Omar Faruk is an asylum seeker from Bangladesh who has been detained in immigration custody for over three  (3) years, moving closer to 4 years! in ICE custody in NJ.

As in a violent video game, problems have flown at Omar continuously and in various forms:

·         Knife attacks against him in his native Bangladesh, as the Awami League there set out to destroy their political opposition, the Bengali National Party (“BNP”).  Omar is a BNP member.

·         A seven-month journey to the US through nine countries and at times without food for days.

·         Thirteen shifts between different ICE detention centers following his October 15, 2014 arrival in the US --   from Los Angeles to New Jersey to Alabama to Virginia to New Jersey again….  Currently in Essex County Correctional Facility, in immigration custody. 

·         Mistaken action by ICE categorizing BNP as a Tier 3 terrorist organization.  (Mistake now corrected, but Omar’s case was hurt by this error.)

·         A US immigration judge who ruled against Omar because the translator at one time wrote that Omar’s knife injuries were to his leg and at another time said that they were to his foot.  (This was a linguistic issue….   The same Bengali word means both body parts.)  The judge was annoyed at Omar and did not allow him to point to the part of his body where he had been injured.

But Omar has persisted courageously and NOW THERE IS HOPE!  

In a starting development, he Bureau of Immigration Appeals (BIA) has recently ruled that the immigration judge Omar’s previous hearing had been BIASED AGAINST OMAR!!!! Omar has been given a new hearing with a different judge.  This trial hearing is July 11, 2018

Omar needs a lawyer by his side. We need your help, raise the legal fees of $5000.00 to help pay his lawyer. 

Your support is URGENTLY needed. Can you help him finally win release after more than 3 years in detention? 

If you can support this individual and/or have questions, please reach out to Sally Pillay at 908-469-7337 or spillay@firstfriendsnjny.org