I'm afraid I agree with Ironclad. These people took advantage of America and shouldn't have been working here illegally. In her poem she says her crime was being "Arab and Muslim". What about breaking the law, Nadin? Just because there's no fair legal system in Syria doesn't mean you can bring it here. Your family are no noble heroes, as you would like to make them out to be. There was nothing to prevent them applying for legal status upon arrival, and I'm surprised you are still tolerated and fluourishing in America. The immigration situation needs to be tightened up fast, if it is not already too late.

Lynx -

Civil discourse in debate is welcomed. Personal attacks are not appreciated. (And I have not been thrown out of my foreign residences because I do make sure my papers are in order, I assure you. In those places, you go straight to jail without many questions - so you learn to appreciate a bit of respect for the systems, even if you do not like them.)

We may disagree over the story and the conclusions, but I welcome the debate - especially where the presented facts are, shall we say, glossed over about certain critical details.

I can read quite well - especially the part where it mentions that the family was staying in the USA on a tourist visa - I missed the part where that document was converted into refugee status. You see, the story dances around the critical issue of their residence status - had they really applied for asylum? Had they been granted interviews for their case? Had their "tourist visa" been extended for 12 years? Or was this all the fault of their "bad immigration lawyer"?

Intention is not action - and desires do not necessarily change the facts that the legal procedures are not followed. The FBI went after the family because their residency status was invalid. If the father was fleeing for political asylum reasons, it is strange that he did not do so from the moment he entered the USA - the dialog is unclear, but one must surmise that the father fled and then brought his family to the USA.

My point is this - if the father made a declaration for political asylum the minute he set foot in the USA, and then brought his family - I would have more sympathy. But this is clearly not what happened here. And this is where I have the problem with the whole story - that the family entered on one basis and then set up shop on the assumption that they could stay. They did not have permanent residency, they did not have a business visa - they just came in and stayed. And when 9-11 hit and the government got serious for a second about illegals - they got picked up. Not because they were Muslim or Arab, but because they were illegally residing in the USA. True?

And I still want to know how you file taxes to the federal government if you do not have a Social Security or an Alien Registration number.

Was the government heavy handed - certainly! I never said I agreed with that action. - but stick to the facts and avoid the weepy part - and tell me why they were fingered? - was it because they played the system and tried to slip through the cracks? Seems like it to me.

You need to learn better reading skills Ironclad. They weren't seeking asylum because of the plane crash, they were seeking asylum because he'd been falsely accused of attempting to assasinate the Vice President of the country.

How did they set up the business? They'd applied for asylum and were making a living while waiting for the decision to be made. Why weren't they expelled when "caught"? 'cause they're seeking asylum and waiting for the decision to be made. You'd probably be the first one screaming if they were living on the government's dime in the meantime.

What should the response have been? The government should have poured resources into investiation and police systems and into making our intelligence gathering systems better. Maybe into actually paying attention to what the systems were saying instead of making things up to justify invading Iraq. Warrentless wire taps, rounding up certain ethnic groups, these are all tactics of people that don't know what the hell they're doing, but feel the pressure to do something so they do what their right-wing, xenophobic impulses tell them.

You've lived an ex-patriate lifestyle? I'm gussing the host country got sick of you and sent you back here.

Too bad they weren't Mexicans willing to work for $2/hr because if they were, they would never have been deported. Look at the thousands of people out on the street today yelling and shouting and holding signs about how proud they are to be in this country ILLEGALLY!!! They're bragging about having broken the law and having zero respect for it. And yet do you see anyone running to deport them? No way. They wouldn't dare touch those people.

But a genuine case of political asylum from one of those countries where we're trying to win hearts and minds and show how wonderful democracy is? Forget about it.

I'm pretty sure that Ironclad won't get this, but the people in this story were refugies, whether they had the "papers" or not. Yeah, yeah, "get your papers in order" and everybody "should" do that because when you were an expatriate you did it. Good for you. Did you have to leave your country in the middle of the night fleeing for your children's lives? Until you do, lay off the judgement. Do you really believe the silly myth that everybody in the world wants to come to the US to take advantage of us (and apparently of you, personally)? The sad truth is that an enormous number of immigrants fled their homes and would rather have stayed there... but couldn't for fear of losing their lives. Privileged people, who had the "intelligent accident" to be born in a place where they are not persecuted will never really understand this. (... and yes, I am probably wasting my breath.)