Case Stemming From Antiterrorism Registry Is Dropped
By SAM DOLNICK
Immigration authorities announced on Wednesday that they will drop their case against Mohammed G. Azam, a young Bangladeshi man who had been fighting deportation since 2003, when he registered with a special post-9/11 program for Muslims.
In April, the government ended the “special registration” program, which critics had said amounted to racial profiling, but Mr. Azam was one of perhaps hundreds still caught in its net.
Dozens of local elected officials rallied behind Mr. Azam, a manager at a local Häagen Dazs store, calling him a “model citizen.” The New York Times published an article about Mr. Azam’s case on Tuesday.
“I just cannot explain how happy I am,” Mr. Azam said after hearing the news. “My mom can’t stop crying. She’s so happy; she can’t stop crying.”
Mr. Azam, 26, has been stuck in immigration law limbo since he was a teenager.
His father, Mohammed Hossain, applied for permanent resident status in 2001, when Mr. Azam was 16. But Mr. Hossain was not approved until 2007, when his son was 22. Immigration officials argued that Mr. Azam was too old to benefit from his father’s new status, and they pressed forward in their efforts to deport him.
In February, an immigration judge ruled that the case against Mr. Azam should be dropped, arguing that he should not be penalized for the government’s delay in processing his father’s application.
Immigration authorities had been preparing an appeal, but on Wednesday, Luis M. Martinez, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesman, said they would drop the case.
Nancy Morawetz, of the Immigrant Rights Clinic at the New York University School of Law, which represents Mr. Azam, said, “This just lifts an enormous burden.”
The Manhattan borough president, Scott M. Stringer, who took up Mr. Azam’s cause, said work still remained.
“It doesn’t end with this case,” he said. “There are countless others who find themselves in similar situations.”
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