Rep. Holt Joins Milltown Widow as She and Family Become Citizens

The following was submited by the office of U.S. Rep. Rush Holt.

U.S. Rep. Rush Holt (D-12) joined U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) officials Thursday as the Hasan family of Milltown was sworn-in as American citizens in a private ceremony held at Holt’s district office.

Durreshahwar Hasan’s husband, Waqar, was shot and killed by a white supremacist in his Dallas, Texas, convenience store on September 15, 2001, just four days after the attacks of September 11.  Waqar’s killer, Mark Anthony Stroman, claimed that his decision to kill Hasan and another South Asian immigrant was a retaliation against those of “Middle Eastern” descent.  He told police, “I did what every American wanted to do but didn’t.” 

In the wake of this tragedy, Holt introduced a private bill in the House of Representatives to grant Waqar’s surviving spouse and children permanent resident status in the United States.  The bill was passed unanimously by both houses of Congress and signed into law by President George W. Bush on Oct. 30, 2004.

Thursday, Durreshahwar (“Durre”) and her four daughters—Nida, Asna, Anum, and Iqra—realized the dream that their husband and father desired for his family: to become American citizens.

Hassan Family

Waqar Hasan lost his life for no other reason than he was a Muslim with a “Middle Eastern” face.  An angry young man walked into his convenience store in Dallas, Texas on the night of September 15, 2001, four days after the 9/11 attacks, ordered two hamburgers, and then shot the 46-year-old father of four in the face with a .380 caliber handgun.  Nothing was taken from the store.  When asked by police why he shot Waqar, 32-year-old Mark Anthony Stroman expressed no remorse.  

“I did what every American wanted to do but didn’t.”  (Stroman, who was later convicted in Waqar’s murder as well as two other bias shootings that he committed in the span of a week, was executed in Texas on July 20, 2011.)

When Waqar Hasan came to the United States in 1993—his family followed a year later—he did so in search of a better life.  His wife, Durreshahwar, and four daughters, Nida, Asna, Anum, and Iqra, uprooted themselves from their native Pakistan to pursue the dream that is America.  He epitomized the hardworking spirit that immigrants have always brought to this country.

Before his death, Waqar had taken steps to become an American citizen.  He was in the United States on an L-1 visa, but he had filed a petition with the Immigration and Naturalization Service for green cards for himself and his family so that they might stay and eventually become full-fledged Americans.  When Waqar was brutally killed, however, his family’s American future was placed in jeopardy.  The green card applications for Waqar’s wife and daughters were dependent on his petition.  Suddenly, the Hasan family, which had been a step away from earning green cards, was facing the threat of deportation. 

Rep. Holt, pursued and exhausted every possible legal remedy to help the Hasan family stay in the United States.  It was determined that the only solution was for both houses of Congress and the President of the United States to approve a private bill specific to their situation. 

Unlike public law, which deals with public matters and applies to individuals only in classes, the provisions of private law apply to “one or several specified persons, corporations, [or] institutions.”[i]  Private bills are exceedingly rare – between 1986 and 2011, only 169 private laws were enacted (compared to 6,588 public laws that were in acted during the same time period).

On Nov. 12, 2002, Rep. Holt introduced a private bill to grant Duri, Nida, Asna, Anum, and Iqra permanent residency and, thus, a path to citizenship.  After several years of advocating on the family’s behalf with the assistance of various interest groups, religious organizations, and human rights advocates, Rep. Holt successfully lobbied members of both parties and shepherded the bill through subcommittee, full committee, and, eventually, both houses of Congress.  After unanimous passage in both the House and Senate, President George W. Bush signed the bill into law (Private Law 108-4) on October 30, 2004.

Five years after being granted permanent resident status, the Hasans became eligible to naturalize as citizens of the United States.  With Rep. Holt’s assistance, on March 16, 2012, Duri, Nida, Asna, and Iqra will take the citizenship oath, an occasion that their husband and father tragically never had the opportunity in which to participate.  (Anum, who now resides in New York, took her oath in that jurisdiction on March 8, 2012.)