jennifer bryan
9
WE ARE SOME PRISONERS HUDSON COUNTY C-CENTRE IN SECTION A3W.
WE
WERE DETAINED AFTER TUES. SEP. 11-2001, THE F.B.I TOOK US IN CUSTODY AFTER
THEY QUESTING US [sic]. THEY TRANSFER US TO I.N.S. SOME OF US ARE HERE FOR
50 DAYS AND MORE EVEN THOUGH SOME OF US DIDN’T EVEN SEE THE JUDGE YET
AND THE ONES WHO ALREADY WENT TO THE COURT AND THEY ALREADY GOT
THE DECISION LIKE DEPORTATION. THEY ARE STILL HERE WAITING FOR MORE
THAN A MONTH COULD YOU BE PLEASE KIND ENOUGH TO LET US KNOW WHAT’S
GOING ON AND HOW LONG THE I.N.S. INTEND TO HOLD US. AND WHEN WE WILL
BE DEPORTED.
THERE ARE TO MANY GUYS WHO ARE ALL HERE AFTER THE SEP. 11 AS
YOU KNOW 16. NOV IS THE BEGINNING OF HOLY MONTH (RAMADAN). WE HAVE
FAMILIES BACK HOME WE CAN’T REACH THEM ON PHONE. AND OUR CHILDREN &
FAMILY MEMBER’S ARE SUFFERING.
As this letter suggests, the experience of being detained by the INS has taken an incredible toll
not only on those detained, but perhaps more importantly, on entire families.
For Muslims in Jersey City after September 11
th
, the fear and uncertainty of not knowing
what might happen next was like living in a state of terror—constantly and quite literally. The
husband of one Egyptian woman I interviewed had “disappeared.” This woman, who was four
months pregnant at the time, did not know whether her husband had fled the state, whether he
had been detained by the INS, or whether he might be lying on the side of the road, a victim of a
hate crime. As an Egyptian immigrant with little economic or interpersonal capital, she was
unable to get any information about him from the INS; such information had become a matter of
“national security.” Understandably, she was worried and upset; she was angry with the INS;
and she was distraught because her husband was her only source of income:
…I don’t know where is my husband. My husband, he disappeared. I think INS
has him. He had the expired visa. I don’t care if they’re going to send him back,
but I don’t know where he is. They don’t let me know. And for this I am scared.
For this I don’t like America. I am in terror everyday. I am in terror.
Although her friends urged her to remain in the U.S. and get a lawyer, and a number of
fellow Muslims offered food and shelter, she was petrified of being thrown in jail herself and
having something terrible happen to her child. In the end, she traveled back to Egypt, hoping
that her husband would, somehow, find his way back there as well.
Hate Crimes and Hostility
The measurement of hate crimes is always difficult to assess, primarily because the
victims are often reluctant to report incidents. Nonetheless, according to the FBI Uniform Crime
Reporting Program, the number of anti-Islamic religious bias incidents grew nationwide from 28
in 2000 to 481 in 2001; this reflects a 1,600 percent increase (FBI Hate Crime Statistics, 2001).
Convention