In the Media and on Capitol Hill, Ohio Immigrants Demand to Be Seen & Heard, Futures Embraced
Making News
“Ohio is my second country” – Ohio parents talk about life after deportation
Listen to this Ohio Newsroom interview with Birane Wane and Ibrahima Keita, Ohio fathers and members of the Ohio Immigrant Alliance’s #ReuniteUS community, along with Suma Setty at the Center for Law and Social Policy. Birane also addressed the Ohio Commission on Fatherhood about being a father after deportation. Tragically, one of his children died after his departure. Ibrahima’s experience in immigration court was also featured in an op-ed by the Vera Institute of Justice and National Partnership for New Americans.
OHIA’s “blockbuster” report on racism in immigration law and court
Have you read our latest installment in “Behind Closed Doors: Black Migrants and the Hidden Injustices of U.S. Immigration Courts”? “The System Works As Designed: Immigration Law, Courts, and Consequences” outlines how the structure of U.S. immigration courts, as well as the laws they are charged with implementing, were fashioned on a foundation of racism, power imbalance, and coercive control. “Immigration Courtside,” a blog by the retired Immigration Judge who wrote the precedent-setting decision in Matter of Kasinga, called it a “blockbuster!” Download the report and Executive Summary here. Check out our previous publications, and stayed tuned for the capstone of this multi-year research project, out later this year, at illusionofjustice.org.
What 2 women deported from the U.S. want you to know
Tina Hamdi of Dayton and Assia Serrano were featured on “Here and Now” as part of the National Immigrant Justice’s “Chance to Come Home” campaign. Assia and Tina survived intimate partner abuse only to serve time and then be separated from their children by deportation. Tina and her family served as consulting reviewers for “Broken Hope: Deportation and the Road Home.”
In the Community
Ohioan Joins NIJC in Los Angeles – May 10
Sara Hamdi, Tina’s eldest sister, is joining the National Immigrant Justice Center for “Chance to Come Home: Overcoming Injustices in the U.S. Immigration System,” a town hall in Los Angeles, CA on May 10. Catch it in person in LA or via livestream here.
Ohio Migration Anthology on Stage at the Columbus Arts Festival – June 7
Contributors to Volumes 1 and 2 of the Ohio Migration Anthology are back at the Columbus Arts Festival June 7, from 3-4pm in Bicentennial Park. We’ll crowd-source a poem and expand the call for contributors to Volume 3 in 2025. Check out our new website at ohiomigrationanthology.org and join us in Columbus on June 7!
We Need You!
Congressional Book Delivery — Bringing “Broken Hope” to Capitol Hill June 11
OHIA is seeking volunteers to help deliver copies of “Broken Hope: Deportation and the Road Home” to every member of the U.S. House and Senate on June 11 in Washington, DC! Some expenses paid. Read more and sign up here.
Calling Ohio Writers and Artists of All Types — Including Tattoo Artists!
If you are an artist of any type and have a connection to Ohio and to migration, you are invited to enter a submission for possible publication in Ohio Migration Anthology Volume 3, coming in 2025. Learn more here. Deadline to submit is December 31, 2024. As we continue to branch out in art and design, we’re looking for a tattoo artist to submit a stencil this year!
OHIA Needs You (Financially)
Our work at OHIA is largely funded by grassroots donors, and we literally can’t do this without you! Please make a donation of any amount to the OHIA today. Thank you for your support.
Knowledge Is Power
Check out “Ohio, We Have a Problem: Border Patrol and Local Law Enforcement’s Patterns and Tactics of Abuse in Ohio’s Immigration Enforcement,” by Advocates for Basic Legal Equality (ABLE) and the American Immigration Council, as well as Dr. Joseph Nwadiuko’s ICE Facility Outcomes Dataset, for more scholarship on the inhumane treatment of immigrants by federal and local law enforcement. Knowledge is power, if followed by action. Get smart here!