Kuwaiti is charged

The prosecutor said she doesn't understand why federal agents don't want to detain the suspect.
By SHERRI L. SHAULIS
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- The city prosecutor said she is not trying to target a Kuwaiti man accused of having a false ID but she cannot understand why federal agents seem uninterested in the case.
Dionne Almasy filed a falsification charge Tuesday against Mohammad J. Salem, 21, of Lemans Drive, Boardman, who presented officers with an expired visa and various other forms of identification, some questionable, after an Ohio State Highway Patrol trooper stopped him Monday night on Interstate 80 in Austintown on a speeding violation.
He had no driver's license, reports show.
Both the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service and the FBI declined to detain Salem.
Cause for concern
"It just doesn't add up," Almasy said. "I know some people may think this man is being targeted, but this is our recent history; we need to take this seriously.
"Where this goes from here, I have no idea. But with everyone talking about increasing homeland security, this is something that should give us cause for concern."
However, the director of the Immigration and Naturalization Service office in Cleveland disputes some of the claims of local officials.
"The information that I have is not the same," said Michael Hanson.
According to reports from the Mahoning County Sheriff's Department, when Salem was taken for processing at the Mahoning County jail on the speeding and operator's license charges, officials searched his wallet for identification on the assumption he did not speak English because he had not answered any of the trooper's questions earlier.
Several forms of identification were found, including an ID card from Kuwait and a student ID from Youngstown State University with Salem's picture and a Social Security number, the report said. INS records show Salem is registered as a student at Ohio State University, according to the sheriff's report.
It is illegal to possess official identification with false information, the city prosecutor said.
Also found in the wallet were several wallet-size pictures that were "cut out to possibly fit into his visa or other identification cards he had with him," the report reads.
Different Social Security number
When questioned about his citizenship status, Salem began to answer in broken English, saying he did not have his visa with him, the report continued. A check of the Social Security number through the state police computer system said it belonged to Humera Zaheer, who is listed as four years older than Salem and is also of Kuwait.
Additionally, when friends of Salem's arrived with his visa, it was expired. According to the sheriff's report, a visa issued for Zaheer is also expired.
Hanson declined to address the status of visas issued for both men, saying only that he disputes the information on the sheriff's report.
A spokeswoman in YSU's records department said a student named Mohammad Salem was previously registered as a student, but not with the Social Security number that the sheriff's department says was on the YSU ID card. The spokeswoman would not say whether that Social Security number is listed in YSU's admissions records as belonging to another registered student.
According to the Social Security Administration, noncitizens were able to obtain a Social Security number for purposes of getting a driver's license or student ID until March 2002. A spokesman said that as of March 1 noncitizens must visit the local SSA office to obtain a letter stating they are not eligible for a Social Security number. Previously, he said, numbers were issued, but the Social Security card noted that the number was not valid for employment or benefit purposes.
Possible violation
Almasy said that when she spoke to officials at the sheriff's department, they told her a check with the INS confirmed that both Salem and Zaheer were "possibly in violation of immigration laws" for being in the United States longer than the time allowed.
Almasy said she doesn't understand the decision by the INS and FBI not to detain either man.
"What does 'possibly' in violation mean?" she asked. "Either you are, or you aren't."
John Lichtefeld, supervisor at the FBI office in Boardman, said the case would fall under the INS, not the FBI.
Hanson said the cases of Salem and Zaheer are being looked into. He declined to elaborate on what the agency is checking about the men.
Based on the YSU identification card with an incorrect Social Security number, Almasy filed the charge of falsification, which is a misdemeanor.
Salem appeared in Youngstown Municipal Court Tuesday morning and is free on $1,000 bond. Repeated calls to his Boardman home this week were not answered.
slshaulis@vindy.com