A comedian who was returning home from Oregon after a concert was arrested by immigration officers

Jan. December 29, 2019, 02:42 GMT

From Tim Stelloh

A 27-year-old comedian who returns home after a show in the state of Washington ordered by immigration officers and stopped – – even if he's legally in the country.

"I've never felt so terrible today", wrote Mohanad Elshieky on Twitter . "I never imagined that I should go through there."

The episode also raised larger questions about the documents that legal immigrants are supposed to take with them to prove their status.

Elshieky said he came to the United States. United States having obtained a visa for a student exchange in 2014. Later in the year, while the city of Benghazi, his hometown, was threatened by war, and that he threatened him and his family, he asked for asylum, he said.

In October 2018, his request was accepted, according to documents consulted by NBC News.

He was returning home from a performance in Pullman, Washington, on Sunday, and was transferred to a Greyhound in Spokane when two US Customs and Border Protection agents boarded the bus. he asked if he was an American citizen,

"I said:" I am a citizen of Libya, "he reminded himself. "They said," OK, come with us. "

After getting off the bus, the agents asked him for his identity, Elshieky recalled. He told them that he had an Oregon driver's license and a valid work card – a document issued by the US Immigration and Citizenship Service that refugees and other immigrants can show employers.

Elshieky thought that the work permit card was more than enough to show her legal status.

"The clandestine get all the time," recalls one of them.

An officer allegedly asked him if he had a copy of his asylum clearance document. a three-page letter with a large map of Customs and Border Protection attached. Elshieky had this document but at home.

The police made a phone call and provided details from the authorization card, Elshieky said. Then one of them said he had no record of his asylum claim.

"I asked him: what about the work permit – is it valid or not?" Recalls Elshieky. "He would not answer."

Elshieky did not know what to do. He therefore threatened to call his lawyer and one of the police officers asked him to remove his hands from his pockets.

"That makes no sense," Elshieky said.

The agents finally returned his identity card and his work permit. he adds telling him to have his "papers" with him next time.

"That does not mean anything because I did it and that they said they were fake," wrote Elshieky on Twitter.

Through the intermediary of a spokesperson, Customs and Border Protection described the incident as a misunderstanding: all immigrants over the age of 18 must be provided with documents certifying that They are legally in the United States, the agency said, and neither a driver's license nor a work permit meet this requirement.

Elshieky's asylum documents "would have worked to resolve this investigation quickly," said the agency.

The agency did not respond to Elshieky's description of alleged police behavior.

Bill Holsten, lawyer and executive director of North Texa's Human Rights Initiative, said the episode highlighted a broader problem related to the processing of documents relating to asylum.

Often, he said, the government does not provide reliable data on the asylum status of a person, but law enforcement is still required to: [19659007] They are "not trained enough to do it," said Holsten, adding, "These things are complicated. These are things that judges should do. "

Even in a case like that of Elshieky, where he had documents of asylum at home, Holsten said that we should not be safe. wait until Elshieky "takes all of his legal file" if his suitcase is stolen? »says Holsten." The government is losing the original documents of the people all the time. "

Despite all, his organization recommends that asylum seekers always carry with them the "best evidence they have" to avoid situations like Elshieky's.

"Anyway, there is a risk, "he said," but we tell people to wear them because the risk of being arrested is greater. "

Anne Chandler, executive director of the Tahirih Justice Center in Houston, explained that she had clients who had been naturalized but remained terrified of not having the proper documents with them at all times in case they were arrested by the immigration authorities.

"I know so many naturalized citizens who carry old paperwork and passports in their glove boxes," she said. Once people have completed their immigration records, should not they "have the right to travel and feel free in this country?"