Category: Africa

Book is a window into asylum law, but is it a lopsided look?

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

A recently published book written by David Ngaruri Kenney and Philip Schrag  entitled, “Asylum Denied: A Refugee’s Struggle for Safety in America”  is discussed here by co-author Schrag.

The article provides a look into the growing field of immigration law (we mentioned that previously here).  Certainly Kenney’s story is a compelling one, but I will bet there is zero mention in the book of any refugees or asylees who have committed serious crimes or found to be connected to terrorism and deported.   It is likely all about how difficult it is for good people to stay in the US.

Here is what Schrag of Georgetown’s Center for Applied Legal Studies says is the definition of an asylee:

A person can apply for asylum if he has come to the United States either legally or without permission[ed: illegally], and says that he is afraid to go back to his home country because of a fear of persecution on account of his race, religion, nationality, political opinion, or membership in a particular social group.

But, after leading us to believe we are a mean country that turns away asylum seekers, like Kenney, he says this:

We’ve come a very long way since then [Democratic President Roosevelt turned back Jews escaping Hitler]. In 1980, we passed a Refugee Act, and now we’re one of the most welcoming countries in the world at a time when other countries are again turning away refugees. We resettle a lot of people who are in need. Refugees are about 10 percent, maybe 15 percent if you include asylum winners, of all U.S. immigration. In 2006, we resettled about 40,000 refugees from United Nations camps around the world, and granted asylum to another 30,000 or so additional refugees. So that’s a pretty large number.

Yes it is!  Holy cow, I had no idea that almost as many people were granted asylum as were brought as refugees.  All those 30,000 came here somehow and then said, now can I stay, and we said yes!  Asylees receive all the benefits that refugees receive (except airfare since they got here on their own).

30,000!   Maybe this book could be more accurately titled:  “Asylum granted: Refugees successful in getting into the US.”    Oh, but of course they wouldn’t title it that way, who would buy the book if America was described as decent and “welcoming.”

HIV epidemic (in the US!) reported among Black immigrants from Africa

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

As I said earlier today, most of our important stories come to us from our readers and this one is no exception.   You may have heard on the news a few months ago that HIV-AIDS was on the rise in the Black community in the US, but it appears that rise is not among Black Americans but is a result of immigration.  Unfortunately I don’t have time to do it justice but here is how it begins:

There is a “hidden epidemic” of HIV amongst African migrants living in the United States, according to investigators writing in the September 12 edition of AIDS. The researchers found that African-born individuals in the US had a disproportionately high prevalence of HIV – although they comprised only 0.6% of the study population, almost 4% of HIV diagnoses were amongst African-born individuals. Furthermore, the investigators found that in one health area approximately 50% of HIV infections amongst black people were amongst individuals originating in Africa.

Apparently when statistics are gathered, no one distinguishes between those Blacks who are native born and immigrant Blacks.   The article goes on to spell out some of the consequences:

Failure to acknowledge the scale of the HIV epidemic amongst African-born individuals, could, the investigators argue, mean that the HIV prevention and care needs of African-born US residents are being neglected. The investigators call on the US government and health authorities to target information about the availability of HIV testing and care to individuals from Africa, and for the gathering of accurate surveillance data about the country of origin of individuals diagnosed with HIV.

Aidsmap News tells us something we already know and that is that HIV positive refugees have been allowed to enter the US and it obliquely mentions that no one will be barred from entering with HIV in the very near future (thanks to a bill signed into law by President Bush).

Read the whole article here and take note of the US hot spots for the immigrant-fueled HIV epidemic.  See our health issues category for all of our posts on this important topic.

Somalis sailing to Malta: I want a tea party too!

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Here we go again, another mention that Somalis are breaking into Malta.

A group of 28 Somali illegal immigrants were brought into Birzebbuga on Sunday night, after they were spotted some 17 miles off Delimara by a local sailing yacht.

Malta has been targeted as a destination by Somalis since the situation in that country deteriorated; they now make up some three quarters of migrant arrivals, according to sources.

“Since the situation in that country deteriorated” and since we started airlifting these illegal aliens to the US with a TEA PARTY SEND-OFF!     Our ambassador to Malta is transforming illegals into refugees, giving them tea parties at her home and sending them to a city where you live at your expense. 

Is it any wonder they keep coming to Malta!  This is insane.

We deport refugees (gasp!)

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Once again Blulitespecial comes up with good stuff.  Happy Labor Day to Blulitespecial and all of you relaxing and eating and celebrating (and not laboring) today!

This article, “Somali immigrants getting bad legal advice,” from The New America Media (Expanding the News Lens through Ethnic Media) reads like a spoof!  Wouldn’t you just love to see some late night comedy routine on this one?  Come to think of it, that is just what we need!  But, I digress.  Back to my story.

First, in all seriousness (sort of):

Somali immigrants, who number over 30,000 in Minnesota, arrived as refugees in the United States. The majority now has permanent legal status, or green cards. Even so, they could be deported for a variety of infractions, simply because they are not citizens.

“Many people in the U.S. don’t know that we deport refugees,” [oh my gosh I didn’t know, how awful]says John Keller, director of the Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota, adding: “It’s unconscionable to return them back to the place we gave them refuge from,” he says.

Then this is no joke, here is the guy they use as an example of someone who has only an “infraction” and now fears deportation:

Take the case of Mohamed Ali. He’s a 21-year-old Somali immigrant, who got arrested for breaking into a restaurant in early June. He’s looking for help finding a private defense attorney from community organizations because he’s charged with second-degree burglary, a felony. [He doesn’t trust his smiling female public defender]

Ali admits that he was involved in the burglary, but he says the charge doesn’t fit the crime. He says he and a friend walked into a Jimmy John’s that was already broken into, and Ali grabbed a stash of receipts thinking they were cash and stuck them in his pocket. Roseville Police chased him and his friend down with a dog. Ali pulled up his pant leg to show off scars on his ankles and behind his knees, the result of dog bites.

Ali admits he made a mistake, but he believes he should get a second chance because his record is relatively good – he has a pending misdemeanor assault charge from an earlier fight in a neighboring county. He said he’s trying to make something of his life. “I have never been in trouble — this is my first crime, but the attorneys don’t ask me about my past,” he says.

Ali says he worked his way through high school and graduated with good grades. Since then, he’s held odd jobs, even as he began attending community college. But with his green card taken away by law officials, finding steady work has been difficult.

Ali arrived in the United States when he was 13. His older sister was a citizen here. She sponsored him and a dozen brothers and sisters. Ali says he barely remembers what life was like in Somalia. He has no idea of what he would do if he were sent back. [He was 13 for goodness sakes and he is only 21 now, how can he “barely remember”]

Here is a thought, why don’t we DNA test Sis and all the siblings and see if they are really related.  Afterall, the US State Department has found that 80% of Somalis in Africa are not related to those applying to sponsor them and the program is temporarily suspended.  Hint to prosecutors:  maybe there is a little immigration fraud to add to his charges?

I swear I did not make this next line up:

Ali says he’s been too depressed to shave his wispy chin hairs since he got out of jail six weeks ago.

He is depressed because he doesn’t want to be “stuck in Minnesota”!    Ahhhhhhh! Not Minnesota!

These days, Ali sits in his sister’s home in Burnsville, a suburb of Minneapolis. It’s bigger than a jail cell he says, but he’s worried. He’s worried sick about getting a felony conviction because that would make it hard to find work and also because he will be stuck in Minnesota. His sister is moving to Canada, and his stepmother is going back to Africa. Even if ICE doesn’t put a hold on him, he doesn’t know what he’ll do.

“I’m the only one -– everybody is leaving,” he says.  [waaahhhhhh!]

Does anyone other than me see a little inconsistency here, Immigrant Law Center honcho Keller says it’s unconscionable to send refugees back, but isn’t stepmom going back voluntarily?   Here is an idea, just pack up Ali with stepmom and off he goes back to Africa — “to the place we gave them refuge from?”—because, if it’s safe enough for mama, it should be safe enough for him.

Endnote:

Between October 2006 and 2007, ICE deported 285,157 immigrants nationwide. Over one-third of those were deported for criminal convictions.

Xenophobia, Xenophobia, Xenophobia! That is all you hear in South Africa

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

This is an update from the so-called Rainbow Nation of South Africa.   You know the country that got rid of Apartheid, ushered in a new (Black) government and opened wide its borders.   After poor black South Africans attacked black immigrants in rioting that spread throughout the country last May, everyone is scratching their heads (bottoms too?) and blaming everything on xenophobia (fear and hatred of strangers).

Here is an article from a week or so ago about a conference of “experts” on refugees and immigration that called for NOT tightening South Africa’s borders.

Experts on refugees and resettlement have warned the government against tightening the country’s borders or making immigration policy restrictive, as this will encourage more xenophobic attacks.

Dr Loren Landau, director of the Forced Migration Studies Programme at The University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) urged the government to transform its migration policy, warning that “making the policy more restrictive would create the perception that migrants or migration are negative”. 

Landau was addressing a conference on curbing xenophobia in Pretoria on Tuesday.

Then read this sidebar article entitled “Digging up the roots of xenophobia.”    I don’t know why this is so complicated.   There are too many people in Africa, the economy stinks, everyone is worried about feeding themselves and their families, they are going to flood any country that offers asylum and a way out (refugee resettlement), consequently,  the citizens of the invaded country fear for their livelihood so they attack those who they think will take it away from them. 

This is not some psychological malady that can be cured by discussing and trying to exorcise “xenophobia,” or suggesting it’s racism (remember these were black on black riots).    What is happening in South Africa is a straightline progression from opening the borders wide, allowing the poor to flood the country and ultimately sinking the country.   Take heed America.

See our archive of posts on the South African immigration crisis here.