ICE is systematically removing them from the United States.
Mauritania never invented anything, but they invented method of torture.
I fledMauritania because I feared persecution and indeed I was persecuted.
I lived in the United States for almost 18 years. I earned my master’s in business administration and I became a U.S. citizen,
so I become the person to go to,
people come to me for anything, for you know, how do I plan my wedding, how do I file for my green card? How do I do this?
And then you know, because I’m willing to go above and beyond to help my community, so that’s why I started this community work.
Since Donald Trump became president, more than 50 people that I know have been detained and deported, only in Columbus.
In anticipation of deportation, Mauritanians are selling their houses, selling their cars, liquidating their 401ks,
because they know that if they go to check in with ICE they might not return.
This is refugee road. You know, most of the refugees ironically live on refugee road.
We are going to meet today Mauritanians in a threat of deportation.
However, he told me that he doesn't want his face to be shown because he fears retaliation by the immigration or the ICE.
They sold their house to move to a friends house and he lives in a teeny tiny basement.
Hey, we're here.
We still don't have the power to deport the 11 million undocumented immigrants.
For people who wish to see that number dramatically shrunk in a short period of time,
there's this alternative theory. The idea is that you increase their sense of dread and terror
with the hopes that instead of having ICE round up all these people
you have the people rounding themselves up and leaving.
For decades, ICE ignored the Mauritanians of Columbus.
They asked them to come visit maybe once a year but now ICE insists that they visit their offices every month.
So this is the corner of Broad Street in front and that is where ICE is located.
They're on the third floor, so this is where anybody who has a removal order is required to report in regularly.
We'll go.
Somebody that's reporting into ice would typically come through these brass doors
into this beautiful, opulent lobby.
They don't know if they're going to be detained and deported back to their country when they go in.
They may not ever see this lobby again.
Mauritania is still not safe. The United States should never deport somebody to a place where slavery is practiced
because practicing slavery already means the worst human treatment.
Mauritania is a country on the western coast of Africa ruled by Arabs.
But there is a subpopulation of black Mauritanians who speak different languages and for
the last 30 years they've been oppressed.
They were ethnically cleansed, they are enslaved,
and if they go back to Mauritania after having fled there's the
possibility that they're going to be tortured, perhaps even enslaved
So what is your next plan for for ICE when you go to check in?
From the perspective of the Trump administration packing up his belongings,
preparing to leave the country is a success story.
We're in a new era. Mauritanians responding with the self-deportation
does show where the arrow is pointed.
There's this incredible irony to the Mauritanians of Columbus, Ohio.
They ended up clustering close to Refugee Road.
But now with ICE ramping up its enforcement,
I saw refugees fleeing Refugee Road.