Serbian Bar Association of America
5315 N. Clark St., PMB 279, Chicago, Illinois 60640
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Saturday, December 30, 2006
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. 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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