Diallos face visa battle

• Security-minded Congress a hurdle for victim's kin

With the sixth anniversary of Amadou Diallo's shooting death just around the corner, his father met with a local congressman yesterday, hoping to hear good news about the family's immigration status. Saikou Diallo and several family members have been in the United States on humanitarian visas due to expire next August. Rep. Joseph Crowley introduced a special bill in the last Congress - without success - to take up the issue, and yesterday told Diallo he has reintroduced the bill for the upcoming 109th Congress. Rep. Charles Rangel (D-Harlem) may submit a separate bill, or co-sponsor Crowley's, and Sen. Hillary Clinton's office has indicated it would support similar legislation in the Senate, Crowley said. "Saikou Diallo has gone through enormous hardship with the death of his son Amadou, and his tireless work for the Amadou Diallo Foundation most certainly warrants an immigrant visa," said Crowley (D-East Bronx/Queens). Crowley cautioned, however, that he has concerns about the difficulty of pushing the bill through a Republican-controlled congress that is in a national security mode and has become "focused on even stopping legal immigration." Diallo said that besides himself, eight family members, including Amadou's mother, Kadiatou, and her new husband hope to have their visas extended, at the very least until a lengthy process of civil suits against the city and others involved in the fatal shooting plays out. Saikou Diallo's foundation, The Amadou Diallo Educational, Humanitarian & Charity Foundation, has distributed college scholarships for African and African-American students and is in the process of raising funds to buy the house at 1157 Wheeler Ave., in Soudview, where his son was killed in a hail of 41 bullets fired by four plainclothes police officers on Feb. 4, 1999. [more]

• 41 Bullets - The Amadou Diallo Archive [more]
• The Amadou Diallo Foundation [more]