Joint U.S./Canada Deportation – Largest ICE deportation to Africa in 2 years

Over the weekend of Dec. 16, ICE officers returned to the US after deporting 82 Nigerians and 17 Liberians on a joint charter removal flight conducted with the government of
Canada. It was the largest US deportation flight to Africa in two years. The flight used chartered commercial aircraft and was staffed by officers of the ICE Office of Detention and Removal Operations. Eight of the Nigerians were deportees from Canada; escorting officers from Canada accompanied the flight. The others deported on the flight had been housed at detention facilities across the US; they were brought to the Batavia Federal Detention Facility near Buffalo, New York, shortly before the flight. More than 60 of the deportees had criminal records. [ICE News Release 12/19/06]

Man deported after trip to store. Stewart Bell, National Post. Friday, October 06, 2006

On the day he was to be deported to Guatemala City, alleged war criminal Sergio Loreto Garcia went instead to San Lorenzo church in Toronto and refused to come out. Reluctant to violate the tradition of church sanctuary, immigration officers declined to enter the tiny Anglican parish to arrest Mr. Garcia and for two years he dwelled in the basement, untouchable. Then he made a fateful trip to Home Depot. On Sept. 24, the second anniversary of the day he had gone into hiding, Mr. Garcia drove a few blocks to the hardware store chain and was stopped for a minor traffic violation.

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In a “Surprise Action” members of Solidarity Across Borders supported Farah Kulmiyeh Abdil, a Somali refugee, who took direct action against the Immigration and Refugee Board (IRB) on Wednesday, 12 June. Farah chained himself inside Complexe Guy-Favreaux, IRB headquarters.

Click here to view photos of the action

Farah Kulmiyeh Abdil fled the war in Somalia in 1990 to claim refugee status in Canada. His permanent residence was revoked in 1992 due to a criminal record for which he has already served jail time. Since there is a moratorium on deportations to Somalia, his deportation has been blocked and he has been living in legal limbo ever since. Living without status and without the right to access education or work, he has been forced to
the margins of society to live in constant fear and anxiety, without legal or social recognition. Farah, who is HIV positive, would be deprived of treatment by being deported to Somalia. His pending deportation is a death sentence!

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Esperanza Rivera Vaquerano sought refuge here. Now authorities won’t let her leave San Salvador terminal. Maurice Bridge, Vancouver Sun. Published: Thursday, July 06, 2006

A woman deported from Vancouver is stranded at El Salvador International Airport, unable to leave the terminal after being abandoned by Canadian immigration officers who took her there in handcuffs nearly a week ago.

In a real-life variation of the film The Terminal, which stars Tom Hanks as a man trapped without documentation in New York’s Kennedy Airport, she is in limbo — stateless and homeless and comforted by a sister who has been allowed to pass her some money and a toothbrush, but nothing more.

In a callphone interview with The Vancouver Sun Wednesday, Esperanza Rivera Vaquerano, 32, said she has been sleeping on the floor and airport chairs, and has not had a shower, a change of clothes or proper meals since Friday. “I spend a lot of time sleeping, because it’s very uncomfortable and I’m very tired,” she said. “Food here is a little
expensive, so I [only] have something to eat once a day.”

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Illegals afraid to see a doctor. Appointments cancelled out of deportation fears. Health workers want Ottawa to issue moratorium May 23, 2006. 05:36 NICHOLAS KEUNG

Some Toronto doctors are calling on the federal government to ease up on deportations after recent high-profile removals appear to have spooked many illegal migrants into cancelling appointments at clinics serving the uninsured. “If they keep pushing these people further underground, it’s going to be not just a tragedy for these people’s health but a huge public health concern down the road,” for example during a flu epidemic, warns Dr. Meb Rashid, of Toronto’s Access Alliance Multicultural Community Health Centre. “This population is most vulnerable to infectious diseases such as typhoid, malaria, tuberculosis and HIV. If an epidemic breaks out, there’s no way we’d be able to control that.” He and other physicians working with illegal immigrants plan a news conference on Friday to demand that Ottawa put a moratorium on deportations to calm fears in the community.

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