At least 50 Bangladeshi families from New York, Los Angeles, Phoenix, Dallas, Houston, Boston, Philadelphia, Maryland, New Jersey, Michigan, Florida, Georgia, Alabama, and Nevada, have left for their native country, leaving behind their dreams of a new beginning in the United States, because of stringent immigration laws. Immigration attorneys and community-based organization sources said that several dozen families decided to leave permanently for Bangladesh.
Many gave up all hope after failing to get political asylum or obtain green cards after submitting their application under the CSS/ LULAC (Catholic Social Services/League of United Latin American Citizens) class, which requires that applicants have entered the United States before 1982.
Even though immigration reform is still in limbo in the U.S. Congress, immigrants who have used fraudulent means to stay in the country know they will not benefit from new legislation. Moreover, their attorneys believe that the administration can arrest them, put them in jail and penalize them. Under these circumstances, they advised their clients that it’s better to leave the United States.
The families spent more than a decade here. As they were leaving and boarding their flights with their children, many wept and embraced their relatives, friends and well-wishers. Their efforts to create a future in the United States had come to a sudden end. They spent huge amounts of money on their attorneys, hoping to keep their immigration status alive. As a result, many had little to take with them on their return journey. They will have to start once again and face new struggles in Bangladesh.
The fact that law enforcement agencies have intensified their searches in the work place has many living in fear. Leaving for work in the morning, they wonder if they will be able to return to their families that evening. Many fear that they will find an immigration agent waiting for them out at their front door. Though no news of that kind of activity against the Bangladeshi community has reached us, the Department of Homeland Security issued a new circular last week, requiring that employers examine the immigration status of their employees and that employees must be recertified at the end of the year. Companies were advised to set up new mechanisms to tally the status of their employees.
People who have used more than one name and date of birth have come to believe that the United States is no longer a haven for them. Others who applied through the CSS and LULAC program and received work permits and went back to Bangladesh on parole to keep their applications open; however, when they returned to the United States, they were detained at the airport and deported back to Bangladesh. Under these circumstances, many who are in the Bangladesh on parole don’t dare to return. This along with the recent departures is causing the community to shrink in numbers.
