Seattle Immigration Court: Star Witness Again Refuses to Appear

Thanks to All those who attended the vigil and rally and court hearing on October 20, 2014!
And for showing the court and Department of Homeland Security that we are a peaceful, loving and caring community of supporters, friends, family, veterans, activists, young and elder, from all segments of this wonderful, diverse community to KEEP ZAHID HOME !
Thanks to organizers, email-blast specialists, drivers and riders, those that braved the bus lines & traffic etc., the signs holders, the banner holders, the WIP distributors, VFP 92 Seattle, those that contributed in many ways, those who could not attend and held Chaudhrys & all in their prayers, light, energy, blessings. The love & support you have shown Zahid and Ann was clearly noticed by the court & all others.
Recap:
1) Monday’s hearing was regarding an ambiguous “check” mark on a pre-“9/11″ Yakima Police Department UNPAID, volunteer position application. Yes, that long ago: over 13 years ago ! (Circa 2024: now over 23 years ago!)
(For those of you who do not know the background: the USCIS/government had accused Zahid of indicating on that volunteer, unpaid application that he was a US Citizen. As with other questions on the application, this particular question had “Yes” and “No” boxes. That application did not ask if the applicant was a “US Citizen,” it asked if documentation could be provided. The entire portion of this has been entirely moot, since Zahid never marked either “Yes” nor “No” – these were left blank. The City of Yakima refused to locate the original application, and had only provided a ‘copy’ to Chaudhry’s attorney, and that only after lying and saying there was no “original” of the application to be found. The “copy’ showed a flamboyant “check” mark in the “Yes” box, even though all the other answers on the entire application were neat, within the boxes, “x” marks, and had very clearly been made by Chaudhry.)
2) The department’s case was unraveling from several arenas; not the least of which was the deposition of former YPD officer Gary Belles, in which he stated he had made markings all over the application & personal history statement, including (but not limited to) “check” marks.
Gary Belles had also said he had already planned not to hire Zahid for this voluntary, unpaid position – yet brought him back in for a “ruse” secondary interview.
Gary Belles had been required to appear over the years at the same court, which he did not. The Department tried to convince the judge to accept Mr. Belles’ testimony via phone. The Judge had declined and set the hearing date so far in advance so as to ensure Mr. Belles would be present; as, the Judge said, “Mr. Chaudhry deserved to face his accuser.”
3) Perhaps seeing their false accusation/s exposure to the light of day, the department’s whole case unraveling & falling apart, supporters & whole community bearing witness (Court of Public Opinion) at the vigil on Monday morning gave the Department further cause to make a last moment offer to Zahid’s attorney.
4) While supporters were patiently processing through the security at the court, Chaudhry’s attorney arrived to say the Department offered to drop the whole “check” mark issue in exchange for some other minute partial admittance.
5) The judge appeared to be in good mood at this hearing; stopping proceedings numerous times for attorneys to discuss together, find/retrieve (and make copies – see point 7) documents, and make sure everything was understood & agreed to.
6) Two attorneys from ICE (Immigration & Customs Enforcement) were present: Mr. Love, who had to be reminded by the judge to speak into the microphone; and Mr. Eric Pederson, who was abrasive, brash and his actions were clearly antagonistic & intentionally divisive.
7) Judge DeFonzo, upon reviewing documents in his file, came across the signed subpoena for Mr. Gary Belles, which neither Chaudhry’s attorney nor Chaudhrys had “ever” received from the Department; and upon being asked by Judge time & again, ICE attorneys did not have any willingness to co-operate with the Judge or the proceedings and would not even give a copy to Chaudhry’s attorney. The Judge stood up, left the hearing to make a copy from his papers and presented it to Chaudhry’s attorney !
8) Mr. Pederson un-ashamedly attempted to suppress some court filings, and newspaper articles against Gary Belles documenting the despicable hatred, bigoted actions, racial slurs Gary Belles has towards all minorities, inciting xenophobia, law suits, (not to mention millions of taxpayers’ dollars wasted by City of Yakima defending their star witness), which were 10 years old; and another large document: CARRP (Controlled Application Review & Resolution Program – aka: “Muslims Need Not Apply” – How USCIS Secretly Mandates the Discriminatory Delay & Denial of Citizenship & Immigration Rights to Aspiring Americans).
The Judge, after looking through the documents, overruled Mr. Pederson’s objections and entered the filings into the record saying he felt they were relevant and material.
9) Judge DeFonzo mentioned several times how this case had gone on for way too long. He thanked & verbally acknowledged his appreciation for the supporters in the courtroom (which is very unusual).
USCIS (US Citizenship & Immigration Services) will not admit to the existence of CARRP and creates parallel naturalization files on aspiring American applicants. Worse yet, Department is causing a delay regarding the legality of CARRP and morphing its name so as to keep the “legality question” out of the courts. However, there is not any cessation to the policy targeting so many law-abiding, aspiring Americans.
So as the Department is delaying, denying, and looking for reasons to deport statutorily eligible applicants, they create a parallel profile against applicants in order to charge them with “removability” (Orwellian-speak for ‘deportation’). See the video and read the reports of the CARRP program on NEWS page of this website. [These links will need to match what is on the new website.] The immigration court used to have 3 judges prior to October of 2014, one of which has already retired. Another judge is soon to retire, leaving Judge DeFonzo handling an overload of immigration cases. That’s why the next Individual hearing was not likely to be scheduled until sometime in the year 2017.
Thank you all again for your legacy of solidarity, peace & justice !