My name is not Khan

Right to freedom, mobility and work cannot be taken away, as migration is intrinsic to exile and survival

Mukul Sharma Delhi

Migration is a matter of my life. I first moved to Delhi to pursue my education. Later, I had to often leave my country for work. Immigration grew, and increasingly it became tiring for me - various counters, security checks, scanning, and questions began scaring me. I carry a few baggages, but I think my family and I must carry all our rights with them when I move. I am a human being, whether I am documented or not. Immigration systems and detentions need reforms and alternatives to ensure that I am treated with respect for my rights and human dignity. We need to support each other - tens of thousands of individuals will be harassed and detained tonight, tomorrow, and the next day in the present system.

My fear is not a hallucinatory creation. It is based on ground realities. A number of official reports, by the US government's accountability office and the US department of homeland security, tell me that more than 30,000 immigrants are detained each day in that country. More than 300,000 men, women and children are detained by the US immigration authorities each year. This number is likely to increase even further in future. Their detention and harassment may be for hours or weeks or even years, as they go through various enquiry procedures. They are political activists, Muslims, asylum seekers, labourers, victims of human trafficking and others. It is the widespread use of immigration controls and detention that has forced US immigration authorities to contract with approximately 350 state and county criminal jails across the country to house individuals, pending deportation proceedings. Approximately 67 per cent of immigration detainees are held in these facilities, while the remaining individuals are held in facilities operated by immigration authorities and private contractors.

I once heard James Pendergraph say, "If you don't have enough evidence to charge someone criminally but you think he is illegal, we can make him disappear." James is the former executive director of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) office of State and local coordination. He was speaking on August 21, 2008 in Washington DC at the Police Foundation National Conference on The role of local police: Striking a balance between immigration enforcement and civil liberties. Another day, a primetime programme on a national news channel, Dobb's Choice: CNN Host Picks Immigration as His Ax to Grind, Extra! was saying, "Illegal aliens... not only threaten our economy and security, but also our health and well-being."

Several of my college friends have been migrating to the US since long and have well-established lives. Even today, as the Yearbook of Immigration Statistics 2007 suggests, approximately 1.8 million people migrate to the US every year. The vast majority has official authorisation to live and work in the US. A minority reaches the country as unwanted, unauthorised, suspected or security threat. However, all, irrespective of status, go through a rough immigration regime. Governments claim the right to exercise authority over their borders; but they more often than not forget their obligations to respect the rights of people, no matter who they are, how and when they reach the host country, or no matter what prompted an individual to leave his or her home country.