Livermore, CA Citizens Try to Save Mosque Leader from Deportation

August 19, 2003

Source: Mercury News

http://www.bayarea.com/mld/mercurynews/news/local/6566348.htm

On August 19, 2003 the Mercury News reported that "people of all faiths are rallying around a Livermore mosque leader who could be deported despite his lawyer's claim that a bureaucratic mix-up caused his immigration problems... Egyptian citizen Ahmad Abdalghafar Abdalla has been the calm center of a storm that has involved everyone from Amnesty International to the First Presbyterian Church of Livermore in a campaign to keep him in the United States... Federal officials picked up the 30-year-old man at his Livermore home in April and held him for about a week, accusing him of overstaying his three-year religious-worker visa. On Monday, an immigration judge continued Abdalla's deportation hearing until Nov. 4... Members of the Islamic Center of Livermore where Abdalla serves as imam, or religious leader, have been collecting money to pay for his and his wife's legal fees, which amount to about $35,000."