November 16, 2006
By Yvonne Abraham and Raja Mishra, Globe Staff

2 local imams arrested in alleged visa scheme
33 suspects in all held nationwide

Federal immigration agents arrested imams from two Boston-area mosques yesterday on charges they were involved in a scheme that provided religious worker visas to immigrants who used them to enter the United States and work instead as gas station attendants, truck drivers, and factory laborers.
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Hafiz Abdul Hannan , imam , or leader, of the Islamic Society of Greater Lowell in Chelmsford, and Muhammed Masood , imam of the Islamic Center of New England in Sharon, were among 33 people taken into custody nationwide after a multi-year investigation led by agents in Boston and New York, said Paula Grenier , a spokeswoman for US Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

"This was a nationwide religious worker visa fraud scheme designed to help illegal aliens," said Grenier. "These people had to be solely engaged in religious employment, and in many cases were not."

Under the Religious Worker Program, started in 1990, churches, synagogues, and mosques can ask the government to approve visas for foreigners to fill vacant positions. Several thousand visas are issued each year that permit immigrants to enter the United States exclusively for religious employment. To obtain the visa, immigrants must have religious training and experience in their native country. Once here, they are not allowed to hold secular jobs. The religious worker permits can ultimately lead to green cards, or permanent residency.

Under the scheme, described by federal authorities yesterday, the immigrants, who were mostly Pakistani, paid a fee to US religious organizations, which then sponsored them for the visas. Federal immigration officials believe that abuse of the program is widespread: an August 2005 audit found signs of fraud in more than 30 percent of applications.

Some of those arrested did legitimate religious work, but had filed false paperwork to win their own visas, or once here, to sponsor others, said Grenier. Because the investigation is ongoing, she would not say whether the imams are alleged to have sponsored the visas for others or violated their own visas by working secular jobs.

The imams, who were still in custody last night, were arrested with two other Massachusetts residents and 29 others across the country, in New York, Connecticut, Georgia, Minnesota, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Washington, D.C.

Grenier said those arrested were mostly Pakistani. They will face deportation hearings and some could face criminal fraud charges.

She would not say how many people received the sham visas or how much they paid for them. An ICE statement released yesterday said only that there were "large numbers" of immigrants involved and that their visas had been revoked.

In addition to those involved in the alleged visa fraud, immigration agents arrested six illegal immigrants discovered during the course of the investigation.

Local Muslims reacted last night to the news of the imams' arrests with disbelief and distress.
"I hope this is not one of those witch-hunts, that this is not something against the religion itself, " said Tahir Ali , of Westborough, a member of the American Muslim Alliance. "There must be some sort of misunderstanding here. If something like this happened, it obviously happened without the imams knowing about it."

People who know the two men said they would be surprised if the imams had taken part in an illegal scheme.

"I am shocked," said Dr. Syed Razvi , religious director at the Islamic Center of Boston in Wayland , who has invited Masood to preach at his mosque, and has worked with him on interfaith initiatives. "Sometimes you hear loose talk and stuff, but I have never heard anything bad about these people. People are going to be quite upset."

The Chelmsford mosque was closed last night and the doors were locked.

Grenier rejected claims that Muslims had been unfairly targeted in the investigation. The ICE statement pointed out that people of other faiths had previously been arrested, citing a South Korean Christian minister who appeared in federal court earlier this month to be sentenced for running a similar scheme in Washington state.

"Race, religion and ethnicity played no role in these arrests," Grenier said "No one was randomly targeted. It was a carefully planned operation."

Earlier this year, an investigation by the Department of Homeland Security found that fraud in the program was particularly high among applicants from Muslim countries and raised concerns about potential terrorism risks.

Grenier said yesterday's arrests were not related to homeland security.

However, the arrests add to a growing list of immigration investigations of Muslims in the United States following the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and a local climate many describe as increasingly hostile to Muslims.

Many Muslims are angry about the treatment given to leaders of the Islamic Society of Boston, this one based in Cambridge, who were the subject of 2003 media reports linking them to Islamic extremists. The Islamic Society has sued the media outlets and others over the claims. The defendants deny the accusations in the lawsuit. Officials say construction of a new mosque in Roxbury has been stalled for months because donations dried up after the allegations. And last year, Governor Mitt Romney suggested that some mosques be monitored for extremism, outraging members of the local Muslim community. .

"There are immigration violations going on all over the country," said Ali of the American Muslim Alliance. "They go out and get illegal immigrants, but it's not directed at one ethnic group. This definitely looks like it's directed towards a religion."

There are several dozen mosques in Massachusetts.

Several local Muslims expressed doubt that any scheme was afoot. At best, they said, those arrested were just trying to make ends meet.

"They probably did come here for religious work, and had to take on additional work because their income wasn't enough," said Parwez Wahid , chairman of the Framingham Democratic Town Committee, who added that there was an ongoing shortage of Islamic mosque workers and scholars.

Russell Contreras and Michael Paulson of the Globe Staff contributed to this report. Yvonne Abraham can be reached at abraham@globe. com.
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