this is what "citizen involvement" means

[Imagine this kind of machiavellian scheming with the government as the
backing threat but on a massive, nation-wide scale. We'll make the USSR
look like idyllic yet.]

Pakistani detainees in US: tales of betrayal and backstabbing 

By Anwar Iqbal 

WASHINGTON, Aug 6: Many Pakistanis arrested in the United States after the
Sept 11 terrorist attacks were betrayed by their friends, relatives and
family members. Official record tells sad tales of backstabbing and
betrayal.

In the greater Washington area, two Pakistani food chains reported at
least 80 Pakistani nationals to the US authorities to settle scores with
each other.

In other cases, in-laws led immigration officials to estranged spouses,
often over minor domestic disputes. There were also cases of family
members ratting on each other.

"At least 25 per cent of the detainees were betrayed by someone they
trusted," a Pakistani social worker, who provides legal advice to those in
trouble, said.

"Sometimes local Americans were more helpful than their fellow Pakistanis
and Muslims," the social worker said, displaying a bunch of pamphlets
published in Urdu, Persian, Arabic, Hindi and Bengali languages by the
American Civil Liberties Union.

The pamphlet tells Muslim immigrants living in the United States what to
do and who to approach when confronted by the INS officers. It tells them
what legal rights does an immigrant have in the American society and how
he could defend himself.

Some 18 Pakistanis contacted the embassy in Washington, asking the staff
to report a particular person to the police or immigration officers
because he refused to lend his car to them or failed to return the money
he had borrowed. Imran Ali, a Pakistani diplomat who provides consular
assistance to the immigrants in trouble, complains that the lawyers also
exploited the situation to make money. "They often gave them wrong advice,
asking them to apply for political asylum or change their address or
simply run away from the police," he said.

Although the lawyers knew that once the order was issued it's almost
impossible for an immigrant to avoid deportation, yet they continued to
mislead their clients. "Many of these lawyers were from the subcontinent
but local American lawyers also took advantage of the situation," Mr Ali
said.

INS officials say that a large number of Pakistani immigrants came to the
United States during the Clinton era when immigration control was not
strict and visa restrictions were also relaxed.

Surprisingly, most of the Pakistanis who came during this period
(1992-2000) were from a rural belt in Punjab - Wazirabad, Sialkot and
Gujrat - rather than the major cities. "The credit goes to a gang of
expert forgers operating in those areas in the 1990s," the social worker
said. "They were so good that even the INS recognized them as expert
forgers."

Once they cleared a US port, most Pakistanis, like other immigrants, never
went back, not even after their visas expired. "But unlike other
immigrants they were not good at legalizing their stay," says a Pakistani
lawyer who helped some of them.

"Instead of trying to join the mainstream, they were contended with
working at jewellry shops, desi grocery and liquor stores and gas stations
as illegal workers, receiving less than the minimum wages," the lawyer
said who did not want to be identified. "And when they thought of
legalizing their stay, most of them went to South Asian lawyers who would
tell them how to dodge the system rather than telling them how to find a
way out within the system," Mr Ali said.

The most common advice that they received was: apply for political
asylum. "Overnight Punjabis and Pathans became MQM workers, Mohajirs
became Baloch nationalists. Sunnis became Shias and Ahmadis. And those who
had never participated in politics claimed they were political stalwarts,"
the lawyer said.

Since most of them had no background in politics they were rejected. They
went back to the same lawyers who then advised them to marry American
women. What they never told the immigrants was that once a deportation
order is issued, even the marriage could not legalize their stay in the
US. They had to return home and apply for immigration at a US mission
abroad.

So when after Sept 11 the campaign to catch illegal immigrants began many
of those who were married to American citizens and had been living here
for years, were also arrested. "This led to many tragedies. Families got
separated. Husbands and fathers were deported while wives and children
were left behind," Mr Ali said, who saw many families being ruined by the
forced separation. "And it's not just the emotional stress. Many small
businesses went bust because those who were running the shops or
restaurants were deported and those left behind were too young and
inexperienced to replace them."