When Hassan was recently asked to come to the U.S.
Citizenship and Immigration Services center in Bloomington, he thought
immigration authorities needed the usual updates he had often given since he
was freed from prison in 2010.
That didn’t happen, though, when Hassan reached the
center on Tuesday morning Oct. 30, 2012. Officials from the local U.S.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) greeted and detained him in the same
building. They told Hassan he was facing deportation to the strife-torn Somalia
he had escaped at age 4.
Hassan spent the night at the center. The next day, he
was transferred to the Basile Detention Center in Louisiana.
ICE Spokesman Shawn Neudauer confirmed Hassan’s detention
and the wait for removal to Somalia.
“[Hassan] was served a Notice of Revocation of Release,”
Neudauer said in an e-mail statement. “On the notice, it was explained that he
is being taken back into custody because ICE has determined that there is a
significant likelihood of removal in the reasonably foreseeable future. He was
aware that ICE intended [to] remove him.”
“There was no chance for us to say our goodbyes,” said
his younger brother, Mohamed. “The worst thing, he was not given a choice of
where in Somalia he’d like to be deported.”
The violence that 26-year-old Hassan and his family
escaped more than two decades ago still persists in the country, Mohamed said.
He said the condition in Somalia is even worse right now than it was before.
“We’re concerned about his safety,” Mohamed said. “No one
is in Somalia for him — no brother, no sister, no parents. No nothing.”
It’s a normal and legal procedure for the United States
to expel immigrants who ware convicted of crimes, even if they’re lawful
permanent residents. Some of the reasons for being subject to repatriation
include sex and drug offenses, fraud and other white-collar felonies, as well
as security and terrorism crimes.
Somalia has had its share of violence, poverty, and
famine since the central government was ousted in 1991 by clan militias that
later turned on each other. Since 2006, the fierce fighting between al-Shabaab
and African Union forces has added to the country’s already flaming turmoil. A
new clan-based government was established last August and still remains fragile
and under the protection of foreign troops from the neighboring countries.
Hassan has been detained for more than two months now,
awaiting expulsion to this chaotic country. No one from the immigration
services has notified Hassan or his family about deportation details, including
when exactly he will be deported, where in Somalia he will be taken or who will
be responsible for his safety when he gets there.
The family members in Minneapolis have these questions
roaring in their heads: Will he just be dropped on the streets? Will he be
handed to the Somali government? Who will protect him from the people he and
his family escaped from?
ICE was asked whether deportees chose the regions to
which they prefer to be deported — since each region in Somalia has one major
clan that controls the area, it’s significant for a deportee to chose the region
run by his or her clan. ICE, however, didn’t answer questions on this concern.
Serving time in prison
Hassan arrived in the United States in 2004 from a
refugee camp in Kenya. En route to Alabama, he settled in South Dakota where he
found a job at a local store as a packer.
According to his family, in 2005, Hassan was convicted
for sleeping with an underage girl when he was a teenager. His five-year term
in South Dakota State Penitentiary ended in 2010.
“You could tell he was a changed man,” Mohamed said of
his elder brother. “He wanted to find a job. He wanted to go to college. He was
working so hard to get his life together. He wanted to become somebody.”
The U.S. government, however, didn’t give Hassan a second
chance to become that somebody.
During his final months in Minneapolis, Hassan worked for
a local restaurant as a waiter. Because Hassan didn’t get paid much, he
frequently applied for other jobs — even though it’s hard for a felon to join
in the labor force.
Hassan also used to volunteer at community events,
especially the annual summer soccer tournaments, which are held in the Twin
Cities by and for the Somali community of North America.
“That was his way to enjoy life after years in prison,”
Mohamed said. “We were proud of him for doing that.”
Community reactions
Now, the Twin Cities Somali community circulates rumors
of scores of their members who have been deported to Somalia and hundreds who
wait their fate at detention centers. ICE officials have not confirmed the
total number of Somalis who have been deported so far or kept in detention.
Many community members have expressed disappointment in
the government’s decision to send people back to the dangerous country they’ve
escaped.
“The only place that they know is the United States,”
said community activist Sadik Warfa of the deportees. “They came here when they
were kids. It’s a tragedy that the government is sending them back to Somalia.”
Warfa spoke with profound sadness of Qasim Bashir, a
Minneapolis man with the Confederation of Somali Community in Minnesota at
Brian Coyle Center, who was deported to Somalia on November 17, according to
the ICE. Warfa described Bashir as a leader and “a decent man who empowered”
the community’s young people through basketball training and tournaments.
“He was always trying to bring young people together,”
Warfa said. “He was an instrumental in creating a better community.”
Bashi’s repatriation, Warfa said, touched him deeply both
on a community and personal level. It’s not fair for someone with dreams and
potential to be deported to a lawless country, he added.
Abdisalan Mohamed, who was Bashir’s friend since 2008,
said he was shocked by the deportation news of the community members.
“Qasim used to help me fill my tax return forms,” Mohamud
said. “He was my [go-to-guy] when I need help with community related things.”
“I’m sure he will be doing great things wherever in the
world he is,” Warfa said. “We’ll miss him very much.”
BY IBRAHIM HIRSI, TC DAILY PLANET
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