Brothers jailed by US and expelled to Gaza speak out

By Joe Catron

When Basman Elashi reported to Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Dallas, Texas on 9 July, he expected nothing unusual. He had visited the federal agency regularly since his release from its custody in March 2009.

"At first I was only reporting every six months," he said over tea in his family's Gaza home. "Then they reduced it to three months. Then, the last time, they asked me to report the following month."

"They held me for three hours," he said of his final visit. "I asked them why they were holding me so long. As it turns out, they were waiting for [my brother] Bayan to come in the afternoon. Then five people surrounded me, told me they were deporting me, and handcuffed me. I didn't see Bayan until we were in the van."

Unlike his brother, Bayan Elashi had been forced to wear a monitoring anklet and report every week after his April 2009 release. "When I reported to them on Monday, 9 July, as I always do, they arrested me and said that I would be leaving the country within 24 to 48 hours," he said.

"At the detention center, they said we had two hours to call our families to bring us anything we needed for our deportations," Basman said. "This was the only window we had to call or see them."

The brothers' ordeal began much earlier, when the US government arrested them on 18 December 2002. "The [US] government actually indicted us on three counts: a sealed one; the second one, based on which they arrested us; and a third one after it was finalized," Bayan recalled. more

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