Locked in a Private Immigration Prison, One Man Speaks Out

By Amy Goodman, Democracy Now!. Posted April 29, 2009.

Can you respond to those points?

SHEIKH ZOUBIR BOUCHIKHI: Yes. I’m glad you brought that, Ms. Goodman. Actually, every issue mentioned by the USCIS in its letter of notice of intent to revoke on January the 16th, 2007, and I have received this letter three-and-a-half years after my approval of the I-360. Three-and-a-half years. It has been fully addressed. Everything mentioned in that letter has been fully addressed by my attorney and by my employer, and all documents requested were made available on February the 15th, 2007. So, we were like perplexed by this statement and this allegation that we didn’t have enough documents. Still, we went and gave them everything, everything they asked.

The concerns raised by the USCIS have changed at each stage. Each stage, the USCIS sent us a letter. Each time, there is what we call a change of arguments. So we knew that they were not really trying to help me, because each time we answered their letters, they come up with something new.

AMY GOODMAN: That issue of a certificate of ordination?

SHEIKH ZOUBIR BOUCHIKHI: Mm-hmm. Oh, yeah. We, in Islam, we don’t have an ordination, unlike maybe Catholicism or other faiths, where a religious leader is given something by a higher authority. In Islam, we go by the amount of knowledge that the person has in this field of Islamic studies. So, having two master’s degrees in Islamic studies, I am fully qualified to be an imam. And we have given them everything.

AMY GOODMAN: Are you acting as an imam in the detention center? Are you leading prayers?

SHEIKH ZOUBIR BOUCHIKHI: Yes, yes, yes. I’m leading the prayer. I’m counseling the inmates. I’m even talking to non-Muslims, helping them with their problems. And we are being discriminated against even here inside the CCA.

AMY GOODMAN: How?

SHEIKH ZOUBIR BOUCHIKHI: OK. For example, there was a huge problem about the kufi that I use, which is a head cover. Forty-nine days after my detention, there was no problem. After forty-nine days, they raised this problem, and they told me that “You need to take it off. You have no right to walk in the hallways with it.” And I told them, even in Guantanamo the detainees have the right to wear their headscarf if they want, their head covers if they want. And I didn’t keep quiet. I took it to the higher authorities here, and they finally accepted that I use it with a pass.

AMY GOODMAN: So you’re in a prison, in a detention center that is run by a private corporation, by the—

SHEIKH ZOUBIR BOUCHIKHI: Private corporation, yes.

AMY GOODMAN: —Corrections Corporation of America. What are the conditions in the jail?

SHEIKH ZOUBIR BOUCHIKHI: Well, we had encountered so many difficulties. For example, Ms. Amy, they do not allow more than thirty-four detainees to perform their obligatory prayers Friday, although we have over fifty detainees here who are Muslims. And although the Constitution of the United States gives every right to any group to perform their religious duties, they don’t want to give us more than thirty-four, under the pretext of capacity. And when we told them, “OK, give us a bigger place or space,” they are not really helping.

AMY GOODMAN: Have you had a hearing since you’ve been jailed—

SHEIKH ZOUBIR BOUCHIKHI: Yes.

AMY GOODMAN: —on December 17th? Was this on April 13th?

SHEIKH ZOUBIR BOUCHIKHI: It was December the 17th.

AMY GOODMAN: You were jailed on December 17th. When was your hearing?

SHEIKH ZOUBIR BOUCHIKHI: My hearing was April the 13th.

AMY GOODMAN: And what happened?

SHEIKH ZOUBIR BOUCHIKHI: I went in front of Judge Benton, and he heard the arguments of my attorney, as well as the DA, and he said that he would give his final verdict on May the 14th.

AMY GOODMAN: And what are they weighing right now? Are you facing deportation at this point?

SHEIKH ZOUBIR BOUCHIKHI: I don’t know what honestly goes in his mind.

AMY GOODMAN: Your children are American citizens?

SHEIKH ZOUBIR BOUCHIKHI: Yes, they are. Three of my children are US citizens. They were born here in Houston, Texas.

AMY GOODMAN: In 2003, the Islamic Society of Greater Houston filed a petition on your behalf for permanent residency as a religious minister?

SHEIKH ZOUBIR BOUCHIKHI: Mm-hmm.

AMY GOODMAN: That was what? Six years ago. What happened?

SHEIKH ZOUBIR BOUCHIKHI: Yeah. Since 2003, October 2003, I have been waiting for my green card, and suddenly, in January 2007, I received a letter of intent to revoke. When we answered completely and fully that the allegations or the documents that they needed, a month later, they gave me a letter of revocation. When I appealed, again the arguments changed. We appealed to the AAO in Washington. They seemed to agree with every answer we gave, yet they went with the Texas Service Center’s decision, and they dismissed my appeal. It was November the 5th, 2008.

AMY GOODMAN: So, what is the next step? The final decision?

SHEIKH ZOUBIR BOUCHIKHI: Yeah, the final decision, we are waiting for the judge, Judge Benton, to give his decision, and we will see if it’s in our favor, and thanks God; if it is not, then thanks God again, but we’re going to appeal it to the BIA.

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Amy Goodman is the host of the nationally syndicated radio news program, Democracy Now!

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