Summary of the case of Dr. Mohammad Qatanani and his family

Dr. Mohammad Mahdi Qatanani,       

Dr. Mohammad Qatanani, the Imam of the Islamic Center of Passaic County, is currently in removal proceedings with his wife and their three non-U.S. citizen children. The Qatananis also have three U.S.-born children, ages nine, and twins age seven.

Dr. Qatanani came to the United States in 1996 with a professional work visa to serve as the imam at the Islamic Center of Passaic County in Paterson, New Jersey.  Since then Dr. Qatanani has worked tirelessly to build bridges between communities of faith--Jewish, Christian and Muslim.  The Islamic Center of Passaic County, under Dr. Qatanani’s leadership, was among the first mosques to condemn the attacks of September 11, 2001, issuing a press statement of condemnation within hours.   Since the events of September 11, 2001, the Islamic Center of Passaic County has been at the center of many interfaith activities, including semi-annual Christian-Muslim dialogues and the generation of an interfaith think-tank of Jews, Christians, and Muslims.  It has hosted numerous open house events, in addition to the interfaith events they had been promoting well before September 11, 2001.  Dr. Qatanani has worked extensively with government officials, including the FBI, the Sheriff of Passaic County, various prosecutors and municipal government officials.   He has been lauded by these officials for assisting them in their efforts to gain a greater understanding of Islam and for facilitating dialogue among the diverse religious and civic communities in the region.  He is also a leading advocate for Muslim Americans to become active in civic and public life, encouraging members of his religious community to vote, participate in civic affairs, and enter careers in public service and law enforcement.  He is a valued and respected leader in the large Muslim community in northern New Jersey and supported by a broad and diverse group of religious and governmental leaders.

In 1997 the Islamic Center of Passaic County submitted an application for Dr. Qatanani’s legal permanent residence based on his classification as a religious worker.   This petition was approved on October 14, 1998.   Dr. Qatanani, his wife and three children then applied for adjustment of status to legal permanent residence on April 1, 1999.  These applications were pending for many years, during which time the government, contrary to the routine practice, refused to issue extensions of Dr. Qatanani’s   Employment Authorization Document (EAD).   On February 7, 2005 Dr. Qatanani attended an interview requested by the FBI, at which an officer from the Department of Homeland Security Immigration and Customs Enforcement was also present and another interview for adjustment of status was held on May 6, 2006.  Both of these interviews lasted many hours and Dr. Qatanani answered all questions put to him.   

On July 10, 2006 U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) denied the family’s adjustment of status applications and the family was put into removal proceedings in Newark, New Jersey.  Dr. Qatanani and his family are renewing their applications for adjustment of status in removal proceedings.   The government is opposing his application for legal permanent residence, claiming that there is a 1993 Israeli Military Court conviction against him for “assisting Hamas” and that he was not truthful in his application for adjustment of status in disclosing this conviction. Dr. Qatanani had been detained in the West Bank for three months in 1993, as were thousands of young Palestinian men, and subjected to extremely abusive interrogation techniques subsequently outlawed by the Israeli Supreme Court. To this day he physically suffers from the effects of this torture.   He was never informed of any charges or of a disposition of a criminal case and for the first time saw documents purporting to be related to that period of detention in the course of these removal proceedings.  Regardless, he has been consistently forthright to all U.S. government officials in providing all information he had regarding this period of detention. Interestingly, the government makes no allegations of, or presents proof of, membership in or assistance to any questionable organizations, at any time or in any country, aside from the documents from the Israeli National Police referring to this 1993 detention.  

A trial in the case of Dr. Qatanani and his family has been scheduled in Immigration Court in Newark, New Jersey before Immigration Judge Alberto J. Riefkohl on May 8, 9 and 12, 2008. 

            Dr. Qatanani and his family are represented in removal proceedings by Claudia Slovinsky, Law Offices of Claudia Slovinsky, 401 Broadway, Suite 1600,  New York, N.Y.  10013; telephone:   (212) 925-0101.   

Immigration Judge:                                                     Government Attorney:

Immigration Judge Alberto J. Riefkohl                      Alan Wolf

Immigration Court                                                      Assistant Chief Counsel

970 Broad Street, Room 1135                                                U.S. Department of Homeland Security
Newark, NJ 07102                                                      970 Broad Street, Room 1104B

                                                                                    Newark, N.J.   07102