The Army Makes a Fool of Itself ... Monday Edition
Abu Muqawama hates when stories like this make the news over here on the other side of the pond. He wants someone in Washington to just wave a magic wand and make them go away: "What's that? You have an irregularity with your immigration paperwork yet have served bravely while fighting for your country? No problem, here's your pardon. Don't screw up again."
Something like that. Is that too much to ask?
A highly decorated Arab-American sergeant in the US army, who is currently serving as a paratrooper in Afghanistan, faces deportation on his return to the United States because of an irregularity in his immigration papers.
Sgt Hicham Benkabbou has been served with an order to stand trial for deportation as soon as he arrives home, despite the fact that he has been on active service in Afghanistan for almost two years with the 508th parachute infantry regiment, known as the Red Devils.
8 comments:
I'm not seeing how its the Army making a fool of itself. DHS handles immagration and deportation. This appears to be a case where left hand and right hand aren't working together.
The people who work in ICE ought to be ashamed of themselves. While they are trying to penalise the brave Sgt, currently deployed to Afghanistan, they are allowing contless numbers of Lebanese Shia Hezbollah fighters enter the USA at Detroit Airport,and settle in the Dearborn area.
Most ICE employees probably cant are totally oblivious to who a=our friends or enemies are.
In fact, recently met Federal Agent, who didnt know the difference between Indian people and muslim Arabs!!!
I agree with the other anonymous. This is an immigration court issue, as presented to them by DHS-ICE.
This has nothing to do with the Army. Has the Army filed violations under the UCMJ for any of these issues? No.
Tell it to the federal magistrate who issued the order.
"This has nothing to do with the Army. Has the Army filed violations under the UCMJ for any of these issues? No.
Tell it to the federal magistrate who issued the order."
While it may be a DHS/ICE issue, the fact that it is being dealt with in the open means that it is the army that will be hurt the most. Someone should have dealt with this behind closed doors before it came out into the open, and that is why the army fucked up. Casting their hands up and saying 'not my fault' may be technically true, but someone should have made sure that it didn't get this far, and that it didn't get out to the media. Informal meetings and persuasive powers can be quite powerful in bureaucracies, even if there isn't a direct chain of command.
If I was a prospective Muslim recruit for the US military with language skills, or someone with a green card who wanted to become a citizen, I'd look at this situation with a great deal of dismay. And that will weaken the US army, both in how it is perceived and its effectiveness
"If I was a prospective Muslim recruit for the US military with language skills, or someone with a green card who wanted to become a citizen, I'd look at this situation with a great deal of dismay. And that will weaken the US army, both in how it is perceived and its effectiveness"
Mahmud is right. This is an Army problem, even if it's a DHS cock-up.
It must be dealt with "in the open" because our court system is, ahem, "in the open." While not all immigration proceedings occur in open court, decisions, complaints, et al, are recorded documents open to public scrutiny.
We really don't know the extent of US Army involvement in this matter. Typically, the US Army is forced to react to these issues because it doesn't have legal officers sitting in a federal immigration magistrate's office.
Speculating, one might suggest that the Soldier was put on notice that a hearing was going to take place, the Soldier contacted his S-1 through his chain of command and they directed a legal response (which is to say, send us the complaint if its a civil matter).
This was done. The Army can't react to something unless it knows the nature of the facts alleged to be true by DHS/ICE.
DOJ and DOD apparently have worked out an agreement for such immigration matters, as illuminated in the article:
"The aggressive prosecution of the case has surprised immigration lawyers who point to a directive that advises officials against pressing to deport acting military personnel unless they have been involved in drug trafficking, crimes against children or violence, or unless they pose a danger to the public."
Now that the nature of the civil complaint has been received by the Army, the Army (on behalf of SGT Benkabbou) can respond to its merits (which seem, charitably, to be lacking).
If you want a society in which the US military very quietly suborns the rule of law by quashing civil complaints against Soldiers before they are served, then by all means start letting LTCs determine which federal court summons to acknowledge and which to forget.
I think it is screw-up by the DHS/ICE/Immigration Court/Fed Magistrate's part. Dont y'all think that if they knew thatthe SGT was deployed, they ough to have moresense to either quash the order on their own, or maybe do some diggingfor info? Now they look like a bunch of petty, insensitive bureaucrats persecuting a soldier who serving the USA y beingdeployed. Also that one agency of the Govt doesnot know what the otheragencies are doing.
Or might be a nasty, left-leaning, military-haning' iCE employees o ut to screw over the SGT.
Hi Abu, Look you have written a lot of good stuff and it seems like you are a veteran, but unless you have been a company commander or battalion commander or a JAG officer or you have done some deep research, you don't know what you are talking about. The Army does not have jurisdiction on immigration matters. They cannot ignore Federal warrants or court orders. I have had soldiers in my command who had trouble with the law. In some cases the commander can talk to the agency responsible and they will work something out, but if the agency is determined to pursue the matter legally there is nothing the Army can do. As a previous poster noted, that is a GOOD thing. Second, the only side of this story we have heard is the sergeants. As a veteran you know there are good soldiers who have some seriously messed up lives. From the article it sounds like the sergeant was negligent in taking care of his paperwork as a minimum. If anyone reading this has ever had a relationship with someone who "forgot" they were married or who had an ostensibly "ex" spouse who "forgot" to get divorced, then you know this is not a trivial matter. Finally, it sounds like his unit is deployed to Afghanistan, which means they are a tad busy trying to kill bad guys, rebuild the country, and stay alive. Sorry, I hope it gets straightened out, the sergeant sounds like a real asset, but, I don't see how this is on the Army.
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