Folks, below was culled from All Africa website.  I suggest other
Senegambian communities do like our country folk in Minnesota - sensitize
our peoples about the new immigration laws.  If we are skeptical about
bringing the immigration in our midst, then we can seek the services of the
numerous immigration lawyers in our midst, like Abdoulaye Swareh, and many
others I don't know about.  Alternatively, we can contact some of the
not-for-profit organizations that assist the Hispanic communities on
immigration matters.  They are practically in every state.  We cannot wait
until folks are in custody to react when we could have armed our friends and
relatives with information that could help them.  For instance, a lot of us
drive to work, what happens if our driver's license expires?  How can we
obtain a valid license?  For those that do not drive, how can they renew
their expired IDs?  How about those of us that utilized the services of
these fake SS# providers?  How do we know they are valid numbers?  What
about students that have not registered lately?  Folks, we need to be
proactive as a community.  Please read on.



Mass Arrest of Gambians in US

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The Independent (Banjul)

October 21, 2002
Posted to the web October 22, 2002

Banjul

The arrest of about a dozen Gambian immigrants mainly students has been
confirmed in the states of Wisconsin, Minnesota and Seattle in the United
States.

They were reportedly arrested by US Immigration police for allegedly
overstaying their visas and working without authorization. Other
unsubstantiated and unconfirmed reports attributed their arrest to alleged
failure to report to schools that issued them with I-20s.

According to reports their stroke of ill luck started when a Gambian whose
last name is reported as Ceesay was engaged in illegal activities, using
forged documents to obtain social security numbers for people who had
student visas. Reports indicated that the US Social Security office detected
that he was using fake letterheads from a school, and contacted the INS and
the FBI. They later raided peoples' houses and detained Gambians who
overstayed their visas.

According to sources about 10 Gambians were arrested in Madison, Wisconsin
State, 6 in Minneapolis in Minnesota while 7 were apprehended in Seattle.

Those arrested in Wisconsin are still being detained for questioning
according to a relative of one of the detainees. All 6 arrested in
Minneapolis, Minnesota were released on bail last week after spending three
weeks in detention.

According to six of the released detainees they were charged with
overstaying their visas and also working without authorisation from the US
Immigration and Naturalization Services and that they are to stand trial
before the US Immigration court on dates not yet scheduled. The same fate
awaits those detained in Seattle according to reports from there. The arrest
of Gambians particularly in Minnesota has caused a state of shock within the
Gambian community.

The refusal by the Immigration Police for friends and relatives to visit the
hitherto detained Gambians has put over 400 Gambians here in Minnesota in
trepidation and fear, leaving them to ponder over the enormity or otherwise
of the crimes that Gambian immigrants may have committed, warranting the
Immigration Police to refuse them visits.

In the aftermath of the arrest the Association of Gambians convened an
emergency meeting raising thousands of dollars in the process to hire the
services of a lawyer to deliver their compatriots from perceived injustices
meted out to them by the US policing authorities. Those arrested have been
released on bail and are now going about their business pending their trial
on the two charges preferred against them.

Since the atrocious attacks of September 11 2001 the entire US security
regime have launched a coordinated and vigorous operation to search for
suspected terrorists cells. 'Things have changed' was the reported utterance
by two Immigration officers who picked up one of the detainees from his
place of work.

A few days before the mass arrest, the Gambian Association held a
sensitisation meeting with officials of the newly created services Unit of
the US Immigration and Naturalization Service. During the meeting,
participants were lectured on the guides to naturalization to enable those
illegally residing in the United States to have their status legalised. Due
to the success of the interactive meetings that to many Gambians was greatly
beneficial the INS has opted to meet with the Gambian Association to give
answers to numerous pending questions that the Immigration experts were
bombarded with. The common message being carried by the US Immigration in
its ongoing intensive consultation with not only Gambians immigrants but
also the entire immigrant population has been encouraging immigrants to
desist from crimes and to regularise their status. Most Gambian, Liberian,
Somali and Nigerian immigrants interviewed expressed deep appreciation for
the generous efforts by the US Immigration Office to sensitise African
immigrants who are often held back by a deep-seated apprehension about
visiting the INS offices to gather valuable information on Immigration
matters. They fear being arrested at best and deported at worst.







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