New York Supporters Mark 10th Anniversary Of Local Palestinian Activist’s Arrest

Contact: David L. Wilson, thepoliticsofimmigration@gmail.com
For Release: April 24, 2012

Contact: David L. Wilson, thepoliticsofimmigration@gmail.com
For Release: April 24, 2012
Friends and supporters of the late Farouk Abdel-Muhti are meeting in Lower Manhattan the evening of April 26 to remember the New York-based Palestinian activist on the tenth anniversary of his arrest by U.S. immigration authorities. Abdel-Muhti remained in detention for almost two years despite an intense campaign for his release. He died of a heart attack just three months after he was finally set free.
Additional background on Farouk Abdel-Muhti: http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2012/wilson240312.html
Film screening and discussion to commemorate the 10-year anniversary of the arrest of Farouk Abdel-Muhti
Time: Thursday, April 26, 7:00pm
Location: A.J. Muste Memorial Institute, 339 Lafayette Street, New York, NY
Among the participants in the April 26 event will be Center for Constitutional Rights attorney Shayana Kadidal, who since working on the Abdel-Muhti case has served as Senior Managing Attorney for the Guantánamo Global Justice Initiative; MacDonald Scott, now a legal representative with No One Is Illegal Toronto; and filmmaker Konrad Aderer, who produced a documentary on the case, “Enemy Alien.”
The film, which connects Abdel-Muhti’s imprisonment to Aderer’s own family history and the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II, will be shown as part of the program.
Abdel-Muhti’s arrest drew attention at the time in part because the government detained him about a month after he began producing live interviews for local radio station WBAI with activists in Gaza and the West Bank.
The campaign for his release was also significant as a test of the Supreme Court’s 2001 decision in Zadvydas v. Davis, which set a six-month limit in most cases for the detention of immigrants awaiting deportation. As a stateless Palestinian, Abdel-Muhti could not be deported. The government knew this, but still managed to keep him imprisoned for two years in a process that the federal judge in the case described as “Kafkaesque.”
Abdel-Muhti’s supporters say the arrest is still relevant now, at a time when the New York Police Department tries to justify spying on Muslims engaged in peaceful activities and a ranking House Republican, Lamar Smith of Texas, feels free to joke that immigration detention is a “holiday.” “It’s not clear how much we’ve learned in the past ten years,” Abdel-Muhti supporter David Wilson says. “We still have a lot of work to do.”
The participants will be available for interviews by arrangement.
Resources: Website: http://enemyalien.org/
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/EnemyAlien
Twitter: @enemyalien
Additional background: http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2012/wilson240312.html