His devotion as a volunteer tutor for this program has helped a lot of inmates to deter from the behavior that led to their conviction. Because of this he was awarded many Certificates of Recognition for his work and remarkable efforts in this program. Mahmoud completed his sentence in 1996, but his misery and troubles were just beginning. Instead of being released he was immediately taken into custody by the Immigration and Naturalization Service to be deported back to Lebanon. However, his country of birth, Lebanon, refused to accept him back because of his nationality as a Palestinian refugee, which prevents him from ever becoming a citizen of Lebanon.
Any person born in the United States is a U.S. citizen, under the U.S. Constitution.
In a world in which there are nations, it is inherent that the people born in a place are citizens of that place. But many countries reserve to themselves the right to de-citizenize racial minorities who by right and logic are citizens of that country. Lebanon is not the only offender. For example, in Japan, there are people of Korean descent whose families have lived in Japan for generations, yet are not Japanese citizens. Besides requesting travel documents from Lebanon, the INS has not made any efforts to find him a country or even to deport him.