“Mr. President, we are pleading for you to please reverse this deportation so Mr. Ndiaye can return home to his family because they need him.”
Read the letter from Goura’s family
WASHINGTON, DC – Family members of Ohio electrician Goura Ndiaye, who was deported in 2019 by the Trump administration, sent a letter to the Biden administration asking for his safe return. Ndiaye was deported by the Trump administration in 2019, as part of the sudden mass deportations of long-term U.S. residents to Mauritania and other African countries. He left behind a network of family and friends, including young children who desperately need him to come home. Ndiaye is represented by the National Immigrant Justice Center on his application for humanitarian parole, which is pending before the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
The letter reads:
We pray this letter finds you in excellent health. We are writing to you on behalf of Mr. Goura Ndiaye who was deported from Columbus, Ohio in 2019 after 20 years in the United States. He was deported to Mauritania, a country in Northwest Africa which practices modern day slavery.
As advocates for fair and humane immigration policies, we as family and other Africans are deeply concerned about the impact of Mr. Ndiaye’s unfair deportation and how it has affected his family.
Mr. Ndiaye has been living in the United States since 1994 and was a resident of Columbus, Ohio, who contributed to his community. He was a business owner (Certified Electrician) and a father of four children, his last son [has] Down Syndrome, a genetic disorder with a wide range of developmental delays and physical disabilities.
Mr. President, we are pleading for you to please reverse this deportation so Mr. Ndiaye can return home to his family because they need him. Due to the harsh and difficult life conditions in Mauritania, Mr. Ndiaye had to flee to Dakar Senegal (West Africa) for his safety, and life in Senegal is not [easy] and he is not a native of that country.
We his friends and families want to thank you in advance for reversing his deportation and may God bless you. Signatures at the link.
Read about Mr. Ndiaye’s deportation nightmare in Mother Jones and Broken Hope: Deportation and the Road Home. Hear directly from him in this video from the National Immigrant Justice Center’s “Chance to Come Home” campaign.
The Ndiaye family’s letter adds urgency to a recent congressional resolution introduced by Senator Booker and Representatives Cleaver, Espaillat, and Trone. The resolution calls on the Biden administration to implement “A Chance to Come Home,” a policy proposal crafted by the National Immigrant Justice Center that would help unjustly deported people, like Ndiaye, access meaningful due process.
In June, the loved ones of people who were deported took to Capitol Hill to share their families’ experiences, chronicled in Broken Hope: Deportation and the Road Home. This book, written by Lynn Tramonte of OHIA and Suma Setty with the Center for Law and Social Policy, is based on 255 interviews OHIA organizer Maryam Sy conducted with people who were deported.
The Trump administration increased deportations to Africa by 74%, focusing on long-term residents, including those with U.S. citizen relatives. They had benefited from prosecutorial discretion under previous administrations, but the Trump administration chose to deport them. Many people involved in the Ohio Immigrant Alliance’s #ReuniteUS campaign, which seeks to expand paths to return for people who were deported, were working legally in the United States, owned homes, and had U.S. citizen spouses and children at the time of their deportation. They, like Goura, want a Chance to Come Home.
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The Ohio Immigrant Alliance works with immigrants, allies, and pro-immigrant leaders and organizations to expand our voices and our power. Find us on X, Facebook, and Instagram