Mauritanians’ deportation halted for now
Temporary ruling for 5 in Ohio raises hopes for others.
Thousands of immigrants from a West African nation who fear for their lives if deported back to their homeland now have some hope that they can remain in U.S. cities such as Columbus.
The federal Board of Immigration Appeals this month temporarily stopped the deportation of five people from the Islamic Republic of Mauritania who are living in Ohio. The men remain in detention, however, pending decisions about reopening their cases, and federal immigration officials continue to arrest Mauritanians and push for deportation, advocates say.
Nationwide, more than 79 Mauritanians have been deported this year, and 40 have been detained — half of whom were in Ohio, home to the largest concentration of Mauritanians in the U.S., according to Lynn Tramonte, director of the Ohio Immigrant Alliance.
“The situation is so grave, and it’s really unique,” Tramonte said. “The amount of fear these people have … to go back to a country that doesn’t consider them citizens, it’s just palpable.”
An estimated 3,000 Mauritanians live in Columbus. They fled to the United States two decades ago to escape killing, detention, torture, rape and beatings by military and security forces. Now, they are one of many targets of President Donald Trump’s enforcement against illegal immigration.
Treated as a lower class in their homeland than the Arab and Berber tribes that form the majority, black Mauritanians have suffered brutal discrimination for decades. Stripped of their citizenship there, many lack the English skills, education and resources needed to gain asylum, advocates say.
Columbus immigration lawyer Julie Nemecek learned about the community’s plight and began to work on their cases for free this year. She filed paperwork with Immigration and Customs Enforcement to keep nine Mauritanians in Ohio from being deported, but those stays were denied.
Media attention drew advocates and other attorneys to help, and emergency stays were filed with the Board of Immigration Appeals, the highest administrative body for interpreting and applying immigration laws. That some of those temporary stays were granted is “huge,” Nemecek said.
“These five individuals would not be here if they didn’t have community support,” she said. “It shows these are cases that should be reopened. It shows there is slavery in Mauritania, and they will be killed if they go there. I think it gives us hope that we can fight this, but a lot more work needs to be done.”
Moussan Diop, a 58-yearold warehouse worker and Uber driver living on the East Side, was one of the five men granted a stay, but he remains in an immigration detention center in Morrow County. “I’m scared” of going back to Mauritania, he said by phone from the facility.
He was arrested on May 7 during what he thought was a routine check-in with ICE — something he’s done every three months for a decade.
Diop has lived in Columbus since 2000 and, like many other Mauritanians, was denied asylum when he entered the U.S. that year. Now, his long-term fate lies with the Board of Immigration Appeals.
Although ordered deported years ago, many Mauritanians were able to stay in the U.S. if they reported to ICE offices, Nemecek said. The recent crackdown on illegal immigrants has changed that, Nemecek said.
No one noticed the plight of local Mauritanians until Nemecek had recognized it, said Ahmed Tidiane of Canal Winchester, who has tried to help other Mauritanians who aren’t lucky enough to have U.S. citizenship, as he does. “We were just a forgotten community at the mercy of ICE,” Tidiane said.