Hussein Hayal al Zaidi's story is saddening, and not the only one like it that I've heard. Reading the first paragraph of the MSNBC article sickens me.
Hussein Hayal al Zaidi says he spent nearly four years in jail in Saddam Hussein's Iraq, once in a 13-by-13-foot cell with 20 other men. His captors blindfolded him and pummeled his eyes, detaching one of his retinas. He has scars on his ankles, feet and hands from where they strung him up with ropes and beat him. His genitalia bear the marks of electric shock burns.
This man was smuggled from Iraq and eventually wound up at an airport in Newark, asking for asylum. He was granted that asylum. But, 10 days after September 11, 2001, the immigration judge who heard the final arguments in his case ordered him deported.
But, like 165 others, the Northern Virginia man cannot be deported. Since the war in Iraq began in 2003, the United States has followed a United Nations directive not to forcibly return Iraqis to their country because it is too dangerous.
In September 2005, after his appeal of the deportation order was denied, he was jailed. He was released later, because the US cannot deport him right now. al Zaidi says talks about his life in limbo saying, "But I am already dead."
Please, go read this article.
When this war is over, he will go back, and will likely be killed. This is America. We can't let that happen.
There was a family in Green River, Utah, who was deported due to Immigration Snafus, and honestly their story is heart-wrenching. Many asked Senator Orrin Hatch for help, and his office stated that interceding in this kind of situation is reserved for "life or death situations". Perhaps we could all write our Senators, (including Obama) and ask that they help, because this will be a life or death situation for al Zaidi.
After I wrote this, I did a quick search and discovered a diary from March 1 about Elias Faddoul. And saw that there were only 8 comments on it, even after it was "rescued". There are too many of these stories.
Be a part of the solution. Please.