Mom, student's deportation stayed for year
In this Sept. 28, 2011, image taken from video, and provided by WCBS-TV, Nadia Habib, left, and her mother Nazmin are interviewed at their home in the Queens borough of New York. Nadia, a Stony Brook University student, and her mother will remain in New York for now as they fight deportation to their native Bangladesh, their attorney said Thursday, Sept. 29, 2011. Credit: AP
A Stony Brook University student's deportation to Bangladesh has been stayed for a year by federal officials, her lawyer and officials said.
Nadia Habib, a 20-year-old Woodside, Queens, resident who is studying to be a pharmacist, was brought to the United States by her parents when she was 20 months old. Her father, a taxi driver, has a green card, but his daughter and his wife Nazmin faced deportation because their immigration status was never regularized.
They were scheduled to be deported Thursday, but Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials agreed then to study the case amid an outpouring of support from students and politicians, including Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) and Rep. Tim Bishop (D-Southampton).
Bethany Lesser, spokeswoman for Gillibrand, said Saturday night that Habib and her mother have received a one-year stay.
Habib's lawyer, Aygul Charles, said in an email to Newsday on Friday night: "I was told by a deportation officer today that Nadia and her mom were granted a stay of removal for one year."
She said she was told that a written decision was being mailed out.
An ICE spokesman did not return calls. In the past, ICE has refused to comment on Habib's case because of privacy issues.
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