JUDGE: AFGHAN GUILTY OF DRUG TRAFFICKING

An immigration judge decided Thursday that an Afghan-born man raised in
Madison was guilty of drug trafficking, making Mirwais Ali's deportation to
Afghanistan all but inevitable, his lawyer said.

But a deportation order is not necessarily a certainty in the 22-year-old's
case, an Immigration and Naturalization Service spokeswoman in Chicago
said. The judge could decide against deportation if he thinks Ali would be
persecuted in Afghanistan, or if he believes Ali's'crime is less serious
than first appears, said Marilu Cabrera.

Ali is a 1998 graduate of East High School whose parents moved to Madison
when he was 1 year old. He has lived all his life in their East Side
apartment. He knows no one in Afghanistan. He does not speak the language.
Due to a parental misunderstanding, he never became a U.S. citizen.

"The only thing Mirwais can hope for is a delay," said Ali's lawyer, Taher
Kameli, after Judge James Fujimoto in Chicago concluded that Ali's 1998
Wisconsin conviction for felony possession of marijuana with intent to sell
should stand.

Kameli, who asked Fujimoto to delay deportation, said "There have been
cases where a judge has delayed deportation indefinitely. That's what we're
hoping this judge does."

The judge will revisit the case Feb. 14.

Kameli plans to argue that Ali, who has told him he would be willing to
fight for the United States against Afghanistan, would be persecuted if
sent to his birthplace. "What's important is that Mirwais hasn't seen
Afghanistan since he was 1, during the Russian occupation," Kameli said.
"He has absolutely no chance of survival over there."

Ali, who worked painting cars at Maaco Auto Painting after high school, has
misdemeanor convictions for retail theft, marijuana possession, bail
jumping and receiving stolen property. He has two felony convictions: Bail
jumping and possession of marijuana with intent to sell it. It's the felony
drug conviction that makes him deportable under immigration law, Cabrera said.

The felony drug conviction came after Ali was stopped by police on State
Street. He had a plastic bag containing six, individually wrapped packets
of marijuana stuck in his back pocket. "I smoked marijuana. That's it," Ali
said in a telephone interview from the DuPage County Jail in Illinois
earlier this week. "I just had it for my personal use."

Ali's parents' Najaf Ali and his wife, Saleha Ali, who speak little
English, mistakenly thought that their son automatically became an American
citizen when his mother became a citizen in 1991. "Somebody told my wife,
you are citizen - your son is citizen," Najaf Ali, 60, said.

They traveled to Chicago for their only son's court appearance. "Mirwais is
still very scared, but he was happy he had a chance to talk with his
father," Kameli said. "It's the first time he's been able to see him since
he was detained, so it was a very emotional day for them all."