Dear Mr. President,
My name is Saad Nabeel and I am writing to you from Bangladesh. Prior to my arrival in this nation, I lived in the United States for fifteen years. My parents brought me to America at age three. It is the only home I know. I used to attend the University of Texas at Arlington with a full scholarship in electrical engineering. Through no fault of my own I was forced to leave my home, friends, possessions and most importantly, my education behind.
November 3rd, 2009 is a day I will never forget. My mother called me and told me that my father had been detained by Immigrations and Customs Enforcement and that we needed to leave immediately to Canada to seek refugee status. Being an only child, I had to take care of my mother and go with her.
My mother and I were denied entrance into Canada and sent back to the U.S. as if we were common criminals. I was separated from my mother and sent to a detention facility where I was forced to live with sixty men, many of whom were hardened criminals. There was no privacy and I was forced to use the facilities and showers while fully exposed. I lived in constant fear of being abused. I was without food for upwards of fourteen hours a day and received little to no medical attention. When I asked for legal counsel I was threatened with criminal charges and jail time in a federal penitentiary. To this day I still have nightmares about being detained. Everything my parents taught me about human decency was replaced with humiliation. Mr. President, I hope you are as outraged as I am hurt by this ordeal.
Bangladesh is extremely hot and humid. We have no air conditioning, as the power goes out every day. These power outages can last twelve hours or more. The air is heavily polluted and I get food poisoning every week from the poor quality of food here. Raw sewage flows in open drains in front of our apartment. I see people outside with mangled bodies dying on the street because of the heat and starvation. I see mothers practically giving their children away because they are unable to feed them.
I do not know the language and I fear going outside because I am different from everyone else. Speaking in English is an easy way to be targeted here. We cannot afford to live in a safer area. I have not left the apartment for eight months. It simply is too dangerous for me to leave the apartment unless my parents go with me. I cannot attend school due to the language barrier. I do not know anyone in Bangladesh.
On top of all this, my parents are both ill and have been for months. My father suffers severe asthma attacks that make him bedridden on most days. My mother has post traumatic stress and cannot accept the fact that she is not at our home in Texas.
These events transpired after we were approved to receive our green cards. ICE forced my family to leave knowing that green cards were available to us. We have been waiting for our green cards for fifteen years now.
Mr. President, you are the most powerful man in the world. All I ask from you is to bring me home. All I ever wanted was an education so I could become an engineer. I just want to go home and go back to college. Please don't keep me exiled any longer. Please bring me home.
Sincerely,
Saad Nabeel
Cross-posted on America's Voice Online
Follow Saad Nabeel on Twitter: www.twitter.com/thesaad
Saad Nabeel - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Official Group: Bring Saad Nabeel Back Home to America | Facebook
Student from Frisco deported to Bangladesh | wfaa.com | Dallas ...
Student deported to Bangladesh fights to return to life he knew in ...
YouTube - Sent to Jail and Deported at age 18 with Pending Green Card
The problem is that the laws are bad and need to be changed (hello, Dream Act). He'd do better strictly advocating for that instead of erroneously claiming that he's been wronged. The only people to have wronged him were his parents, and even that's debatable considering that he can now take his US education and go to another country outside Bangladesh and build a life (yes, there are other viable alternatives to living the American dream -- we aren't responsible for everybody).
He's never going to get a student visa now because he can't show non-immigrant intent. Everything this kid says and does shows the Embassy in Bangladesh that he is trying to come "home" to the US to stay. Since proving that he'll return to Bangladesh once his studies are over is the #1 factor in getting student visa approval, he's SOL.
I've met Saad, he used to go to my high school. This is not biasing my opinion. I just feel the need to say that he was affected and so were the people around him. He got a full scholarship, comfortable in the US, and had to leave. His friends are so upset about this situation, and they speak of it a lot.
Despite legal issues and your speculations he's not legal despite what he says, he and his family lived here legally and like good citizens. He was a great student and his family paid taxes and followed the law. And yet he and his family was still deported.
And AGAIN his father seeked asylum for political persecution. He mentions his conditions because it was not fully explained in the video, I speculate.
Trying to sneak in through the back door while the front door was open. So much bad judgment.
Saad, go to India and become a Bollywood actor. They have a niche for people with American accents. But before you go, for god's sake man get a better haircut.
Canada has no heart? They've started releasing that boatload of Tamils that landed on the East Coast.
I've said it before and I'll say it again; this is the key statement of the article. The family was here LEGALLY and they still got deported for being illegal immigrants. If any of you dispute the article's statement, please provide a link to a credible source of information supporting your claim.
Link please.
The fact that they were deported seems to imply that they were not approved, so it seems like producing a document that shows they were approved would give him credibility? It seems like the family would have a website that shows the scanned documents and correspondence related to their case. Surely they would have accumulated some paperwork over 15 years of legal battles, applications and green card approval letters.