Christians of Iraq
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Christians of Iraq
Contact Links Historical articles Historical pictures Photos of Bombed Churches Home Only this link has access to all News articles
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Iraqi Christians seek asylum here Three men captured near Los Indios, claim Middle East mayhem
May 3, 06
By SERGIO CHAPA
The Brownsville HeraldMay 2, 2006 - Three Iraqi men caught crossing the Rio Grande near Los Indios Saturday are asking for asylum, claiming they are members of the Middle Eastern nation's persecuted Christian minority.
Federal court records show that U.S. Border Patrol agents arrested Ammar Habib Zaya, Aamr Bahnan Boles and Remon Manssor Piuz on an illegal entry charge shortly after they crossed into the United States from Mexico.
The three Iraqi nationals are facing six months in jail and a $5,000 fine after pleading guilty Monday to the federal misdemeanor before U.S. Magistrate Judge Felix Recio.
Recio broke a local magistrate practice when he ordered that the three men to be sentenced Friday morning instead of the same morning as their pleas. Defense attorney Humberto Yzaguirre said Recio's order could have been motivated by caution and stressed that his three clients were interviewed by a federal task force Saturday but are not suspected of terrorism.
"If there was a problem, the government would have mentioned at their plea today," Yzaguirre said. "I think they were interviewed because of where they come from and because maybe they have knowledge of terrorists or maybe they saw something or saw someone."
Yzaguirre said the three men range in age from 20 to 25 years and are asking for asylum based on claims that Iraq's Islamic insurgency has turned Muslims against the nation's 2,000-year-old Christian community.
Christianity first arrived in Iraq in 35 A.D., but Christians have suffered periods of persecution and tolerance in the centuries following the Arab Muslim conquest in 637 A.D., according to christiansofiraq.com.
One of the three men reportedly recited the Our Father in Aramaic, the language of the Chaldean Catholic Church and Jesus.
"The court interpreter made it a point to tell me that that was as close to what Jesus said when he first prayed the Our Father," Yzaguirre said.
Less than 1 million Christians remain in Iraq, but the three men claim that persecution of their faith has become worse at the hands of Muslim extremists reacting to the American invasion of Iraq.
The men were not available for interviews Monday. Yzaguirre recounted some of their stories about why they fled the Middle East.
"They said Baghdad was a mess," Yzaguirre reported. "They told me that they have seen some of the terrorists kill Christians within their sight."
Yzaguirre said one of the three men opened a liquor business with his father but that Muslim radicals burned down the store.
"Of course, for Muslims it's against their religion to drink, but it's not against Christianity to drink," Yzaguirre said. "Within a month of being opened, the liquor store was burned down and they were told that they were going to be killed, so this young man left."
Another man worked at an American military base in Baghdad where he did laundry for U.S. troops, the attorney said.
"They couldn't afford to bring the whole family, so the plan was to send them over here one at a time and the ones over here were going to work to bring the other ones back," Yzaguirre said.
Although two of the men came to Mexico through Greece, all three claim they were arrested and released by Mexican immigration officials.
Yzaguirre said the three men came to the Texas-Mexico border where a smuggler helped them cross the Rio Grande near rural Los Indios.
"The first words out of their mouth were, "Iraqi Christian, Iraqi Christian, Iraqi Christian," Yzaguirre said of the men when they were spotted by Border Patrol.
The three are not expected to formally start the asylum process until after sentencing. A recent report, however, from the United Nations High Commission for Refugees shows that half of 500,000 Iraqi asylum seekers in Syria claim to be Christian despite making up less than 5 percent of Iraq's population.
"It hasn't been that good since 2004, but even then they (the three men) were not taking political asylum when Saddam (Hussein) was there," Yzaguirre said. "I think the big difference between when Saddam was there and now, is that at least Saddam had what seemed like more control over what's going on."Whereas, there's a lot of insurgencies now, there are a lot of terrorist cells, there are a lot of attacks and shootings and bombs. There's a lot of lawlessness from what we see."