for a self employed house painter living in san diego thursday october tenth two thousand and two began like any other work day after leaving his modest apartment blockaded in the neighborhood of north park he drove his car north along interstate five towards the city of oceanside as usual abdul was following a set of hand written directions they were scribbled on a piece of paper during a telephone interview with his new customer when he reached the vicinity of oceanside however he became confused by the exit signs none of them seem to correspond to the directions on the piece of paper so he continued driving north hoping to locate an exit the matched his instructions unfortunately he soon passed the last turnoff for the city of oceanside and he had to remain on the freeway for another fifteen minutes whenever last he found an exit ramp that did not lead to the beaches along the pacific ocean abdul decided to pull off the freeway and ask for directions he soon found himself heading directly towards a gate that was covered in barbed wire and was guarded by a group of armed military police or m p appear one inadvertently had reached the san and okorie gate of camp pendleton the largest marine corps base in southern california like all u s military installations at the time camp pendleton was operating at a heightened state of alert as a result of the terrorist attacks of september eleventh two thousand and one in spite of the potentially and tema dating circumstances abdul's encounter with the guards at camp pendleton was friendly he was asked to step out of his car the m p s following standard procedures for an incident of this type conducted a thorough search of the vehicle they also questioned examined his written directions checked his personal identification on record of the results of the vehicle search and the id to check in a standard reports they're required to file finding nothing incriminating and that abdul cohen was not wanted by any government authorities the m p s gave the house painter a clean bill of health and encouraged him to continue on his way they even helped him by writing out a new set of directions so that he'd be able to find his way back to his painting project in oceanside he returned to the freeway and soon reached his destination by the end of the day the incident was forgotten abdul had no reason to believe that there would be any consequences as a result of his wrong turn off interstate cohen was wrong as an egyptian born arab living in the united states he was an easy target for a new type of discrimination exactly two weeks after is wrong turn on the morning of october twenty fourth officers  jonathan mann tag a san diego attorney provided background information about mr coe once case this is the case of a client of mine whose name is states for a while he made his way to boston massachusetts where he ended up getting married to the united states citizen who then filed papers on his behalf and as a normal case a person can fall out of status and then apply and not be arrested and be able to get papers through it through a spouse and those papers were filed but then he and his wife had problems and she revoked her papers that she had f they didn't separate or divorce they moved to san diego and then ultimately the relationship completely deteriorated and he filed papers as a battered spouse because of abuse he was suffering from his wife those papers were approved by the immigration and naturalization service and so he is eligible now to get a green card based on that marriage and that's dysfunction we had a trial on the merits of this getting a green card through his wife on december tenth and the immigration judge said she would issue a decision shortly thereafter the immigration and naturalization service  the judge to delay her decision because they wanted to review the petition the battered spouse petition that they had already approved they reported back in april that they had no problems with that petition and they were not going to  the immigration judge then indicated in order that she was going to deny him permanent residence and she would tell us why in the hearing on may twenty seventh it seemed that the judge suddenly denied permanent residence to mr to juan in spite of the fact that the ins had already approved abdul's petition twice just as odd was her decision to put off an explanation for her actions knowing that mburu already had been in prison for six months and that her decision more time in jail for a dual despite the dubious nature of his arrest mr monteith then described additional measures that he took on the meantime there were some other forms of relief which he was a veil which he is eligible for and we pursued those forms of relief at a hearing on may twenty seventh at that hearing we also invited the f agent who had checked him out and gave and gave him a clean bill of health and he testified just to the fact that he interviewed him and he interviewed the wife and found there was no credible evidence that he was a bad guy that's why they didn't arrest him ever and the judge at the end of our hearing on the twenty seventh she reserved a decision for another three months another and she didn't issue a decision on what she was going to do and we're waiting for her would spend another three months in jail this would bring his total jail time to ten months ten months for making a long in turn and asking some guards for directions to work adding to the m yet another immigration judge label abdul as a national security risk another immigration judge is responsible for the bond in the case and we had asked for a bond and you have the security risk the only adverse factor in the case is that he got lost traveling to camp pendleton and asked for directions and that seems to be the sum total of the reasons why he's been held on to attention for the past explain their reaction and casper so many delays knowing that abdul was languishing in jail without a charge he was being held because he came to camp pendleton and asked for directions and a report was made by the m p s that was powered then to some kind of joint terrorist task force and two weeks later a decision was made by the immigration officers of the immigration officials to take him into custody there is no secret evidence in this case there is no links to terrorism that that motivated motivated the immigration officials to arrest him this is not a case where he's suspected of knowing people involved in nine eleven or having anything to do with it so it's not related at all to those kind of paint and arrest authorities under the patriot act by the simply as a person who has a visa applications pending with the government and they've made a determination that he's a danger to the community and at first it seemed like a very strange family immigration case for a person an immigration court you know like i said  ninety five percent of the time or more people are entertained and they're allowed to go to the immigration judge and get their papers and this case seemed no different than any of those when it became clear that the marriage wasn't an ideal marriage and then we discussed the ability for him to get papers based on the abuse he suffered and we followed through with that and still it never rose to be anything more than a straight battered  routine for immigration lawyers to handle and only after october tenth two thousand and two to escalate into some sort of human rights disaster attorney manteca pointed out there is no reason for immigration officials to if the immigration officials don't want to set up on a man like mr k y m has access to an immigration judge for a hearing on a bond and it was a bad hearing that we presented the evidence that showed that he got last we presented evidence from the person whose house he went to paint with a letter explaining that he had given him direction and was waiting for him that time we even had the directions that mr one rode out and we showed on the directions there was the ambiguity that caused him to get lost we showed the m p a report that showed the m p saying that he said he took a wrong turn and that's why he was at the camp pendleton we had the letter from the person who referred mr cohen to the person whose home he was going to paint because mr cohen had painted a few businesses downtown in san diego and one of those people referred him to the painter i mean to the homeowner that and we had the m p reports we showed them to the immigration judge despite that he made a determination that mr cohen was a national security risk and held him and in custody the immigration attorneys said that mr juan was a national security risk because his coming to camp pendleton was not a normal act for a person to do unless they were a suspicious type person the immigration judge found when he made his written decision denying a bond but he did not consider it to be likely that a person who was a painter would get lost driving their  car later on the immigration and naturalization service also made an allegation that middle eastern men have are a are a special group and that they are making all applications for battered spouse protection  the law in his case he is his petition as a battered spouse was reviewed a second time by the immigration officials after this allegation was leveled and they  their initial grant and then the general sense never have i seen any document emanating from the department of homeland security or any of the immigration officers who work for the for that department showing that there was any any suspicion by doing that middle eastern men are making false battered spouse petition there's no documentary a statistical evidence to support that there is a assertions that the immigration officials are making in court so abdul waits for those who have never been there the old time a suppression facility is in a hot desert like location to the southeast of san diego near the mexican border abdul has limited access to the outdoors but there's no greenery there anyway the otara mesa correctional facility is more than most penal institutions in california and just as bad as the location is abdul's extreme isolation although theoretically he's allowed to speak to his attorney and see family members abdul has no family even the phone calls placed was a journey must be arranged through the expensive telephones provided at the prison and expensive option that he can no longer afford he sits alone in his barren cell day since arriving in the united states abdul cohen has worked hard to build a reputation as a dependable handyman and painter someone who can be trusted but mr cohen is in his mid thirties he came to the united states hundred six so he's been here for six or seven years he's filed taxes every year he's worked here his time in boston he spent on construction trades and filed taxes every year because of his work there and those in those returns have all been given to the immigration judge to motivate and showing them good character for him to get his permanent residence i mean here in san diego he started work as a painter and  tumultuous time at first because of the marin so the divorce and all the problems with the immigration system that he had established a business the bottom self a car he bought himself an apartment and he was making money as a by taking businesses and stores including this upscale shopping center in del mar and businesses in san diego's colorful gaslamp just we interviewed the owner of the coffee shop which one had recently re there there are some egregious cases of people being detained completely unnecessary a way for instance in the immediate aftermath of september eleventh there was a prominent doctor of saudi origin in south texas who was extremely well known in his community his name was vaguely similar to one of the hijackers he was picked up his identity could have been you know confirmed with a simple phone call he was he's a very well known person and yet he languished for two and a half weeks in jail without process without being charged without access to an attorney just because somebody confused his name with somebody else's certainly we've seen a case of pakistani man who whose papers were completely in order but who's been detained indefinitely for many many months  now and who slated for deportation not because he did anything wrong with his immigration status but just because he helped two friends find an apartment and it turned out that they were out of status and because of that he was being deported you know cases like this don't make anybody any safer  certainly we've seen you know very lately detentions over over three quarters of a year in one case someone being held without charge and without an attorney and just just languishing in jail you know in a kind of extra legal extra constitutional way and i think also the fact that there are american citizens being labeled enemy combatants and we're being held in military prisons without any access to due process again you know really does fly in the face of our basic understanding in this country of who goes to jail and why and when people are accused by the government of wrongdoing what kind of rights  would be concerned about them and should take a look and see what's going on but once they make their determination that there's nothing wrong once we get big guy checks out the person and says they're cleaning and once the naval security officers at the base make a determination that nothing's wrong and they look at the m p reports and the car search on the home search and everything and they see there's nothing wrong we have to have some faith that these gentlemen women and men and women who do this work can come to conclusions that are better reasonable it disheartens me having done this kind of work for more than a decade and assuming that what matters in court is evidence and not fears and prejudice innuendo and supposition that suddenly there is a case where there is no evidence and i think it's clear that there is nothing that ties mr cohen to any bad acts and yet he's being detained like this so it's deeply troubling to me that the system that i work in and have faith seems to be making decisions that are contrary to the elements that one would suspect would expect the court system with use in making a decision about detention and the issuance of a visa i think that the remedy in this case there's going to have to be political because there's no legal impediments to him getting his papers so i would ask anybody who is concerned to contact their their political leaders their congressmen their senators their newspapers and human rights organizations  and demand that somehow this be explained and demand that justice be done for mr juan the immigration service has the authority to release him and he could be released on the street tonight if people became indignant about this treatment and the government of this country wouldn't suffer as a result because it is it's virtually without any doubt this is doubtless mystical one of not a danger to this community or this country and if he were released on the streets we'd all be better off for it want wanted to be nothing more than a part of working america turning an honest living he made an honest mistake and now he's being punished one thing that i think there needs to be said about him in other regimes and other times people have been placed in detention for long periods and also mandela was placed on detention for a long time of south africa but everyone would have to admit that nelson mandela was intentions in south africa  to overthrow the system and even though the apartheid system was an evil system they certainly were justified in wanting to keep him off the streets because he was an enemy of their system one of of not i mean to the united states system or way of life he loves the country he loves what we do here and he wants to be part of it and him being detained not because of anything he thinks or any thinking he did but because of a terrible misunderstanding while driving