The front page of Sunday's San Francisco Chronicle said "How one Californian was deported to Pakistan without proof of ties to terrorism". When you read the actual story of Ali Mubarak's deportation, you realize that he is not a "Californian", but an illegal immigrant from Pakistan with a long history of unlawful and otherwise anti-social behavior. His history is roughly this:
* 1991: He came here on a one-year student visa
* 1992: His visa expired. He remained in the country without trying to get an appropriate visa.
* 1993: He has a son out of wedlock
* 1993: He fraudulently applies to the State of Oregon for a birth certificate, claiming he was born there.
* 1996: He signs an affidavit falsely claiming he was born in Oregon
* 1997: He offers a woman $15,000 to marry him so he can get a green card. She marries him, he never pays her.
* 1997: The INS initiates deportation proceedings
* 1998: He fathers another child out of wedlock with the mother of his first child; Meanwhile he is courting another woman.
* 1998: He is charged with passing bad checks
* 1999: He gets a divorce from his wife, marries a second wife; applies for legal residency
* 2000: Files for bankrupcy; house is foreclosed
* 2001: Sued by a creditor; racks up his seventh moving violation in as many years
* 2001-2002: Makes inconsistent statements to FBI and INS officials
The FBI investigated him for his ties to terrorists -- he had been a friend and schoolmate of with Abdul Hakim Murad, who was implicated in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. Mubarak claimed he had no connection to or knowledge of Murad's terrorist activities and hadn't seen the guy in years. The Chronicle portrays that he was wrongly deported because the FBI failed to make the case that he was a terrorist. Even if he wasn't a terrorist, he was still a social problem. If closer scrutiny of illegal immigrants in the course of looking for terrorists helps us get rid of the chronic behavior problems, I'm all for it. And if Mubarak is the most sympathetic "wronged" immigrant the Chronicle can come up with in their crusade against the Adminstration's tougher immigration policies, well, there you have it.