After Deportation Threats and a Long Wait, Citizenship for a Lifesaver (The New York Times)
The New York Times, October 15, 2014
After Deportation Threats and a Long Wait, Citizenship for a Lifesaver
“Why am I here?” the teenager, Mohammad Sarfaraz Hussain, asked his lawyer on that day in February 2003. By nightfall he had been tagged for deportation because he lacked proper papers, along with more than 13,000 of about 83,000 people who complied with “special registration,” a program created in the jittery aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks for noncitizen males older than 15 from predominantly Muslim countries. For Mr. Hussain, it was the start of a legal struggle that lasted long after the government abandoned the program….Ms. OuYang was enlisted to give advice at a free legal clinic sponsored by the New York City Bar Association. She still remembers the anguish of the man who came to her table and said, “I think I have to turn in my nephew.” The man was Mr. Hussain’s uncle. She accompanied the teenager when he complied with the registration call-in, and then worked to rally the support of his coach, classmates and Gary L. Ackerman, at the time a Democratic congressman from Queens.
