Arab-American organizations say hundreds of people of Middle Eastern origin have contacted them with complaints of mistreatment at work because of their nationality or religion. Nearly 100 people have filed discrimination complaints with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission against their employers for harassment and unjust firings.

One of them, Ossama Elkoshairi, an Egyptian-born U.S. citizen, said he was called into the bosses' office at the Wal-Mart store in Fairfax, Virginia, where he worked. He was questioned for two hours by company officials and an FBI agent about his views on Afghanistan and the U.S. bombing. He was then fired and told he was not permitted on the premises of any Wal-Mart store.

Those who have been jailed have been mostly noncitizens of Arab descent, but some of those snatched up include naturalized citizens, a Palestinian born in the United States, and dozens of Israeli Jews. Some of the detainees have spent months in prison and there have been at least two deaths reported among those who have been arrested. According to a New York Times article, "a senior law enforcement official said...the government has yet to find any evidence indicating that any of them had knowledge of the Sept. 11 attacks or acted as accomplices."

A coalition of Arab-American and civil rights organizations have filed a request based on the Freedom of Information Act demanding a list of those who are jailed, where, and why. The Justice Department has denied this request and a similar one made by members of the U.S. Congress.

One immigrant from Egypt, Osama Elfar, who worked as a mechanic for an airline in St. Louis, has been in jail for two months. He began a hunger strike at the Charleston, Missouri, prison November 23 to protest his incarceration. "When you're here, you don't know day from night," he said. "A lot of things that were on my mind I do not believe it anymore, like a fair trial and the freedom of speech."

Some of the detainees are U.S. citizens who have lived in the United States for decades. Two Palestinians, Fathi Mustafa and his son Nacer, were arrested September 15 in Houston after U.S. Customs agents questioned an extra layer of lamination on their passports. They were traveling to Mexico to buy goods for their store near Fort Myers, Florida.

"No one explained anything to me. I sat in jail without knowing what day it was or what hour it was," Fathi Mustafa told the Fort Myers News-Press. "I've lived here for 35 years and every time I told them the truth, they'd find something else to question me about."

The elder Mustafa, a 65-year-old naturalized U.S. citizen who has lived in the country for nearly 40 years, spent 10 days in jail and was forced to wear a leg monitor to track his movements after his release. His 24-year-old son, a U.S. citizen who was born in Puerto Rico, was kept in jail for more than two months before being freed.

The Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) has jailed some 70 young Israelis who came to the United States and found jobs. Charged with working without proper documentation, some have been detained since September 11. The INS has dubbed the Israeli detainees as "special" non-terrorist cases.

Yael Antebi, who is being deported, was detained because her tourist visa prohibited employment, an offense that rarely results in detention for those with valid immigration papers like her.  
 
 
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