AP News, November 2nd, 2007
A Texas congressman says the government's treatment of an Albanian immigrant who fears his life could be in danger if he is deported is "intolerable" and "callous."
Rep. Louie Gohmert, a conservative Republican from Tyler in eastern Texas, seems an unlikely ally of Rrustem Neza. But he has written a private bill that would stall Neza's deportation until 2009 and allow him to reapply for asylum.
Gohmert, who sits on the House judiciary subcommittee on immigration, spoke to President Bush about the case this week. Immigration Subcommittee Chairwoman Zoe Lofgren has indicated she's sympathetic to Neza's plight and will review the information, Gohmert's office said.
"I am a strong believer in following the laws regarding immigration," Gohmert said in a written statement. "However, we have laws to allow people to remain here based on asylum and the need to protect their lives."
Immigration authorities want a court to let them sedate Neza before putting him on an airplane for deportation because they believe he will again fight attempts to remove him. Immigration authorities have had deportees medicated before, but an ICE spokesman has said that is rare.
Neza fears he will be killed if he is returned to Albania because of what he knows about the 1998 assassination of a politician in the European country of 3.6 million people. Two of his brothers have won asylum, said his attorney, John Wheat Gibson.
"The drugging is just one more mean thing they are doing to this guy to deliver him into the hands of the assassins," Gibson said.
A government official has said Neza came into the U.S. using a false Italian passport. He now owns a restaurant in Lufkin. Immigration and Customs Enforcement could not deport him in August because he was terrified and did not calm down.
ICE officials allege Neza grabbed a cell phone from a deportation officer's hand at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport after being told he could no longer use it to call his attorney and family.
Neza then began shouting "I am not a terrorist" and asked an airline ticket agent for help while saying he was being illegally deported. He later began shouting "I am not a criminal!" when the deportation officer grabbed him by the arm, according to court documents.
Neza is being detained at the Rolling Plains facility in Haskell, about 210 miles west of Dallas.
