serbbar.org <http://www.serbbar.org/> . In addition, the website
provides additional information about the rights of any individual facing
similar mistreatment, and encourages all to download these basic rights and
present them at time of arrest.
The Serbian Orthodox Church of North America and Canada and the following
organizations are signatories to this release:
The Serbian Bar Association of America
Serbian Unity Congress
Serbian National Defense Council of America
Serb National Federation
Serbian Brothers Help
Serbian American Medical & Dental Society
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