Pakistani victim of hate crime may be deported from US

A Pakistani man may be deported before an investigation is done into a beating he suffered in a Mississippi prison, according to a report in the Houston Chronicle.
A federal immigration judge ruled on Monday that Hasnain Javed, 19, has until April 16 to leave the country after overstaying his visa.
Javed and his Houston-based relatives believe the government may be trying to get him out of the country before an investigation can be completed into the Sept. 19 beating they characterize as a hate crime.
“We thought some justice would be done,” said Javed’s aunt, Erum Rehman. “It looks like they just want to shut this case down and get rid of him.”
“There was no acknowledgment of what happened to me,” said Javed, now back living temporarily in Houston. “No one ever said they were sorry.”
Representatives of the FBI in Mississippi could not be reached for comment late Monday.
Javed, a college student, was taking a bus from Houston back to his home in New York on Sept. 19 when Border Patrol agents boarded the bus in Mobile, Ala., and arrested him for having an expired visa.
Javed had come to the United States to attend high school and never renewed his visa. Though charged with a civil penalty, Javed was held with felons in a Mississippi prison, where he was beaten. Javed said his attackers called him “bin Laden.”
The sheriff overseeing the jail has acknowledged that the beating took place but says Javed may have taunted the other prisoners by denouncing the United States — something Javed strongly denies.
Agents from the FBI interviewed Javed days after the incident, but there is no sign that the investigation into the case has moved forward.
“I’m not aware that any of the witnesses or any of the people in the jail were ever interviewed,” said Mary Howell, Javed’s attorney in New Orleans.
Howell said there may be some confusion over which part of the government has jurisdiction in the case. Javed was arrested by federal agents but held in a prison run by the Stone County Sheriff’s Department. “The state authorities said they were going to wait to see what the feds did,” Howell said.
The family believes Javed should be allowed to stay in the country until the confusion over the investigation can be resolved.