An Irish student born in Libya was deported from the US last month after being held in detention centres for nine days. Rebecca Little reports.
Adam El Abdaly (22) is trying to strike the deportation from his record after what he claims was a mistake.
Mr El Abdaly was detained on August 31st at the Mexican border while crossing back into the US from Tijuana after a night with friends. He crossed at the San Ysidro border, located less than 20 miles south of San Diego, where Mr El Abdaly was working as a house painter.
"They told me I wasn't supposed to cross that particular border because I was a special interest alien. They took me into a room and interrogated me for hours. They kept asking me, 'What are you doing in America?'"
Mr El Abdaly, a student at the Institute of Technology, Tallaght, was working in the US on a J1 visa. He apologised to border officials for crossing the wrong border and said it was a matter of confusion, but they told him he had violated the terms of his J1.
He was questioned for hours before he was frisked and his belongings confiscated. "I kept asking what was happening, for hours I asked, and finally one shouted in my face and told me, 'We just cancelled your visa and you're being deported.' I was shocked. I couldn't believe what was happening."
Mr El Abdaly was held at the border for 24 hours before he was transported in chains to a San Diego prison. "There was one toilet for everyone. There were between 20 and 30 people in there with no shower, and the same clothes for three days. It was stinking - absolutely vile."
Moreover, nobody knew where he was. A guard finally lent him a mobile phone so he could call his friends and tell them where he was. They passed along the message to his mother, Ms Annette El Abdaly.
"It was a nightmare, as you can imagine," said Ms El Abdaly, who lives in Claremorris, Co Mayo. "When I finally talked to him, he was in a state of panic. We had no idea what was going on or why he was held."
Mr El Abdaly was held in various detention centres for nine days, during which he had planned to be on holidays in Las Vegas. "I was locked up for no reason on my holiday in America and I was finding it hard to handle. I just wanted to go home but they were telling me they could keep me for up to six weeks," he said.
Under a law enacted post-September 11th, known as NSEERS - National Security Entry Exit Registration System - visitors from Iraq, Iran, Sudan and Libya must be fingerprinted and photographed before entering or exiting the US. These four countries were chosen for having the highest likelihood of involvement in terrorism.
"I have an Irish passport, and I'm a complete Irish citizen. I've lived here all my life, but I look Libyan, and I was born there, so I'm a potential terrorist," Mr El Abdaly said.
Under NSEERS, "special interest" visitors can only enter or exit the country at certain ports. San Ysidro is not one of them. Mr El Abdaly should have crossed through Otay-Mesa, some 30 miles away.
Mr El Abdaly knew he was supposed to cross through Otay-Mesa, but did not see a problem crossing at San Ysidro because he had done so twice before the night he was detained. He had registered with the US embassy in Dublin before leaving Ireland and was supposed to be registered when he landed in the US, but he was not. Instead, he went through registration at the San Ysidro border when he headed into Tijuana in July, a full month before he was deported. "I was already on file there, so I didn't think it was a problem," he said.
According to his paperwork, Mr El Abdaly was deported for crossing the wrong border and for violating his J1 visa, which he was told he was not allowed to work on. Mr El Abdaly contends he did not violate the terms of his visa. A J1 visa does indeed allow work for up to four months in the US, with 30 days for vacation, according to USIT applications.
A spokeswoman for the US embassy in Dublin said she was unable to discuss individual cases. A spokeswoman from the Department of Foreign Affairs confirmed they worked with the Irish Consulate in San Francisco to bring Mr El Abdaly home but have no involvement now.
Ms Dana Rosemary Scallon, the Connacht/Ulster member of the European Parliament, and Republican congressman Mr Christopher Smith, from New Jersey, who both helped Ms El Abdaly bring her son back to Ireland, are trying to find out what happened and possibly erase the deportation, which bars Mr El Abdaly from returning to the US for five to 10 years.