(Only) 237
Somalis have been removed from US since last October; not thousands! by Ann Corcoran on April 30, 2017
I was pretty excited to report
here that we were stepping up
deportations of illegal alien/criminal Somalis, that thousands would be
removed. But, now I see that even that administration effort is really not much
to write home about!
The news here, if it is accurate, is that ICE won’t arrest illegal Somalis (who
are not in detention) at their homes or work places. Already, “sensitive
places” such as schools, places of worship and hospitals are off limits.
So are we expected to believe that
federal agents are going to wait on the streets to nab them coming and going
from home to mosque? Only, if we hire a lot more agents!
Over the many years I’ve written RRW
there would be flurries of pronouncements that Somalis in the country illegally
would be sent back to Somalia and each time there would follow squishy,
mealy-mouthed discussions about how can we do such a thing (send people back)
because Somalia is still a hellhole!
Is Somalia ever NOT going to be a
hellhole? Is this administration headed that way (to weakness and squishy talk)
again?
In case you missed it, Trump has admitted 1,359 supposedly persecuted (by whom?) Somalis
since inauguration day.
According to Wrapsnet (as of today) the US ‘welcomed’
5,167 Somalis in FY17 (so far). And, we are supposed to be excited by the
removal of 237 of them in that same time frame? Net gain is 4,930 since
October of 2016!
Somalia’s ambassador to the U.S., Ahmed Isse Awad, says U.S.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has informed his embassy the agency
will no longer arrest illegal Somali immigrants in their homes or at their
workplaces. However, federal authorities have not confirmed that there has been
any shift in policy.
Awad said the agency reached the
decision after his embassy expressed concern to immigration authorities
regarding the recent arrests of 11 Somalis in Virginia, Minnesota and Georgia.
“Once we found out that 11 Somalis were arrested from their homes for
removal, we thought the arrests looked [like] profiling and targeting Somalis.
Then we submitted our concern to ICE and asked clarification,” Awad told VOA’s
Somali service. “Fortunately, they came back to us tell us that they would no
longer arrest Somalis from their homes or at their workplaces.”
However officials have previously
said that ICE does not have specific exemptions in place for certain groups of
people. The agency policy currently directs that anyone in violation of
immigration laws may be subject to arrest, detention and removal from the
United States.
Authorities say the agency’s policy
directs personnel to avoid conducting enforcement activists at “sensitive
places” such as schools, places of worship and hospitals, unless they have
prior approval from a supervisor.
The U.S. government said almost
5,000 Somali nationals in the United States face deportation orders. “As of April 1,
2017, there were 4,801 Somali nationals with final orders of removal,” ICE
spokesman Brendan Raedy said last week. “As of that same date, 237 Somali
nationals have been removed to Somalia in fiscal year 2017.”
Most of the Somalis facing final orders of removal are not in detention
centers and are unlikely to be removed in the near term because their cases are
making their way through the system. [I thought they said most had failed their asylum
bids?—ed]
Since Somalia’s embassy in Washington
reopened in November 2015, the ambassador said, about 170 Somali immigrants who
either ran afoul of U.S. law or had their asylum applications rejected have
been deported to Mogadishu, the Somali capital.
Most of those previously deported
had applied for, but been denied, political asylum in the United States, he
added. Another group of Somali applicants whose requests for asylum have been
denied are now in detention centers or prisons, awaiting deportation.
Big Whoop! Fewer than 300 Somalis are scheduled to be
moved out in the next couple of months, Awad told VOA, adding that his embassy
was awaiting information from U.S. authorities on who the deportees were and
when they would depart. And, as soon as they get that information, they
will tell those Somalis to head to Canada ASAP!
See our category ‘Trump Watch’ for more on what Trump has changed and what he hasn’t
changed regarding refugees.
https://refugeeresettlementwatch.wordpress.com/2017/04/30/only-237-somalis-have-been-removed-from-us-since-last-october-not-thousands/
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