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 Email This Page Print This Page 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. _________________________________________________________________ Internet access plans that fit your lifestyle -- join MSN. http://resourcecenter.msn.com/access/plans/default.asp ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html To contact the List Management, please send an e-mail to: [log in to unmask] ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~