Comments on Immigration Savvy: A Sad Day in SW Michigan & Everywhere in the U.S.A...

Huseyin Parlak was a friend, a devoted brother and...

2007-05-18T10:53:00.000-05:00

Huseyin Parlak was a friend, a devoted brother and loving uncle, as well as a shining example of the "good immigrant." His deportation has created a void, and ripped an irreplaceable tear in the fabric of our community.

I apologize for my country's handling of his case and can only hope that we the voters will change our government's policies towards immigrants by changing our government in 2008.

Thanks for your efforts my friends. I've watched,...

2007-05-16T22:08:00.000-05:00

Thanks for your efforts my friends. I've watched, read, listened, and written a handful of letters to Congress as well as sharing this continuing story.

I admire the efforts that many of you have put into the case for justice of this family.

I'll write more letters, and thanks for simply being deeply good people.

Randy Buist
Hudsonville, Michigan

5/16/07 It is distressing to find that the Departm...

2007-05-16T20:44:00.000-05:00

5/16/07

It is distressing to find that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is continuing to promote terrorism by relentlessly creating mistrust of both its motives & competence, domestically as well as globally. The latest retribution against the Parlak family is another in a tragically long list of gratuitous cruelty to innumerable families. Huseyin Parlak was taken into custody at what was understood to be a routine hearing in Detroit Monday, 14 May 2007, & deported without any notice or opportunity to bring his belongings or get his affairs in order, whereas 72 hours is customarily provided.

Why must my tax money continue to be misspent to make my family & my country less secure & more at risk? Why would a US citizen & patriot not conclude that DHS is not just an unsupervised bureaucracy which has run wildly & dangerously amok, but has also become so intent on vindictively punishing anyone who challenges it & exposes its incompetence, that it actively weakens US security and puts the country it nominally works for, at much greater risk.

Patriotic taxpayers should pledge not to voluntarily cooperate with federal authorities until this situation is conclusively corrected, & to oppose current US “security” policies in every lawful manner until they are reformed to actually create greater security, instead of promoting terrorism on one hand while trying to scare US citizens/voters into unquestioning submission. That ruthless trick has become too tired and too often exposed to work any longer. Once demands for blind trust are discovered to have been dishonest, trust cannot be restored without a complete change in policy, practice and personnel.

After all, in a democracy, public servants are paid to serve the public, not their own selfish interests.

John Young

Enraged and horrified doesn't even begin to descri...

2007-05-16T15:49:00.000-05:00

Enraged and horrified doesn't even begin to describe how I feel about how our country has mistreated the brothers Parlak. Here's a letter I'll be sending to every relevant publication that I can think of:

"If we can't get you, then we'll go after your family."

That is neither a threat from an organized crime organization nor an excerpt from the latest pro-terrorist message released by Al Qaida. That chilling phrase has become the official policy of the United States Government.

Having been thwarted in its attempts to defame and deport southwest Michigan resident Ibrahim Parlak, the Department of Homeland Security has been setting its sights on Mr. Parlak's brother, Huseyin Parlak. DHS has been using the same methods against Mr. Huseyin Parlak as were employed against his brother: fraudulent allegations, overblown rhetoric and trumped-up charges.

It is a triumph of justice that such despicable methods have yet to railroad Ibrahim Parlak. It is a tragic miscarriage of justice that on May 14, 2007, Huseyin Parlak was suddenly thrown out of the United States. Thinking that he was attending a routine meeting with DHS, Huseyin was seized without warning and shoved onto a plane bound for Istanbul, Turkey. He was not even given the chance to pack his belongings, settle his affairs or say good-bye to his family and friends.

Huseyin Parlak is not a terrorist. He was a model resident of this country who desired with all his heart to become a model citizen of this country, but because his brother Ibrahim was a political inconvenience to our government, Huseyin became a target and then a victim.

As I write this in the comfort of my home, I cannot help but reflect that my personal politics also make me a political inconvenience to our government. As you read this in the comfort of your home, are you asking yourself if you've ever done anything that makes you a political inconvenience? Will you ever be victimized by the same sort of summary punitive action that was sprung upon Huseyin Parlak?

If you're chuckling and dismissing me as an overly paranoid hack, then for your sake and mine, I sincerely hope that you are right. It would be an enormous relief if the histories of post-Weimar Germany and Stalinist Russia did not reoccur in 21st Century America. If you choose to remain silent and be complicit while American law enforcement degenerates into thuggery, then I sincerely hope that you are never singled out for political persecution like the Parlak brothers have been.

Because if you are, then they will get you. And if they can't get you, then they'll go after your family.