KANSAS CITY, Mo. _ The day had finally arrived that jailed Syed Ahmed Jamal thought he'd get to talk to his wife and three children after nearly a month of being shuffled around the country by the U.S. immigration enforcement system.
But another snag left him and his family "devastated" Sunday afternoon.
His family was not aware of the Platte County jail's rules that require visitors to arrive 30 minutes early for a scheduled meeting. Their planned visit failed. Only his attorney, who came with his family, was allowed in to see him.
Instead, his wife and children bunched against the window of the secured door where they could look across a short hallway and through another window into the interview room where Jamal, dressed in orange and white striped jail clothes, smiled back at them.
Jamal, the Kansas chemist whose arrest and pending deportation has captured worldwide attention, has been in custody at the jail since he narrowly avoided deportation last Monday. He has lived in the United States for 30 years but has overstayed his visa.
He had not seen his family since Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrested him in the front yard of his family's home in Lawrence on Jan. 24.
With no chance to share words Sunday, they waved at each other, with the children in tears. Jamal's youngest child, 7-year-old Fareed, pushed his forehead against the glass. When they stepped away, he was taken into the arms of his older brother, 14-year-old Taseen.
"He's devastated; his kids are devastated," Jamal's attorney, Rekha Sharma-Crawford, said afterward. "It's a human tragedy for someone who is not a criminal."
Sharma-Crawford said she had made three phone calls to jail staff this past week to arrange the visit for Jamal's wife, their three U.S.-born children and Jamal's brother. Each time, jail staff confirmed the visit would be at 1 p.m., she said, but not once did anyone advise her that they needed to arrive by 12:30 p.m.
Major Erik Holland, a Platte County Sheriff's Office spokesman, said the policy is published on the sheriff's office website and in the jail handbook given out to inmates. The policy is needed so that inmates can be moved to and from their visits in an orderly, secure manner, Holland said. There are inmates that must be kept apart from each other.
"The same rules that apply to Mr. Jamal are the same rules that apply to everyone else in the facility," Holland said.
The jail staff made the closest interview room available for Jamal's meeting with his attorney so that his family could at least see him across the two sets of windows.
"It's outrageous," Sharma-Crawford said about the failed visit. "His children have waited a month to see him. What civilized society does this to children?"
Jamal's wife, Angela Zaynaub Chowdhury, has tracked Jamal's movements from one detention center to another since his arrest.
Jamal, 55, has been moved from Missouri to Texas and authorities had him on a flight to Bangladesh last Monday when the Board of Immigration Appeals granted him a stay of removal. He was taken off a plane in Hawaii and returned to Missouri while his case works through the system.
Once he was in custody at the Platte County jail, it was possible for Chowdhury to schedule a visit with him. But now they will have to wait and try again next Sunday.
A bill introduced in Congress would provide legal cover for both the husband and wife, but their future remains uncertain.
Jamal entered the United States in 1987 with a student visa to attend Rockhurst University. Fifteen years later he returned to Bangladesh on orders of voluntary departure.
He came back to America a few months later with Chowdhury, and her visa was tied to his. Jamal's H-1B work visa, issued to highly skilled arrivals, allowed the scientist to work four years at Children's Mercy Hospital.
When he pursued a doctorate in molecular biology at the University of Kansas, he overstayed his student visa. That put Chowdhury's status in jeopardy as well.
The couple's children are 14, 12 and 7 years old.
Jamal's attorneys have been asking Immigration and Customs Enforcement to release Jamal to his wife and children pending further legal proceedings to address their legal status.
