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June 11, 2004
ZGram - Where Truth is Destiny
Just now I returned from our 15 minute Sixth Circuit Court
of Appeals hearing, and as soon as I am a bit rested, I will have to get my
brain in gear and sort things out as to its meaning and write it up
accordingly. Let me just say that we did not have a hostile panel, and some
good things were being said (and learned) which will be useful in the future
- as we intend to soldier on.
Before we went, I had summarized for my attorneys what I
felt was the core of our case, and to save myself some time and again
document for our archives the progression of this case, I am going to use
that summary for today's Zgram:
[START]
The facts in this case are ridiculously simple and
straightforward.
They hinge on a faulty "visa waiver overstay"
claim by US Immigration (now part of Homeland Security) - and two
mysteriously missing letters from the Zundel Immigration files.
Facts:
The Zundels are a couple in their mid-sixties, caught up in
what current Patriot Act jargon calls a "rendition" - a brutal
arrest of a "terrorist suspect" based not on what a person may
have done or even planned, but on a flimsy legal irregularity such as a
minor immigration violation.
Van Dinh, an attorney who helped draft the Patriot Act,
explained such arrests in an interview with Wired News, a publication
concerned with the preservation of Freedom of Speech in America:
"It may well be that a number of citizens were not
charged with terrorism-related crimes, but they NEED NOT BE. Where the
department has suspected people of terrorism it will prosecute those persons
for OTHER violations of law, rather than wait for a terrorist conspiracy to
fully develop and risk the potential that that conspiracy will be
missed." (Emphasis added)
For irresponsible people in power with little oversight,
that is wide enough net to catch one's "enemies" one needs, to
score a political point, to advance a political career, perhaps to get a
hefty grant - or to settle a private political agenda!
For a family caught in such a phony, politically motivated
arrest, it is a nightmare crying out for judicial redress.
In an interview write-up with Attorney Van Dinh, Wired News
cites 5,000 such arrests that have happened since 9/11- the Department of
Justice admits to 500. Ernst Zundel has been one!
Background
Ernst and Ingrid Zundel are known as an articulate,
historically well-versed, politically incorrect couple. Both are
first-generation immigrants of German ancestry. As children, both
experienced World War II in all of its harshest brutalities. Both
experienced years of hunger and cold during and after World War II,
appalling want of the barest necessities, very little formal education. Both
came to Canada when they were very young - Ernst as a 19-year-old, Ingrid in
her early twenties. They did not know each other then, although their World
War II experiences were very similar, as were their ethnic and religious
backgrounds.
Both have been lifelong pacifists.
In the 1960s, Ingrid moved to Kansas and then to California.
Only in her mid-thirties did she have a chance to acquire formal schooling,
culminating in doctorate in education. Over time, she became an
award-winning ethnic novelist and celebrated keynote speaker, addressing
huge audiences at national conventions about her experiences as a young
child in war-torn Germany - telling a story of hardship and suffering from
the German point of view.
Ernst lived in Canada for more than 40 years. He, too,
became a renown, award-winning artist who owned a lucrative graphic arts
studio. World War II history was his passionate hobby - which over the years
morphed into an all-consuming need to "set the record straight"
about politically suppressed history, as seen from his parents' generation
point of view. This made him, over time, quite controversial and somewhat of
a household name in Canada because he challenged certain widely held beliefs
about what really happened during World War II in Germany in concentration
camps such as Auschwitz. His views led to several high profile political
trials.
Despite their unorthodox views, both Ernst and Ingrid were
considered model first-generation immigrants. On the American Continent
where they lived all of their adult lives, neither one has a criminal
record.
Ernst and Ingrid met in September 1994 at a historical
Revisionist conference. They married on January 19, 2000 as both were
approaching retirement age. They looked for a place to settle down after a
lifetime of struggle - and found it, so they thought, in the tranquility of
rural Tennessee.
Ingrid was a U.S. citizen, Ernst still a German national,
although he lived in Canada for more than 40 years.
German nationals from Europe usually enter the United States
under what is known as a "visa waiver" tourist permit, valid for
only three months - and quite restricted as to legal recourse if challenged.
A tourist facing deportation, for whatever reason, is generally not entitled
to appeal.
Canadian nationals and permanent residents, on the other
hand, commonly enter the U.Ss via what is known as a B-1/B-2 permit, valid
for 180 days. Overstays are not normally a concern and hardly ever enforced,
since many retired people living in Canada spend their winters in Florida
and return at their leisure in the spring.
Furthermore, in general, how Canadian nationals or permanent
residents cross the border to the United States from Southern Ontario
depends on where they cross.
If they come to the US by plane, a B-1/B-2 stamp in their
passports is required. If, on the other hand, they cross in Niagara Falls in
a car with Canadian or US licence plates, they are habitually waved through
without a visa or a passport check because there is a steady stream of cars
at these bridge crossings - visitors from the US to Canada as tourists,
Canadians who hop across the border to Buffalo to shop for items that are
cheaper on the U.S. side, such as, for instance, gasoline and cigarettes.
Crossings via car, without visa checks of any kind between two friendly
countries, are the rule rather than the exception. Whether or not a passport
is checked or stamped when crossing by car is at the discretion of the
border guards and usually depends on how heavy the traffic flow is on any
particular day.
As a German national with a high activist profile but
politically incorrect view, and as a man who was meticulously careful not to
offend in any way, Ernst always made sure he had a 3-month "visa
waiver" permit in his passport as a precaution, whether he needed it or
not. Most of the time he did not need it, since he habitually traveled by
car.
Ernst crossed at Niagara Falls on March 12, 2000 for a few
hours only - merely to renew this "visa waiver" permit. He did not
stay; he immediately returned to Toronto.
The last time he came to the United States - this time to
stay - was on May 21, 2000 by car.
May 21, 2000 was entered on his Immigration application as
the last date when Ernst left Canada to take up residence with Ingrid.
He had his "visa waiver" permit lying on his seat,
but it was never checked by busy border guards who simply waved him through.
He therefore crossed like a regular B-1/B-2 Canadian resident - NOT as a
"visa waiver" visitor as Immigration claims. He has hotel and gas
station receipts to prove it.
With the help of a well-known immigration attorney, Ernst's
application for "Adjustment of Status based on marriage" papers
were formally filed and accepted as legitimate and proper by Memphis
Immigration on October 4, 2000. On that date, the couple was advised by
Immigration in a written communiqué that there would be a waiting period of
36 months - and that no status report would be given in the interim.
Shortly thereafter, as a result of his filing, Ernst
received an American social security number, a work permit, and a document
called "advanced parole" which permitted him to re-enter the
United States, should he decide to travel. Immigration also sent him a date
to be fingerprinted by the FBI and another date for a health check by an
Immigration-approved doctor. He meticulously kept both appointments.
The couple was told by their attorney that one last step was
needed - a personal interview by an immigration official to ascertain that
theirs was a legitimate marriage. The date for this interview was set for
June 12, 2001 but had to be canceled and rescheduled due to a court calendar
conflict by the attorney.
The attorney requested a new date in a letter written on his
stationary on May 23, 2001. The Zundels have the original, time-stamped
envelope in which a copy of this request was sent to them to notify them of
the re-scheduling request.
Immigration, however, did not acknowledge this letter - and
did not reschedule the appointment.
After waiting patiently, the Zundel's attorney wrote a
second letter on June 5, 2002, reminding immigration to reschedule the
appointment, this time sending a registered letter, "return receipt
requested."
The Zundels have the original return receipt, documenting
that this letter was sent and received.
Again, there was no reply, no new date set by Immigration.
However, since the Zundels had been told that there would be no status
report and that the process would take as long as three years, they had no
reason to worry. They waited for that interview and went about their
business establishing their domicile.
On February 5, 2003, Ernst Zundel was brutally arrested at
his residence on grounds of "having missed a hearing" and
"having overstayed his visa." In handcuffs and leg irons, he was
shoved into a van and taken away by armed guards.
It was later claimed that this arrest was based on the fact
that he had overstayed in the U.S. as a "visa waiver" tourist -
which he had not! Had there been a legitimate concern about a "visa
waiver" problem at the time Ernst's papers were filed for
"Adjustment of Status based on marriage", Immigration should not
have, and would not have, accepted the Zundels' application and proceeded
with it as they did!
Subsequent inquiries and FOIA documents reveal that both of
these letters of request for rescheduling are missing in the Immigration
files. Immigration officials now claim that they never received a
rescheduling request, despite the fact that at least one letter was sent
registered - and immigration signed for it.
Were those two crucial letters lost? Misfiled? Maliciously
destroyed?
The Zundels don't know, but they are surely entitled to find
out. Since then they have found out through FOIA that other documents are
missing.
Suspicious FOIA faxes and emails further indicate that there
was shady and improper communication between Canadian and US immigration and
secret service officials coordinating and masterminding the Zundel arrest
exactly prior to and on the date of the first scheduled interview.
To this day, despite repeated requests and inordinate
efforts, no immigration official has agreed to meet with Ingrid Zundel,
review procedures and regulations - and get to the bottom of this mess!
The Zundels ask:
* What REALLY happened in this highly irregular arrest? Who
was behind it? Who had an interest in interfering and sabotaging this
couple's Adjustment of Status proceedings?
* Why were Ingrid Zundel's repeated phone calls, letters,
and faxes to immigration and other authorities ignored after Ernst was
deported to Canada?
* Why was a formal application for Reconsideration of the
Application for Adjustment of Status never acknowledged, much less responded
to by Immigration?
* Why were the Zundels not notified that their application
was considered to have been "abandoned"? Why was there no letter
of "Intent to Deny", as regulations require, to notify them?
* Why was there no hearing by an immigration judge prior to
deportation?
* Why was habeas corpus denied in a one-sentence ruling by
the Knoxville District Court without either the Zundels or their attorney
being present?
* Why is there now a ban for 20 years in effect, preventing
Ernst Zundel from returning to his home and to his U.S. wife and family? Is
that a proper "punishment" for "having missed an
interview"?
* Why was Ernst Zundel delivered in chains to the Canadian
authorities - when, as a German national, he should have been deported to
Germany?
* Why is he being held in Canada in solitary confinement on
a "security certificate" - with no criminal record, and without
any charges - for more than 16 months?
The Zundels claim, with much justification, that this arrest
was a political vendetta operation - an extradition in the guise of
deportation due to Ernst Zundel's unpopular political stance. It is no
secret that he has well-connected, powerful enemies in Canada. However, he
was legally in the United States, legally married to a U.S. citizen, legally
in Adjustment of Status procedures - which, according to a memorandum by
Attorney General Ashcroft issued in March of 2000, entitled him to wait for
as long as it took for Immigration to process his papers!
Had habeas corpus been granted in the Knoxville District
Court, this tragic deportation - with U.S. law officials acting as de facto
hit squads to please a nefarious Canadian lobby - could have been prevented.
The Zundels are asking for a legal remedy to end this
political charade.
[END]
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Reminder:
Help free Ernst Zundel, Prisoner of Conscience. His
prison sketches - now on-line and highly popular - help pay for his defence.
Take a look - and tell a friend.
http://www.zundelsite.org/gallery/donations/index.html
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Write to Canada's Prime Minister and complain
over the unfair treatment Ernst Zündel has received.
Prime Minister Paul Martin
House of Commons
Parliament Buildings
Ottawa, Ontario
K1A 0A6
Telephone: (613) 992-4211
Fax: (613) 941-6900
Email: Martin.P@parl.gc.ca |
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