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Iraqi Dissident Served With Deportation Papers After Meeting Bush
Aired April 25, 2003 - 14:42 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: An Iraqi dissident who translates documents from Iraq's first war says she's not ready to leave just yet. CNN's Kathleen Koch tells us The former Kurdish fighter receive her deportation orders shortly after meeting with President Bush.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It was the proudest moment of Iraqi dissident Katrin Michaels' life, meeting President Bush in the White House.
KATRIN MICHAEL, IRAQI DISSIDENT: I am victim of chemical weapons.
KOCH: Telling her story to help win support for the Iraq war. But a week later, just after the war started, she got not a thank you note, but a deportation notice, ordering her back to Iraq.
MICHAELS: Oh, I was crazy here.
KOCH: Katrin called immigration officials.
MICHAELS: And I told them, you know what, it's very nice of you to deport me. Week ago I was meeting with President Bush in White House.
This is after chemical weapons.
KOCH: Katrin fled Iraq after she was injured in a 1987 gas attack. She had been fighting in the northern mountains with the Kurdish resistance. By 1997 she made it to the United States, got a job at the Iraq Foundation. She translates documented captured from the Iraqi regime in the first Gulf War.
(on camera): Arrest.
MICHAELS: Yes.
KOCH: Surveillance, dissidents.
The White House isn't commenting on Katrin's deportation order and government immigration officials say they aren't allowed to talk about individual cases.
(voice-over): If she goes back to Iraq now, Katrin believes she'll be killed.
MICHAELS: They kill will kill me (UNINTELLIGIBLE) the border. They didn't allow me to put my foot on the border.
KOCH: The U.S. has granted asylum to more than 9,000 Iraqis since the first Persian Gulf War. And immigration experts say the nearly 500 whose requests are pending shouldn't be returned to a country still in chaos.
NADINE WETTSTEIN, AMERICAN IMMIGRATION LAW FOUNDATION: It may be that their situations are now seen in somewhat of a new light. But certainly the situation is unstable enough that is should not be we round up all the Iraqi asylum seekers and then send them back.
KOCH: Katrin's attorneys are appealing the deportation order. But she does hope to return to Iraq some day.
MICHAELS: So we make sure it's a free government and there's a -- a regular democracy in Iraq, and we can build ourselves by ourselves.
KOCH: Kathleen Koch, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Meeting Bush>
Aired April 25, 2003 - 14:42 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: An Iraqi dissident who translates documents from Iraq's first war says she's not ready to leave just yet. CNN's Kathleen Koch tells us The former Kurdish fighter receive her deportation orders shortly after meeting with President Bush.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It was the proudest moment of Iraqi dissident Katrin Michaels' life, meeting President Bush in the White House.
KATRIN MICHAEL, IRAQI DISSIDENT: I am victim of chemical weapons.
KOCH: Telling her story to help win support for the Iraq war. But a week later, just after the war started, she got not a thank you note, but a deportation notice, ordering her back to Iraq.
MICHAELS: Oh, I was crazy here.
KOCH: Katrin called immigration officials.
MICHAELS: And I told them, you know what, it's very nice of you to deport me. Week ago I was meeting with President Bush in White House.
This is after chemical weapons.
KOCH: Katrin fled Iraq after she was injured in a 1987 gas attack. She had been fighting in the northern mountains with the Kurdish resistance. By 1997 she made it to the United States, got a job at the Iraq Foundation. She translates documented captured from the Iraqi regime in the first Gulf War.
(on camera): Arrest.
MICHAELS: Yes.
KOCH: Surveillance, dissidents.
The White House isn't commenting on Katrin's deportation order and government immigration officials say they aren't allowed to talk about individual cases.
(voice-over): If she goes back to Iraq now, Katrin believes she'll be killed.
MICHAELS: They kill will kill me (UNINTELLIGIBLE) the border. They didn't allow me to put my foot on the border.
KOCH: The U.S. has granted asylum to more than 9,000 Iraqis since the first Persian Gulf War. And immigration experts say the nearly 500 whose requests are pending shouldn't be returned to a country still in chaos.
NADINE WETTSTEIN, AMERICAN IMMIGRATION LAW FOUNDATION: It may be that their situations are now seen in somewhat of a new light. But certainly the situation is unstable enough that is should not be we round up all the Iraqi asylum seekers and then send them back.
KOCH: Katrin's attorneys are appealing the deportation order. But she does hope to return to Iraq some day.
MICHAELS: So we make sure it's a free government and there's a -- a regular democracy in Iraq, and we can build ourselves by ourselves.
KOCH: Kathleen Koch, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Meeting Bush>
