Illegal Immigrant From Bangladesh Wages Fight for Refugee Status

Tuesday morning at Palomar College in San Marcos.

Students are settling into their classes. Campaign posters are up for the student government election.

Loud rock music fills the student cafeteria. The yogurt shoppe is doing greatte at 8 a.m.

And, in a corner of the cafeteria, Abu Ala Badruddoza, 26, illegal immigrant and self-described political refugee, is manning a card table.

He has posters, a petition and a cause: himself.

He’s fighting the Immigration and Naturalization Service to avoid deportation to his native Bangladesh. He’s seeking political asylum and says the ruling party will torture or kill him if he returns.

He’s been on a hunger strike since last Wednesday. Consuming only water and losing, he says, 17 pounds off an already lean 5-foot-8 frame.

“I’m not on welfare, I’m not doing crime,” he says. “All I want is to live in a democratic country.”

Badruddoza says he was targeted as a political dissident by the military thugs who took over the Bangladesh government in the early 1980s.

He says he was arrested and tortured, and then began a journey that took him to several countries before he arrived in Mexico in 1988. From there it was a short sneak across the border.

He worked his way to Palomar, where he took courses for a couple of semesters. He applied for political asylum.

The State Department says Badruddoza has not proven that he has an “actual or well-founded fear” of persecution. He and his lawyer have produced nothing but his own word.

An immigration judge in San Diego turned down his request as frivolous. An appeal is under way.

His stay in the United States has not been all roses. He faces misdemeanor charges of resisting arrest after a minor traffic accident in San Marcos.

He says the arresting officer tortured him; trial is set for next week in Vista.

At night, he sleeps on the grounds of Palomar, where officials have been tolerant. During the day, he sits at the cafeteria, gathering signatures, telling his story.

“My dream is dying,” he says to anyone who will listen.

Some listen, some don’t.

A School by Any Other Name . . .

Name games.

* Students at Highland Elementary School in Spring Valley are voting this week on a new school nickname.

The choices: Huskies, Hawks and Hurricanes.

Why is a new name needed? The old nickname had a nice alliteration and corresponded with the school mascot, the owl.

Yes, but the old nickname was no longer acceptable in these non-sexist times: the Highland Hooters.

* La Jolla corporate wheeler-dealer Charles (Red) Scott is known as a fighter: As a dissident board member, he led the fight against the SDG&E; merger.

In a recent Business Week story, Scott (now CEO of an Atlanta conglomerate) said he is a grandnephew of a famous fighter of another sort, Gen. George S. Patton.

This brought a quick retort to the magazine from Patton’s son and namesake: “I know of no such person connected with my family on the Patton side.”

Scott has replied that he assumes he’s distant kin of Old Blood and Guts because his maternal grandmother, now dead, always claimed Patton was a cousin.

Taking Credit for Clout

Premeditated talk.

* Gay and lesbian activists say the near-victory of Valerie Stallings over Councilman Bruce Henderson shows the increasing political clout of gays and lesbians.

The (gay) San Diego Democratic Club endorsed Stallings and provided volunteers and a mailer. Gay newspapers endorsed her.

Main reason: Henderson was the only council member not to support the gay-rights ordinance.

* Battle of the heavyweights.

Local cable companies are pleased with Monday night’s first-ever pay-per-view with opera tenors Luciano Pavarotti and Placido Domingo.

The event drew the kind of upscale viewers that cable wants to court. Predictably, the numbers were small.

For example: Southwestern Cable, which serves the north part of San Diego, had 170 sign-ups at $34.95. Contrasted with 7,500 for the Tyson-Spinks fight.

* San Luis Rey Hospital in Encinitas presents a lecture Thursday on helping youth who are outside the in-crowd: “Tragedy of the Nerds.”