The Wall Street Journal
A Muslim's Choice: Turn U.S. Informant Or Risk Losing Visa
Moroccan Immigrant Lands In Trouble at the Border; A Walk With Agent Fliflet
'You Have Nothing to Hide'
By PETER WALDMAN
July 11, 2006; Page A1
Last November, when Yassine Ouassif crossed into Champlain, N.Y., from Canada, border agents questioned him for several hours. Then they took away his green card and sent him home to San Francisco by bus, with strict instructions: As soon as he got there, he was to call a man named Dan. Dan, it turned out, was Daniel Fliflet, a counterterrorism agent for the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Mr. Ouassif met the agent at an Oakland subway station on Nov. 30, and the two men walked the streets together for 90 minutes.
Mr. Fliflet told the 24-year-old Moroccan that he'd been monitoring his friends and him for many months, Mr. Ouassif recalls. Mr. Fliflet made him an offer: Become an informant and regularly report to the FBI on what his Muslim friends in San Francisco were saying and doing. In exchange, he would get back his green card. He could resume his education, bring his Moroccan wife to America, and pursue his dream of buying a car, moving to Sacramento and becoming an engineer. If he refused? asked Mr. Ouassif. "I will work hard to deport you to Morocco as soon as possible," Mr. Fliflet responded, according to an account written by Mr. Ouassif soon after the meeting. "I want you to know something important," the FBI agent added, according to Mr. Ouassif. "America is just like a bus, and you have a choice to make: Either you board the bus or you leave."
(snip)
Two weeks later, Mr. Ouassif reported for his scheduled immigration interview. Ignoring Mr. Fliflet's instruction, he brought a lawyer, Banafsheh Aklaghi, founder of a San Francisco nonprofit group, National Legal Sanctuary for Community Advancement. Mr. Fliflet was there. An immigration agent peppered Mr. Ouassif with questions. Clues emerged as to why the authorities had taken such an interest in him. Much of the interview focused on one of his former roommates, a San Francisco cabdriver who had returned home to Baghdad shortly after Mr. Ouassif moved in with him in 2003. Mr. Ouassif says he inferred from the questions that his ex-roommate had been arrested or killed in Iraq. Mr. Ouassif's cellphone number had been on the man's phone, the immigration agent said. Mr. Ouassif told the agent they hadn't been close friends, and that he hadn't thought the man was dangerous or he wouldn't have lived with him.
(snip)
The agents told Mr. Ouassif they intended to detain him for deportation. His lawyer asked why. Mr. Ouassif says the agents didn't answer. He was handcuffed and put in a holding cell. Through a cell window, his lawyer told him he was slated for detention in Eloy, Ariz., one of the highest-security facilities in the federal system. Mr. Ouassif cried. About three hours later, he says, the immigration agent took him aside without his attorney and asked if he still wanted to fight deportation. He said he did. Within minutes, he says, another immigration officer gave him surprising news: he was free to go. The Homeland Security lawyer on duty had refused to sign his detention order, citing a lack of evidence, his attorney, Ms. Aklaghi, was told. (FBI and immigration agents can recommend detention and deportation, but it is up to Homeland Security lawyers to review the legality of the decisions.) Mr. Ouassif was given another immigration appointment. On April 6, Homeland Security's Immigration and Customs Enforcement branch gave Mr. Ouassif his green card back.
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