Family of Hate Crime Victim Granted U.S. Residency Due to Efforts by National South Asian Bar Association and Bipartisan Congressional Leadership.

WASHINGTON -- Congressman Holt's Bill to Be Presented to President Bush for Signing, Event Marks Major Milestone for South Asian American Rights

Thanks to leadership of the National South Asian Bar Association (NASABA) and its work with the U.S. Congress, the wife and four daughters of Pakistani immigrant Waqar Hasan -- a victim of a post-9/11 hate crime murder -- now stand on the verge of U.S. citizenship. On October 4, the Senate Judiciary Committee passed H.R. 867, Congressman Rush Holt's private relief bill, which would grant the family permanent residency in the U.S. The bill passed the full Senate on October 11, and now is in the hands of the President Bush to sign into law.

The bill was especially important to NASABA Secretary Alamdar Hamdani because the life of the Hasans' mirrors his own. On September 15, 2001, the night Mr. Hasan was shot in the Dallas area working behind a convenient store counter, Hamdani's father, a South Asian immigrant, was also working that night, in the Dallas area, behind a convenient store counter. Hamdani states, "My father could easily have been a victim that night; my father could have been Mr. Hasan.

When Waqar was brutally killed, however, his family's American future was placed in jeopardy. Their visas and green card applications were both dependent upon his visa. When he died, their visas and hope of American citizenship died with him. Their cause was taken up by Congressman Holt, the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, the Lutheran Office of Governmental Ministry (Trenton), the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, the Commission on Social Action of Reform Judaism, the Church World Services/Immigration and Refugee Program, and the Arab American Institute. These organizations, along with NASABA, mobilized contacts within and outside the government to save the remaining family members from deportation.

"By approving this Bill, the President gives the Hasan family permanent residency, and in doing so, upholds the values of freedom and justice that are so much a part our American doctrine," said Senator Chambliss (R-GA)

"Our country has an obligation to help this hardworking family put the tragedy of September 15th, 2001 behind them, and restore the dream of a better life that brought them to America. I urge the President to quickly sign this bill so this family can begin a new, and hopefully brighter, chapter in their lives," said Rep. Rush Holt (D-NJ) at a press conference held in his office on October 12th.