Two Palestinian asylum seekers have been imprisoned for one year in an immigration detention center in Florence, Arizona—one could be deported at any time, and the other’s fate is in limbo, according to the immigrants’ rights advocacy group Not One More Deportation.
The organization, with the help of the UA’s Students for Justice in Palestine, No More Deaths and other advocacy groups, is rolling around a petition to demand Immigration and Customs Enforcement to release Hisham Shaban Ghalia and Mounis Hammouda, both of whom, about five years ago, fled intense violence and poverty in the Gaza Strip.
According to Not One More Deportation, it has been determined that Ghalia and Hammouda have “credible fear they could face indefinite detention or be killed if deported back to their region of the world.
Both men migrated undocumented through more than a handful of countries between the Middle East, Europe, and made it all the way over to South and Central America, before arriving at the U.S.-Mexico borderlands, where they requested humanitarian asylum this past November. (Check out this October 2015 article on The Guardian for more information about the big wave of Middle Eastern and African refugees and migrants trying to reach the U.S. through Mexico. The article features Ghalia and Hammouda’s story.)
“Even though both men were determined to have ‘credible fear,’ the first step in claiming humanitarian protection from persecution, they are still being held in indefinite detention,” the petition says.
Ghalia’s asylum claim was denied by immigration officials, who issued a final order of removal, “but are unable to deport him due to restrictions that prevent U.S. immigration authorities from dealing directly with the Palestinian authorities,” the petition says. “Although both men meet ‘low priority’ criteria under the Department of Homeland Security’s own standards, they remain in limbo, and subject to indefinite detention.”
A protest demanding their release was supposed to take place today, but was canceled. Another is in the works, according to Gabe Schivone, an immigration rights activist, member of Students for Justice in Palestine, and co-author of The Guardian article I pointed out. In the meantime, you can find the petition on the Not One More Deportation website.
This article appears in Nov 12-18, 2015.
Wonderful, Isabel Garcia and her cronies are now going out of their way to embrace middle eastern Muslims that illegally crossed our border. These activists are warped.
While the “Islamic State”, and it’s clandestine supporters, represent a real/dangerous threat to the security of the United States via acts of terrorism on our soil, we must never forget that the United Sates represents, to the rest of the world, a hope for a better life and the escape from Religious/Political Persecution. Immigrants from the Middle East and other countries, legal or not, seeking asylum, should not be labeled as Terrorists and their requests for asylum rejected. Each must be evaluated on a case-by-case basis.
These are dangerous times for sure. But until the Military Efforts of the Unites States, in cooperation with other Civilized Nations, have eliminated the “Islamic State”, we must recognize that there are innocent people directly exposed to these “Islamic State” Barbarians seeking an escape. We must try to accommodate legitimate claims of Religious/Political Persecution.
Francis Saitta writes – “the United Sates represents, to the rest of the world, a hope for a better life and the escape from Religious/Political Persecution”
Well, it used to be, pre-Obama. But now our economy is horrible, illegals are taking the jobs of Americans, Christians are persecuted every day from Obama, and who can forget Lois Lerner and Obama using the power of the IRS, the consequence of prison, to shut down conservatives for their political beliefs.
But since liberals are the ones doing the persecuting, it ain’t no big deal. Especially if they can get whitey. Bonus points if Christian.
What, Again…your Anonymous Post is, as usual, racist/bigoted and adds NOTHING of any worth to this conversation!!!
Leave them in Florence, they have purpose there. While incarcerated they discourage others to flaunt our laws and come through the human pipeline of conquest.
Dear Francis,
You don’t get to control/dictate the conversation, no matter how distasteful to you that is. It’s one of those pesky things in our constitution that liberals are doing their best to circumvent.
Your lack of tolerance is on display.
Further, Mr. What, Again, you have NOT the slightest understanding of Christianity and what it is to be a Christian, a disciple of Jesus Christ!!
“…..let them stand undisturbed as monuments of the safety with which error of opinion may be tolerated where reason is left free to combat it….”
Thomas Jefferson First Inaugural Address 4 Mar. 1801
Dear Francis,
While you may think you can judge my understanding, you know not what you speak nor have standing to make judgment on me.
Ah, I see the Republican stance is in full bloom again this morning and coming from the same font of intolerance as always. How refreshing it is to have something you can always count on, day in and day out, like a stopped clock.
How many times must Hillary and Barack lie to Americans before they lose their trust? Obama drew a line in the Syrian sand 3 years ago, and did absolutely nothing as Assad gassed and murdered a quarter million people. he never established a no fly zone. Syria was buying oil from ISIS. We have released funding to Iran and given them the path to develop weapons.Hillary’s little gun running trick in Benghazi got Americans killed. It almost appears that the refugee mess was a plan. Germany just caught ISIS terrorists trying to sneak in amongst Syrian refugees. The President told us they are “widows and orphans.” Yet the photos continue to show young men 20-40. Why are they fleeing without their families?
Geraldo Rivera admitted this morning (because his daughter was at the Paris soccer game), that he wants the President to be successful. But he said there is something wrong here. Chuck Schumer called for halting the dropping of refugees in the USA. These are liberal democrats folks.
Something is wrong here. Google the Turkey soccer game yesterday and listen to the muslim crowd chanting the radical phrase used by killers. It was supposed to be a moment of silence for those slaughtered in Paris, yet soccer fans chanted death to the world.
Something is wrong here, Mr President. And I think it’s you.
I was just about to say the same thing David W. I watched MSNBC to try to get both sides, and it looks like soon there may just be one side. Chris Matthews said exactly what you just said. There IS something wrong here.
He said:
MSNBC’s Chris Matthews ended his show Tuesday night with two numbers — the number of Syrians the U.S. has recruited to help fight against the Islamic State and the number of total Syrian refugees.
“Let me finish tonight with two numbers that don’t make sense,” Matthews said on his show before starkly contrasting the number of Syrian refugees — 4 million — and the number of Syrians recruited by the U.S. to fight the Islamic State — four.
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They are starting to make sense to me and my family and my friends.
Something is wrong here. Washington, we have a problem.
Keep them locked up and deport them. Don’t care.
America first.
A Nation without borders is not a nation.
This is not Guatemala.
How many people remember the Palestinians dancing in the street celebrating our being attacked on 9/11/01? I do and will never forgive or forget it. The open borders crowd is constantly trying to piggy back their desires for open borders onto any and every cause they can find people concerned about. This ranges from gays to trans-people to now, Palestinians.
The facts and laws remain the one constant. If you are here in our country illegally, you need to go back to your own country. If you want to be Americans, follow our laws and immigrate legally. The United States does not need or want more criminals who believe they have the right to determine which of our laws they will follow.
For these groups now to support illegal aliens from the mid east just shows how much they are unconcerned about our country’s laws or security. Every one of the illegal aliens needs to be deported as soon as possible.