Sunday, September 22, 2013
For Somalis who have broken the law, deportation to a volatile homeland is now a real possibility.
The federal government is engaging in an aggressive effort to deport
Somali immigrants who run afoul of U.S. law, after refraining for years
from shipping people back to a country wracked by civil war and lacking a
functioning government.
The policy change affects more than 3,100 Somali
nationals who have received final orders for removal from the United
States since 2001, either because of violations of immigration law or
criminal convictions. That includes 435 people who were ordered removed
from the immigration court in Bloomington, representing 13 percent of
all such Somali cases in the country’s 52 immigration courts.
Until recently, they had been allowed to remain in this
country despite the removal orders, living in a legal limbo, wearing
ankle bracelets or under requirements to check in periodically with
authorities.
Now that’s changed.