In the aftermath of September 11, the INS took a hard look at many of the foreign nationals it had earlier permitted into the country—a reasonable precaution, many would agree, given the threats we still face from terrorists. They detained a certain Burmese national in July 2002. Ahn (a pseudonym) had been a pro-democracy activist in Burma and had accepted exile for the cause. But his past political actions also included something that suddenly took on an entirely new dimension to the U.S. government.
Not long after enrolling at the prestigious Rangoon Institute of Technology at the age of 16, Ahn became involved in the pro-democracy movement sweeping much of Europe and Asia in the late 1980s. The Burmese movement opposed the corrupt ruling dictatorship that had destroyed the national economy and gutted the middle class. Dissidents were imprisoned and faced torture and/or death. After months of such repression and a bloody nationwide crackdown in August and September 1988, Ahn—along
