Photo: Kevin Bonecutter
People have always moved, since the beginning of humanity. We move for safety or opportunity, and sometimes both. We don’t have control over where we were born. The only thing we might be able to control is where we go and what we do. Moving even takes courage, and sometimes love.
Young Black men from Mauritania are moving to the United States and Europe to escape apartheid and find a life they can’t build for themselves where they were born. In their native country, white Moors have been attempting to erase Black indigenous people, languages, and cultures since before its independence from France. Oumar Diop was killed by the Mauritanian police on his way to seek freedom in the U.S.; police stole the money he raised to fund his trip. If that doesn’t prove the need for their asylum claims, what can?
Black Mauritanians are coming here because they want to take care of themselves and their families and make them proud. We could welcome and embrace that, instead of criminalizing it. As Ohio Immigrant Alliance Executive Director Lynn Tramonte said at an event in Columbus, “There is a lot of courage and strength on this stage tonight,” referring to IRA President Biram Dah Abeid and other leaders, “but there’s a lot of strength and courage in this part of the room too.” The men in the audience had traveled thousands of miles through very dangerous conditions, and survived unspeakable violations, in order to be in Ohio and then thrown into deportation proceedings. We need to stop letting politicians divide us through the tactics of fear.
These men (and a few women) found refuge in the homes of their established elders, who had previously fled the genocide of the late 1980s/early 1990s. They took them in, helped them apply for work permits and asylum, and taught them English and the customs of this country. That’s how we take care of each other. Together, they anxiously awaited their immigration court hearings, hopeful that the court would grant them a fair trial — despite decades of experience knowing that the court often finds specious reasons to fail them.
Last week, three Black Mauritanian men were arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) while attempting to comply with the law. Now, they sit in ICE detention in Ohio county jails, awaiting possible deportation to a country that has harmed them. The fear this is sending throughout the Ohio community cannot be overstated.
At the same time, the U.S. Supreme Court gave the Trump administration the green light to make 500,000 currently documented immigrants undocumented and, most likely, eventually deportable. That decision will affect Haitian, Venezuelan, Nicaraguan, and Cuban-Ohioans. These are people who were sponsored by others already living in the United States. They entered on planes, with advance permission from the U.S. government. They have current, legal immigration status and did nothing to violate that status. They pay taxes, live here with their families, enrolled their kids in school, are working. They may even own businesses, and definitely thought they were safe. They don’t have stable countries to return to. This is on top of the Trump administration’s attempts at cancelling Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for people from certain countries, which has been challenged in court and remains in flux.
Beyond the cruelty of the Trump policy, the logistics of carrying out this mass deportation are mind-boggling. This administration is all for small government except when it comes to deportation. Then, there is no limit to the size of the bureaucracy it is willing to build with our tax dollars — nor to the greed of the corporations ready to profit from other people’s pain.
Also over the weekend, in Cincinnati, ICE was seen arresting Latino residents in East Price Hill. Said minister Walter Vasquez, “People are afraid and exhausted. They keep seeing reports of ICE showing up across social media constantly.” Everyday things like driving to church or going to the grocery store have become dangerous acts of calculated risk. These are people who are simply trying to live their lives, carry out a purpose, raise their families, and be good people. Instead of doing this, Congress could provide a path to citizenship that they can actually follow. The amendments to immigration laws since 1996 have made the system so illogical that it’s a miracle anyone can get through. What the Trump administration is doing now is more of the same cruelty that makes a failed system worse, not better.
On Sunday, following the unwelcome ICE activity in Cincinnati, the community held a solidarity event. Because not everyone in Ohio thinks that what is happening is acceptable or OK. There are actually MILLIONS of people in Ohio who find this very wrong.
View a round-up of photos from the gathering at the Ignite Peace Facebook Page.
The other bit of news from this weekend is of the hapless variety. The Department of Homeland Security published a list of so-called immigrant “sanctuary” cities and counties to name and shame them into compliance. The list was riddled with errors, from misspellings like “Cincinnatti” (Cincinnati) and “Cambell” (Campbell) to factually incorrect labels. Warren County is a “sanctuary for the unborn,” not immigrants. Looks like the DHS intern started a week early and failed in their first assignment.
But the fact that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security published this list in the first place is behind embarrassing — it’s terrifying. This is the department that is supposed to keep an entire country safe. It used to play a key role in global security. Now, it’s become a joke of a department with a single agenda — forcibly removing people born in other countries from this one, in chains.
The list has been removed from the DHS website. But the stain on our reputation is part of a much larger pattern, and probably written in permanent ink.