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News Day - October 11, 2004
Senate passes bill to aid family
of post-9/11 bias crime victim
WASHINGTON - The Senate passed legislation Monday to grant permanent U.S. residency to the family of a Pakistani national slain in a post-9/11 hate crime. The private relief bill, sponsored by Rep. Rush Holt, D-N.J., had passed the House in July.
It will allow the wife and four daughters of Waqar Hasan to qualify for American citizenship.
Hasan, 46, was shot to death in a Dallas convenience store he owned four days after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. The shooter, who is now on Texas' death row for his conviction in the separate killing of an Indian immigrant, told police he killed Hasan to retaliate for the attacks.
Hasan had lived with his family in Milltown, N.J., before going to Texas. At the time of his death, he was looking for a house so that his family could join him.
Durreshahwar Hasan and her four daughters were in the country legally because of the visa her husband held. Before his death, Waqar Hasan had applied for a green card, but that application became invalid upon his death. Durreshahwar Hasan and her children have remained in the country on temporary visas.
"Our country has on obligation to help this hardworking family put the tragedy of Sept. 15, 2001, behind them and restore the dream of a better life that brought them to America," Holt said Monday. "I urge the president to quickly sign this bill so this family can begin a new, and hopefully, brighter, chapter in their lives." …
http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/ny-bc-nj--backlashvictim1011oct11,0,403793.story?coll=ny-ap-regional-wire
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