Nasir Saleem, center, gets his badges
Samia Naseem, a member of the New York Bar Association who took her oath as immigration judge in Dec. 2019, is now a Chicago immigration court judge. Naseem (BA, Simmons College, 2001), obtained her juris doctor from the George Washington University Law School (‘04), where she was a Thurgood Marshall Scholar. Naseem also studied international human rights and refugee law at Oxford University (2002). Based on her academic performance, she was inducted into Phi Delta Phi, the international legal co-ed honors fraternity, and later elected its president. During her term, Naseem had the privilege of inducting Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, also a member of the fraternity, as an honorary member of the George Washington University chapter. Naseem has a very impressive professional record: assistant chief counsel for the Office of the Chief Counsel, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Department of Homeland Security, in New York City and Chicago (2010-19); a trial attorney with the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington, D.C. (2007-10); an attorney at the law offices of Khalid Naseem in Boylston, Mass. (2005-07); and a law clerk for Judge Judith N. Macaluso in Washington, D.C. (2004-05.) Her parents Khalid and Homaira Naseem, who have lived in Massachusetts since 1985, came from India as graduate students in 1978. Khalid practices law. Homaira, a plastics engineer who has been involved in several nonprofit organizations, is a member of the Boylston, Mass., planning board and was a national delegate for Sen. Sanders in 2016. ih
Waleed Khan, a senior in the Modesto (Calif.) High International Baccalaureate program, scored a perfect 2400 on the SAT test, the first time counselors can recall anyone doing so in Modesto.
Waleed, who plans to follow his parents’ career path in medicine, wedged in study time between Mock Trial practice, Key Club community service projects, volunteering at a local hospital, speech and debate meets, Project Hope fundraising to build a school in Africa, PHAST (Protecting Health and Slamming Tobacco) anti-tobacco projects and cross country and track runs. The November 2019 test was his third stab at the SAT, besting a previous score of 2240 — an impressive achievement in its own right. The SAT benchmark score for showing college readiness is 1550. With his heart set on Stanford, where he found that 25 percent of its students scored 2400, Waleed pursued his goal with total dedication. ih
Nasir Saleem, who has volunteered with the New York Police Department since 1991, was appointed deputy chief its 5,000-strong volunteer force — the first Muslim to be installed as a potential head, reported Newsweek Pakistan on Jan. 30. In a Twitter posting, Chief Fausto Pichardo said: “Our NYPD Auxiliary officers serve this city day in and day out, in all types of weather, and in every community—and it’s all volunteer work! Congrats to Nasir Saleem on his promotion as the first Muslim Auxiliary Deputy Chief. His 28 years and 14k hours does not go unnoticed.” Auxiliary police officers, who are trained to observe and report conditions requiring police intervention, help out in non-enforcement and non-hazardous duties and with uniformed patrols by providing traffic and crowd control, as well as other services, during major events. New York has the nation’s largest auxiliary police program. Saleem was inducted into his new assignment at a simple ceremony attended by senior police officials. Fellow Muslim American police officers Capt. Adeel Rana and Lt. Zaigham Abbas pinned the badges on his uniform. ih
MAY/JUNE 2020 ISLAMIC HORIZONS 19
