by Ralph Isenberg

Christmas Day, 2010

The work to free Hector began months ago when he was first deported. Everything about his case made me think of Saad Nabeel. The challenge for me was to figure out a way to merge what was happening to each of these outstanding young men so that in the end both Hector and Saad are home.

The project is now half complete and I want to give special thanks to the Texas Civil Rights Review, Reverend Peter Johnson, the Office of the Chief Council of Homeland Security in Phoenix and the District Office of ICE in Phoenix for going the extra mile.

As I always say in life, “there is right and wrong and then there is the right thing to do”. On this special day I am reminded of the saying “blessed are the peace makers.”

In a faraway land on the other side of the world sits another young man named Saad Nabeel. Saad Nabeel, like Hector Lopez, is as American as you and me. Saad has his own story to tell. In the next few weeks I will begin to tell his story in that it is time for Saad to come home.

Today, I am telling Saad to pack his bags. Saad Nabeel, like Hector Lopez, is coming home. Saad turns twenty on January 21, 2011. It is my intention that he will celebrate his birthday on US soil. The question is whether the system will elect to work with Saad and understand what he has been through and the fear that he lives in.

Saad currently is without a home and has sought temporary safe harbor in yet another country while I work on his case. He is at odds with his parents over religious reasons. Stay tuned for the second chapter of this adventure as it will be as exciting as the first chapter has been. Both chapters will end with “blessed are the peace makers”.