Experience

Shhhhhhhh! Oh that pathetic moment again. My cellmate is peeing again. I am on the upper bed and he is on bottom one. He is peeing right in the cell where there is a commode, but no lead.

My fault was that I worked outside - off campus. Being an international student, the so-called rules stated I couldn’t work off campus. I could work on campus but just one mile away I couldn’t work. If I did and got caught, I could be sent back to my home country. Didn’t matter if I had finished my studies or not, I would be sent back.

The problem was, an international student couldn't be a part time student and couldn't break any semester. One semester my parents couldn’t send money from back home. That was why I had to work off campus - to pay my tuition.

If I had the chance, I could have taken a break that semester. I didn’t harm anybody. I didn’t engage in any kind of criminal activity. The only mistake I made was to violate the so-called “IMMIGRATION LAW”.

I worked one-mile away form the campus! What a LAW! Hasn’t anyone ever thought of changing this “LAW”? Obviously nobody has bothered to change it. That’s not all!

The officers came to my house and handcuffed me. Just for working off campus? Why the heck did they handcuff me? Does “working off campus” make me a harmful criminal that they were so scared of me, they had to handcuff me? What a LAW!

They took me into custody 80 miles away from my home, and set a bond of $3000 US. They told me at 2 pm about the bond and told me this bond has to be given before 3 pm. The interesting part was that I couldn’t pay myself. Someone else had to pay for me. There is no way someone could come from 80 miles away, and pay that amount within just 1 hour notice. So they send me to JAIL.

No one will know what jail life is like without being in jail. That was Friday. So I had to stay in jail until Monday. What was my mistake again? Aha! I worked off campus! What a LAW!

The most terrible three days of my life! Staying with different kind of criminals such as killers, rapist and thieves. I had to put on that famous orange color dress that is made for the criminals in jail.

I was taken to the main cell. The time for dinner was over before I was taken to the cell. I was taken from my home at 9 am so didn’t have the chance of having breakfast. The whole day and night, I didn’t have any food. It was a small cell. Two beds, on top of each other, a very small table and a commode (without lead). It is same as staying in the Rest Room. How many hours you think you can stay in the Rest Room? Not in your personal Rest Room, but in a public rest room that will be used by others too!

Everybody forgets. Prisoners are human too. They are treated like animals. They are locked up for 10 hours in a very small cell, and then are released to go to a bigger room for 2 hours. It rotates like that. So they are locked up in a small room for 20 hours, and are released in a bigger room for 4 hours. The only refreshment is a TV. There are phones to use. But all of them are collect call and all of them are blocked for mobile phone. So there is no way to contact anybody if someone doesn’t have a home phone or if the phone doesn’t receive collect call.

I was lucky that my home phone was receiving collect call and I could contact my friend. If my phone didn’t receive collect call, I would have been locked up in that small cell. Who knows for how many days?

Every year “UNITED STATES OF AMERICA” brings so many people from all over the world through the “DIRECT VISA (DV)” lottery program. On the other hand, students like me who have spent three years in the U.S.A and studied, are sent back just because of working outside? Is the DV program just a “show program” for the world? Just to show the world that U.S.A is very great?

No doubt U.S.A is a great country. Americans are a very nice, great nation. But some laws of this great country needed to be changed. Some law enforcement people don’t care if the old and stupid rule makes sense or not. They just follow it because it is written in the book.

I once saw a law enforcement officer checking a two year baby at the airport. The reason was that baby’s name came on a random check. This kind of attitude is OK for a ROBOT, but we shouldn't expect a human being to behave this way at all.

The interesting part is, I could have worked on cash instead of using my social security number. If I had done so, there would have been no way to track that I worked off campus. But I thought I should pay taxes to the U.S.A government. Because I love this country and this great nation, that’s why I used my social security number and paid taxes. And look at the reward I got!

I was rewarded with the most terrible three days of my life in jail and will be sent back home forever. It doesn’t matter if I have finish my degree or not. I've paid all the tuition, insurance and spent three years studying. Everything will be in vain only because I worked off campus. What a LAW!