mechwarrior
New member
i was going through looking for artifacts of assyrian church......came across zinda magazine.....was monika vardeh deported back or no?
Assyrian Student in Turlock Fears Deportation from U.S.
Courtesy of the Modesto Bee
7 October 2004
By Jeff Jardine
(ZNDA: Turlock) Monika Vardeh's r?sum? has an all-American look:
Honor student at Turlock High, class of 2001.
Graduate of Modesto Junior College.
Senior at California State University, Stanislaus.
Teller at Bank of the West in Hughson.
She speaks English perfectly, with only a slight Middle Eastern accent, and also knows Assyrian and bits of German.
"She can go anywhere in the world, and they'll know she's an American," said Ron Mekah, her fianc?. "They can tell."
Monika Vardeh holds a letter she wrote and faxed to President Bush making her case for remaining in the United States, where the 22-year-old has lived since she and her mother, Pratis Chalabi, left, arrived here on visitors' visas in 1997.
Therein lies the rub. She doesn't want to go anywhere else. She wants to stay here. But the U.S. Department of Homeland Security wants to deport her to Germany, which, she fears, would send her to certain death in her birthplace of Iran.
She needs to convince American authorities that she belongs here, in the United States and in Turlock, and she took a step toward achieving that Wednesday morning when she surrendered to authorities in San Francisco.
The meeting went better than she expected. Officials are allowing her to remain free without bond until her case is sorted out.
"They trust me," she said shortly after her hearing on the morning of 6 October. "They usually handcuff (immigrants), but my lawyer talked them out of it. They treated me with dignity. They looked at me as a human, not a number. They took my background into consideration. It was absolutely phenomenal."
Vardeh must go to San Francisco every third Tuesday of the month to sign in, letting officials know of her whereabouts. She can't leave the state without advising them of her plans. She can't leave the country, period, which is interesting since they're trying to deport her.
And yes, they still want to deport her. But it's not that simple.
The 22-year-old Turlock woman is caught in one of those immigration Catch-22s.
She was born in Iran in 1982. Her family ? all Christians ? fled Ayatollah Khomeini's Islamic fundamentalist regime in 1985. They went to Germany, hoping to continue on to the United States, which they did ? a dozen years later.
Monika's brother, Jeffrey Warda, preceded them to America and received permanent resident status. Their mother, Pratis Chalabi, and Monika came here on visitors' visas in 1998, when Monika was 15.
This certificate of holy baptism certifies Monika Vardeh's birthdate and confirmation according to the rites of the Holy Apostolic Catholic Church of the East. The Stanislaus State student is fighting deportation to Germany, where she was raised after her family fled Iran.
Warda tried to sponsor them for permanent status. Immigration approved Chalabi's residency, but denied Monika's. So she applied for political asylum in 1999.
Immigration officials, she said, canceled numerous hearings on her case. Years passed before she learned that her political asylum request had been denied. She appealed, and that also was denied.
When she dropped her second stage of appeal ? on advice of her attorney, Banafshef Akhlaghi ? it triggered the order for deportation to Germany.
Akhlaghi knew the move ultimately would force U.S. officials to look more closely at Vardeh's case and, more importantly, make them understand what would happen if they deported her.
Vardeh never was granted refugee status by Germany, and that country now refuses to take her back or grant her a travel visa. And the United States won't send her directly back to Iran.
"I can't go back to Germany," she said. "They won't allow it. The minute I set foot in Germany, they'd put me on the first plane to Iran. And the minute I set foot in Iran, they'd kill me."
So now she waits, hoping Germany will stand firm in its refusal to take her back.
Once that happens, she can take her immigration case to trial, where she can show how American she's truly become, that this country is her home.
Her entire family is here. She has no relatives remaining in Germany or Iran.
She's finishing her education here, scheduled to graduate in the spring. She works here. She wants to get married and have her family here, to live the great American dream.
Yes, she is American in everything except the paperwork.
"We respect what they (the Homeland Security people) are doing," Vardeh said. "We just want to live in peace. We don't want to live in terror. We've done that before."
Assyrian Student in Turlock Fears Deportation from U.S.
Courtesy of the Modesto Bee
7 October 2004
By Jeff Jardine
(ZNDA: Turlock) Monika Vardeh's r?sum? has an all-American look:
Honor student at Turlock High, class of 2001.
Graduate of Modesto Junior College.
Senior at California State University, Stanislaus.
Teller at Bank of the West in Hughson.
She speaks English perfectly, with only a slight Middle Eastern accent, and also knows Assyrian and bits of German.
"She can go anywhere in the world, and they'll know she's an American," said Ron Mekah, her fianc?. "They can tell."
Monika Vardeh holds a letter she wrote and faxed to President Bush making her case for remaining in the United States, where the 22-year-old has lived since she and her mother, Pratis Chalabi, left, arrived here on visitors' visas in 1997.
Therein lies the rub. She doesn't want to go anywhere else. She wants to stay here. But the U.S. Department of Homeland Security wants to deport her to Germany, which, she fears, would send her to certain death in her birthplace of Iran.
She needs to convince American authorities that she belongs here, in the United States and in Turlock, and she took a step toward achieving that Wednesday morning when she surrendered to authorities in San Francisco.
The meeting went better than she expected. Officials are allowing her to remain free without bond until her case is sorted out.
"They trust me," she said shortly after her hearing on the morning of 6 October. "They usually handcuff (immigrants), but my lawyer talked them out of it. They treated me with dignity. They looked at me as a human, not a number. They took my background into consideration. It was absolutely phenomenal."
Vardeh must go to San Francisco every third Tuesday of the month to sign in, letting officials know of her whereabouts. She can't leave the state without advising them of her plans. She can't leave the country, period, which is interesting since they're trying to deport her.
And yes, they still want to deport her. But it's not that simple.
The 22-year-old Turlock woman is caught in one of those immigration Catch-22s.
She was born in Iran in 1982. Her family ? all Christians ? fled Ayatollah Khomeini's Islamic fundamentalist regime in 1985. They went to Germany, hoping to continue on to the United States, which they did ? a dozen years later.
Monika's brother, Jeffrey Warda, preceded them to America and received permanent resident status. Their mother, Pratis Chalabi, and Monika came here on visitors' visas in 1998, when Monika was 15.
This certificate of holy baptism certifies Monika Vardeh's birthdate and confirmation according to the rites of the Holy Apostolic Catholic Church of the East. The Stanislaus State student is fighting deportation to Germany, where she was raised after her family fled Iran.
Warda tried to sponsor them for permanent status. Immigration approved Chalabi's residency, but denied Monika's. So she applied for political asylum in 1999.
Immigration officials, she said, canceled numerous hearings on her case. Years passed before she learned that her political asylum request had been denied. She appealed, and that also was denied.
When she dropped her second stage of appeal ? on advice of her attorney, Banafshef Akhlaghi ? it triggered the order for deportation to Germany.
Akhlaghi knew the move ultimately would force U.S. officials to look more closely at Vardeh's case and, more importantly, make them understand what would happen if they deported her.
Vardeh never was granted refugee status by Germany, and that country now refuses to take her back or grant her a travel visa. And the United States won't send her directly back to Iran.
"I can't go back to Germany," she said. "They won't allow it. The minute I set foot in Germany, they'd put me on the first plane to Iran. And the minute I set foot in Iran, they'd kill me."
So now she waits, hoping Germany will stand firm in its refusal to take her back.
Once that happens, she can take her immigration case to trial, where she can show how American she's truly become, that this country is her home.
Her entire family is here. She has no relatives remaining in Germany or Iran.
She's finishing her education here, scheduled to graduate in the spring. She works here. She wants to get married and have her family here, to live the great American dream.
Yes, she is American in everything except the paperwork.
"We respect what they (the Homeland Security people) are doing," Vardeh said. "We just want to live in peace. We don't want to live in terror. We've done that before."