Liberians facing mass deportation from U.S.

BROOKLYN CENTER, Minnesota (CNN) -- Thousands of Liberians
living in the United States face deportation March 31 when a federal
immigration status created for humanitarian purposes expires.In
the 1990s, a bloody civil war raged through the West African nation,
killing 250,000 people and displacing more than a million, according to
a U.N. report. The United States extended "temporary protection status"
to all Liberians who could get to America, and 14,000 of them took
advantage of that humanitarian offer.
Temporary protection status
is an immigration status somewhere between political asylum and refugee
status. Administered by the Department of Homeland Security and the
U.S. Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services, it is extended to
nationals of countries facing civil unrest or natural disaster.For
years, the temporary protection status for Liberians was extended as
the situation there worsened under dictator Charles Taylor. But Taylor
was ousted in 2003 and Ellen Johnson Sirleaf was elected Liberia's
first female president in 2006. In 2007, citing the progress in
Liberia, President George W. Bush signed an order of "delayed enforced
departure" for Liberians who had been under temporary protection
status, giving them 18 months to return to Liberia.
Watch more on the uncertainty of Liberians living in U.S. »
Corvah
Akoiwala, a Liberian national who was fresh out of college when civil
war broke out, remembers how it used to be there. "They dragged us from
our homes, they were shooting all around us. They said they were going
to have us killed," he said"On Tupero Road they had a killing
field. Like every day they took someone to this field and they would
just shoot them in front of everybody. It was just terrible," he said.
He came to the United States in 1992 and settled in Rhode Island. A
civil engineer by education, Akoiwala married and had three children,
all of whom are American citizens.
For the past 17 years he's
worked, paid his taxes and contributed to his community. He and his
wife were granted temporary protection status but now both face
deportation. On March 31 they will go from being legal residents to
illegal aliens.
"My fear is, who am I going to leave my kids with?" he said. "Who am I going to leave them with?I want to stay here and see them grow up to be responsible citizens and then I can go back."The Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services said approximately 3,600 Liberian
nationals are facing delayed enforced departure, but Liberian community
leaders think the number may be twice that because, they said, many
Liberians went underground and did not reregister with immigration
services, knowing the delayed enforced departure status meant leaving
the country.Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, about an hour north of
Minneapolis, has a thriving Liberian community. Many now worry about
losing their jobs, homes and businesses.Seyondi Roberts, a hairdresser, said 65 percent of her customers are Liberians facing delayed enforced departure.
"We're
praying that they don't send them back. But if they do, it will have a
serious effect on the business. I do mainly African hair, so it's going
to have a real big, big impact on the business," she said.Aba
Hamilton Dolo also lives in the Brooklyn Center area and is slated for
departure. She said she has nightmares and panic attacks at the
prospect of being separated from her two young American-born children.
"Please consider what would happen to our families if we were sent
home," she begs. Dolo: 'I have nightmares' »
"Many
of these Liberians have become important parts of the communities where
they live in the United States," said Sen. Jack Reed, D-Rhode Island.
There is a large Liberian community in his home state.
"They have
children who are citizens of the U.S.," he noted. "How do you leave
children behind who are eligible to stay? They've worked very hard,
they've played by the rules, and they've paid their taxes. They're here
legally. I think that should be considered at least to let them stay."Reed
has been one of the driving forces for extension of the temporary
protection status in previous years and is pushing hard again this year
for another extension. In addition, he wants a change in the rule that
prohibits those on the temporary protection status classification from
applying for citizenship."They should have the right to become
American citizens," he said. "They should be part of immigration
reform. We shouldn't pick and choose different immigrant groups."Critics say Liberians should go back to Liberia when their status runs out.
"It
is time for people to go back and rebuild their country," said Dan
Stein, president of the Federation for American Immigration Reform.
Stein underlines the temporary in "temporary protected status." He said
for Liberians to stay when their country is at peace would be an abuse
of U.S. hospitality."It makes a mockery of the concept of short-term temporary humanitarian protection."
Department of Homeland Security deputy spokesman Sean Smith said its Immigration and Customs Enforcement
agency is "consulting with the White House and the State Department to
determine the most appropriate course of action" in regard to the
Liberians.


CNN's Jeanne Meserve contributed to this report.

nyensua! ahn even know if we have the capacity to hold all those people o. let it be extended till dthy kingdom comes

Imagine, there was at least one Liberian who wrote a letter to FAIR and to some Republican members of Congress urging that these Liberians should NOT receive any immigration relief and that they should be deported!

i know who wrote the letter...

Wow what a situation.
I must be honest in saying that this is something that people should have been preparing for. The status is as it is named...TEMPORARY. The people didn't intend for those they extended it to, to set up shop and start building families and lives around a status that was never supposed to be permanent.

The Liberian government needs to make serious preparation on economic, and socio-behavioral levels to receive its people.

Wouldn't it be great, if thousands of Liberian people had prepared by grabbing educational opportunities, to generate skills and expertise that they intended to take back home and rebuild their nation when their time was finished? This is not to say that doing that would by any means be an easy task. Many in America live from pay check to pay check just to survive let alone to save anything or seek educational opportunities.

I think a lot of the money Liberians made while working here did in deed help Liberians at home who received money sent to them from those here. But as Lao Tzu said, "Give a Man a Fish, Feed Him For a Day. Teach a Man to Fish, Feed Him For a Lifetime" Perhaps those dollars and energy might have been equally as usefully spent in a manner that would teach Liberans or enable them rebuild for the lifetime and not the temporary time.

krazzy wrote:

i know who wrote the letter...

me too

You're correct Nica. However, the idea of extending temporary status and even changing that status to legal permanent residency for folks who were previously on TPS is not without precendence. Bill Clinton did for Bosnian Serbs, Bush (the daddy) did it for Chinese, Poles, Czechs, etc. In short, this change of status has happened for every group BUT for Africans. When you consider the fact that these Liberians generally entered the country LEGALLY and have lived here now in some cases for two decades, its not a stretch to ask for a status change based on humanitarian grounds. After living and working here all these years, these folks have sprouted real roots here; they pay taxes; they have educated their children; they have become a part of American society. Asking/telling them to drop their lives and return to Liberia is simply cruel and unusual.

In many ways as a people, we've failed ourselves in our advocacy efforts around this issue. Top much of the old crab in the bucket syndrome has rendered totally unable to affect US immigration policy.

I do see a change in status or the eligibility for citizenship as a reasonable humanitarian request but more so on the basis of the un-huanitarian act of separating families that have evoled in the midst of the assylum.

It is unreasonable to asume that displaced people will or should obstain from the natural propensity to purue peace and happiness and procreate.

I'd hate to see this happen to folks. Its easy to say what we should
have done in hindsight but always more difficult in the now when what
is what is ...is what is.

Perhaps the lawyers advocating the extensions they failed to obtain so far should have refocused their defense of the extensions on that rather than on on disputing what the US is sticking to as a valid reasoning for maintaining the policy.

I wonder what was the reasoning given for changes the staus in the instances you mentioned.

Well my dear sis, the separation of families thingie is a relatively new addition ot the dialogue as a result of some recent changes to US immigration law ushered in by Republicans. While advocates for fair immigration practices thought this may have provided them a leg up, the last few years of post-9/11 republicanism has made it exceedingly difficult to engage federal policymakers in a meaningful an dhonest manner about these issues. The American public is notorious for callously abandoning logic and fairness in order to satisfy some other self-serving and psychotic ideas about their own place in the world (the current debate about the stimulus package comes to mind ). Anyway, the few Liberian lawyers who volunteered to work on this issue years ago were constantly stymied by the wonderful attention-starved leaders of ULAA. Further, none of the Liberian advocates (save for a few) ever grasped the real importance of turning this issue into a human interest story and putting a face on TPS for the American public. What the American public and policymakers saw was the Liberian establishment and their supporters mounting large demonstration after demonstration calling for the head of Charles Taylor and only a few sparsely attended rallies about immigration relief.