Navila has been featured in many news stories and documentaries about the discriminatory Special Registration system that uprooted thousands of Muslim families following 9/11. This statement of hers is excerpted from the Report to the 9/11 Commission from the Special Registrants Action Network:

On April 9, 2003, my dad Mohammed Ali went to Special Registration. He had an old deportation order, but he thought that if he went to register, they would give him some time and that he would appear in court. He didn’t think he would be detained and eventually deported. It was a shock to all of us. My dad was in Elizabeth, NJ Detention Center from April 2003 until his deportation in January of this year. I have not seen him since he was detained. My brother and sister don’t really understand what’s going on now – one is 9, the other 10.

During my Dad’s time in jail he was not doing well – he tried to stay strong for my brother and sister and me. He had an ear infection, and numerous colds. At one point, his ear was bleeding, and he went to the doctor, but you have to wait a week. Before he waited three weeks, which is why it got bad. He also said there was constant air-conditioning, and they can’t turn it off and it’s really cold inside. Even more disconcerting, while he was fasting for Ramadan, they gave him really little food – milk and cereal to break their fast.

After my dad got detained, it was really hard for my mom and me. It’s especially hard for my mom. There’s so much pressure on her. She has knee pain – she was supposed to get an operation last May and June but she didn’t because of what’s going on with my dad. Financially, we were thinking, what do we do now, where do we go now, where are we going to get money for food, for clothes, my brother and sister need money, the electricity bill, the telephone bill, the rent, credit cards, college? For us, it’s really hectic – really hectic. Before I was seen as the child of the family, “she’s too young to do anything.” After my dad left, it was bills and this and that, and in my life, I had never written a check – I wasn’t familiar with these things. Before, I asked my dad and my mom for money. After my dad left, I understood that he’s the breadwinner of the whole family, and without him – I don’t know how I’m going to do things. I guess you learn to grow – but it’s really hard, the whole responsibility is on me. I’m still trying to keep up with college, I don’t know how – I need something to keep my mind off of this.

The hardest thing for me to accept or come to know was on my brother’s birthday. We asked him what he wanted for his birthday, and he said, “I want my father back, as quickly as possible.” One day, my sister came home from school and started crying. My brother came over and said, “Everyone has their father at home except us.” I always tell them that God’s will is always good and God is always fair, but my brother said, “Everyone else has their father and we don’t—how is God fair?” Being 18 years old and not having an answer, it was really hard. Looking at my sister, I just tried to be strong and move on to another topic. That day I really felt like I was an older sister and I have to do my best to be a good role model to them and keep the family together. Special Registration is a process to destroy families – that’s all. There are 14,000 that they’re trying to deport and others they’ve already deported. Special Registration is discriminatory. It targets Muslims. Not a single terrorist has been found through the program. What does this prove? It’s eliminating Muslim communities from America.

When a White person kills a police officer or commits a murder, you don’t see a Special Registration going on for Whites. You don’t see camps. When Timothy McVeigh blew up the Federal Building in Oklahoma, you didn’t see all the White Christians behind bars. Just because someone has committed a crime, that doesn’t mean the whole society is like that. But that’s what Special Registration does. America shouldn’t be called America anymore.

Despite everything, I still have hope. My dad always says, “Behind every black cloud there’s a silver lining.” My family is fighting for our silver lining. I ask today that the Commission recognize how Special Registration has destroyed my family, and countless other families in my community and make an effort to right the wrong that has been done.