WASHINGTON, 15 February 2003 — There is a name missing on the list of people killed in the 9/11 terrorist attacks. His name is Waqar Hasan. Four days after the terrorist attacks, a man walked into his convenience store in Dallas, Texas, and shot the 46-year-old father-of-four in the face. When later asked by the police why he shot Hasan, Mark Anthony Stroman, a supremacist, expressed no remorse. “I did it to retaliate on the local Arab Americans, or whatever you call them,” he said. “I did what every American wanted to do but didn’t.” Stroman is now on death row.
“Waqar Hasan may not have died in the World Trade Center, but he and his family were clearly victims of the Sept. 11 attacks,” said Rep. Rush Holt (D-New Jersey). “I believe that to deport the Hasan family would undermine our values of freedom, tolerance, and an opportunity that we in this country are fighting so hard to defend.”
Hasan’s family’s hopes for a better life in America died with Waqar, as did their legal residence permit, or Green Card, to live here.
Hate crimes against people who had ties to the Middle East, or appeared to, claimed about a dozen lives following 9/11. The Hasans are the only survivors who lost their right to stay here.
Waqar Hasan came to the United States in 1993 from Karachi, Pakistan, in search of a better life for his family. A year later, he brought over his wife Durreshahwar (Duri) and their four daughters Anum, Iara, Nida, and Asna. The family settled in Milltown, New Jersey, where they had relatives nearby. Hasan worked to support his family by running some gas stations in the area.
In September 2001, he went to Dallas to open a convenience store with his brother. He planned to move his family there after the business got off the ground.
“He liked the area a lot. He said the people there were nice and friendly, and he decided to buy a convenience store there,” his wife, Duri, told Arab News.
Before his death, Hasan had taken steps to become an American citizen. He had an immigrant visa, but had filed a petition with the INS for green cards for himself and his family, so they could become American citizens.
But when Hasan was killed, bureaucratic red tape said his family’s visas and green card applications were dependent upon his visa, so their visas became void. The Hasan family lost their husband, father, and breadwinner, and now they also have to deal with the threat of deportation.
“I was lost for the first 2-3 months that my husband died,” said Duri. “I don’t know what we would have done without Rep. Holt’s help.”
For over a year, Rep. Holt has worked with government agencies to keep the Hasan family in this country. But they remain in bureaucratic limbo, and although they’ve received temporary working permits from the INS, there is no guarantee that the INS will review those permits indefinitely.
Unless Congress allows them to stay, the Hasan family will have to leave as early as April, when their temporary work visas expire.
Without Waqar’s income, the Hasan family has had problems paying their bills. Mrs. Hasan and all but her youngest daughter have jobs. Mrs. Hasan works the night shift on an assembly line at a Styrofoam cup factory. Her older daughters all work after school.
“For this family to face deportation because of a hate crime... would be a real injustice,” Rep. Holt said.
Lawmakers have given permanent resident status to family members of some who died in the attack on the World Trade Center towers. However, survivors of hate crimes triggered by those attacks have not received the same privilege.
Holt’s private relief bill is the Hasan’s family’s last hope of attaining legal permanent residency.
“This is another example of the collateral damage that has resulted in the rush to enhance a national security bill without balancing it with civil liberties,” said Jean AbiNadr, managing director of the Arab American Institute, which is also trying to help the Hasans. “We have to be careful of the unintended consequences of all of those post 9/11 laws and policies.”
