Feds Bar American Citizens From Coming Home

Two relatives of a Lodi, Cal. man recently convicted, on fairly thin evidence, of aiding terrorists are not being allowed to return to the United States until the U.S. citizens agree to an FBI interrogation, according to a San Francisco Chronicle story.

Both are also on the no-fly list, according to a government source.

This is extraordinary. American citizens are being refused entrance to their country. Not arrested and brought back to stand trial. Just not allowed to return home until they agree to waive their constitutional rights.

Muhammad Ismail, a 45-year-old naturalized citizen born in Pakistan, and his 18-year-old son, Jaber Ismail, who was born in the United States, have not been charged with a crime. However, they are the uncle and cousin of Hamid Hayat, a 23-year-old Lodi cherry packer who was convicted in April of supporting terrorists by attending a Pakistani training camp.

Federal authorities said Friday that the men, both Lodi residents, would not be allowed back into the country unless they agreed to FBI interrogations in Pakistan. An attorney representing the family said agents have asked whether the younger Ismail trained in terrorist camps in Pakistan. [...]

Neither Muhammad nor Jaber Ismail holds dual Pakistani citizenship, Mass said.

"We haven't heard about this happening -- U.S. citizens being refused the right to return from abroad without any charges or any basis," said Mass, a lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union.

McGregor Scott, the U.S. attorney for California's eastern district, confirmed Friday that the men were on the no-fly list and were being kept out of the country until they agreed to talk to federal authorities.

"They've been given the opportunity to meet with the FBI over there and answer a few questions, and they've declined to do that," Scott said.

Mass said Jaber Ismail had answered questions during an FBI interrogation at the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad soon after he was forced back to Pakistan. She said the teenager had run afoul of the FBI when he declined to be interviewed again without a lawyer and refused to take a lie-detector test.

This situation also brings into clearer focus how the no-fly list is exceptionally odd in American law. It's a list of people mostly considered too dangerous to fly, but not dangerous enough to arrest. It's a form of administrative punishment -- something that has never been legal in this country, and its not clear at all how one can contest being put on that list. Of course, with the Ismail's being outside the country, its not clear if any court in the United States would claim to have jurisdiction.

Moreover, it's far from clear that Hamid Hayat is the dangerous terrorist waiting on instructions from Al Qaeda that the government made him out to be.

I thought the word 'citizen' was supposed to mean something.

The State Department's Office of Citizenship has this to say in its handy study guide (.pdf) for those who want to become citizens:

__Question 75: Whose rights are guaranteed by the Constitution and the Bill of Rights? __

Answer 75: All people living in the United States.

One reason that millions of immigrants have come to America is this guarantee of rights. The 5th Amendment guarantees everyone in the United States equal protection under the law. This is true no matter what color your skin is, what language you speak, or what religion you practice.

__Question 91: Name one benefit of being a citizen of the United States. __

Answer 91: To obtain Federal government jobs, to travel with a U.S. passport, or to petition for close relatives to come to the United States to live

Maybe the State Department is busy rewriting those guidelines as we speak.