Detention of a high-ranking Jordanian priest is seen as part of new American restrictions on Middle Easterners travelling to the land of the free, writes Muna Hamzeh In what turned out to be a humiliating and embarrassing ordeal, a high ranking Arab priest was detained and his visa revoked by US Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services (BCIS) officials at the Toronto Airport on 20 July while he was on his way back to the United States from Canada. Father Emile Salayta, a Roman Catholic priest with the Latin Patriarchate in Jerusalem had just completed a three-day business trip to Toronto, where he met with Canadian church officials and appeared on a pre-scheduled TV talkshow. At the time of his detention, the Jordanian-born priest was on his way to Chicago and Sioux Falls for meetings with Patriarch of Jerusalem Bishop Michael Sabagh and Father Drew Christensen, the counsel to the US Conference on Catholic Bishops, as well as other church officials. Holding a valid five-year multi-entry US visa and having previously been to the US on more than 20 business trips, Father Salayta had no clue that anything was amiss when he handed his Jordanian passport to BCIS officials for inspection. But unknown to him, his Middle Eastern nationality had attracted the attention of BCIS officials who decided to profile him and then detained him for five hours. During his unexpected ordeal, a stunned Father Salayta was questioned under oath, fingerprinted, photographed and searched before his multi-entry US visa was revoked and he was denied entry to the US. "The BCIS claimed that he had violated his visa and overstayed his welcome in the US for two years. That's a lie," Dr Robert Younes, a spokesman for the Holy Land Christian Ecumenical Foundation, told Al-Ahram Weekly. "Then they claimed that he had overstayed his welcome by 2-3 days, and this Father Salayta readily admited as an oversight on his part. But that's the only factual basis for denying him entry." Father Salayta believes that immigration officials made an error of judgement. "Their action is part of the US government's crackdown on immigration. They made a mistake," Dr Younes said. An internationally recognised peace advocate, Father Salayta is the co-founder of the Holy Land Christian Ecumenical Foundation (HCEF). He is currently based in Rome studying to earn a Doctorate Degree in Canon and Civil Law. Considered a passionate advocate of a just peace in the Middle East and of reconciliation between Arabs and Jews, Father Salayta is a frequent speaker in the US about the plight of Christians in the Holy Land. "Being denied entry into the US means that Father Salayta will not be able to speak at our conferences and will not be able to act as an activist for the cause of the Christians in the Holy Land," Dr. Younes told the Weekly. The Holy Land Christian Ecumenical Foundation have contacted several senators and congressmen and asked them to help reverse the BCIS decision. Attorneys with the US Catholic Bishops' Conference have also been involved and will try to contact immigration officials to determine what can be done to restore Father Salayta's visa and allow him back into the US. The incident comes at a time when US government policies are having an increasingly negative impact on immigrants, especially Middle Easterners. Tens of thousands of males over the age of 16 who are US citizens or nationals of mostly Muslim and Arab countries have been required to voluntarily register with the Immigration and Naturalisation (INS) special registration program, intended to monitor Muslims and Arabs who live in the US. Those who fail to register face possible arrest or deportation. Furthermore, the profiling of Arab and Muslim travellers to the US has resulted in the denial of entry to numerous travellers whose only crime seems to be their nationality.
