Location: Chicago

Alhamdullilah I am fine, now. 

I was detained for being out of status. It didn't matter that I had filed a 245-I in 2001. It didn't mater that my wife, a natural citizen, has filed a green card application for me. 

Basically what happened is that I got to see the INS officer when they were in a very bad mood. Some lawyer managed to piss off the entire INS special registration personnel. They got mad and started to arrest ANYONE that was currently out of status regardless of what was filed. According to them, if you are out of status once and have not received your green card, you are out of status and can be arrested. They had INS officers in the INS waiting room ready to arrest everyone there before they were even interviewed. 

The process is this:

1- You sign in and fill in a small form with your name, address, 2 previous addresses, your parents name, DOB, nearest relative or friend not living with you and if you are in status and have an A number or not.

2- You give this form and your passport(s) to the person in the waiting room.

3- Than you wait for a couple of hours while your, and others with you, immigration records are checked. Than they write on the form if you are in status or out of status.

4- After waiting for a couple of hours (I got their at 8:30AM and was called in at 11:30AM), you are taken in to be interviewed where your biographic data is entered in their system. They'll ask for your lease and address verification information (paper copies), your licenses, credit card(s), bank card, SSN card, etc. They enter all the information and ask the same questions: your parents name, their DOB, their country of birth, their nationality, their address, their phone number. Your address in your permanent country, phone number. How and when you entered the US, what visa, where you went to school, when you graduated. Your employer, the address, and phone number of employer, when you started working, etc.

5- If you are like me, you'll wait some more and a senior officer will decide if you should be detained or not. Oh you are digitally finger printed (both index fingers only) and a picture is taken.

6- If you don't get detained, they'll give you a number/date entry on your I-94 card and a paper saying that you came in and registered and ask you to come back in a year.  

If you are like me, you may get detained. 

I was arrested (cuffed) and taken to a detention center. I waited 5 hours here where an officer ran a detailed criminal and immigration background check. I was finger printed and my pictures were taken like a criminal. But I wasn't harassed. After the investigation, a bond officer decides how much bond should be set, which is anywhere from $1,500-$50,000. I was lucky and only received a $1,500 bond. The bond needed to be posted by 4:00PM but my arresting officer didn't finish my file until almost 5:00PM. This meant that my bond couldn't be posted until 8:00AM the next day. This meant that I would be spending the night in a jail. I was asked to take all of my clothes off and I was given a new white T-shirt, new underwear, new socks and a green jump suit with INS written in the back. And some white shoes. 

I was taken to County Jail. They have a separate wing for INS detainees and we didn't have to stay with the "general population". But we were still in jail. We had individual cells. The time spent starting from the time I was detained until the next day when I was released was unbearable. Only I know how I passed my time just praying to Allah to get me out of here. 

Does this mean that you shouldn't register, NO .... if you don't they will find you. What I have been hearing is that you will be considered a felon if you fail to register by the 21st of February and then most likely be deported and won't have any chance whatsoever to fight back. Also, don't go on a Friday. There is a chance that you will end up spending the whole weekend if you get detained. 

I have a chance to fight my NTA (Notice to appearance) and Insha-Allah my prayers along with all my loved ones (friends and families) will Insha-Allah help. I pray to Allah that none of us have to go through what I have been through ..... Amin.