Without Warning, ICE Deported New York Man To War-Torn Yemen
After 22 years in the U.S., Hazaea “Anwar” Alomaisi was abruptly sent back to a country enduring a war and a humanitarian crisis.
By Rowaida Abdelaziz
The Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency deported an undocumented New Yorker who had lived in the U.S. for two decades and repeatedly checked in with the government, sending him back to his native Yemen where he fears for his life.
Last Friday, Hazaea Alomaisi, a 42-year-old Yemeni national who goes by Anwar, went to a scheduled meeting with immigration officials to review his case. For 22 years, Alomaisi had diligently reported for these check-ins, which gave him temporary reprieve from deportation because he wasn’t a priority for removal. He became active in the local Yemeni community over those years, volunteering with the fire department and photographing weddings.
But this time when he went to check in with ICE, officials told him he could not go home. Instead, he was to be deported.
ICE sent Alomaisi to the Hudson County Correctional Facility in Kearny, New Jersey, where he stayed for a few days. He was put on a plane from John F. Kennedy Airport to Yemen on Tuesday ― before he got a chance to see his attorney, appeal the decision or say goodbye to his family.
“We were just shocked,” his uncle Adnan Alomaisi told HuffPost. Adnan was the first person Alomaisi called when he was detained. “If we knew, we would have done something faster.”
By the time Alomaisi’s lawyer, Kai De Graaf, went to visit him on Tuesday morning, immigration officials said it was too late. Alomaisi was already on the plane back to Yemen. He didn’t have the opportunity to appeal and he was deported even though he feared for his life in his native country, De Graaf said.
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http://www.huffpost.com/entry/ice-deported-yemen-man_n_5e333a10c5b611ac94d1be35?fbclid=IwAR3CGuxsTCTpH9WP6xLOjJGAaqf6ExOLdzB4mTo3el8ljm57i8usacZ9lJw
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