An immigration judge approved the release of Abdulkadir Sharif Abdi on Tuesday in a courtroom full of cheering friends and relatives, the latest twist in his long fight to avoid deportation to Somalia.<\/p>\n
The government has increased deportations to Somalia in recent years, but the Twin Cities immigration court agreed to take another look at Abdi\u2019s case last year after his attorney, John Bruning, said that his client\u2019s criticism of extremist group al-Shabab and its efforts to recruit local men could endanger him if he returned to his homeland.<\/p>\n
After moving to the U.S. as a refugee in the 1990s, Abdi joined a gang and was convicted of car theft, receiving stolen property and three drunken-driving charges. He received a deportation order in 2002 and checked in with immigration officials for years \u2014 in the meantime leaving the gang life, sobering up and becoming a leader in the Somali addiction recovery community. He became a housing manager at the Park Avenue Center, a Minneapolis alcohol and drug treatment facility.<\/p>\n
But in January 2018, Abdi was detained at a routine check-in. He was scheduled last March to be a passenger on a deportation flight of 69 Somalis, two-thirds of whom had criminal convictions, according to Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Abdi\u2019s attorney sought a so-called withholding of removal, a sort of legal limbo that prevents him from being deported while not guaranteeing him asylum or citizenship.<\/p>\n
Judge Sarah B. Mazzie granted that request in November, but Abdi remained in detention at the Freeborn County jail pending a final custody review. On Tuesday, Mazzie ordered him to be released on his own recognizance.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know we have a bright future,\u201d said Rhoda Christenson, Abdi\u2019s wife. \u201cHe\u2019s going to be OK \u2026 and for that I\u2019m grateful.\u201d<\/p>\n
Abdi will still have periodic check-ins with immigration authorities, but Christenson said she was working with attorneys to try to prevent him from having to do so indefinitely.<\/p>\n
Anab Ali, his sister, also cheered the decision outside the courtroom.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery mistake he made when he was so young,\u201d she said. \u201cHe changed a lot a long time ago.\u201d<\/p>\n
Source:\u00a0startribune.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
An immigration judge approved the release of Abdulkadir Sharif Abdi on Tuesday in a courtroom full of cheering friends and relatives, the latest twist in his long fight to avoid deportation to Somalia. The government has increased deportations to Somalia in recent years, but the Twin Cities immigration court agreed to take another look at…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":16597,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,51],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mustaqbalmedia.net\/so\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16596"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mustaqbalmedia.net\/so\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mustaqbalmedia.net\/so\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mustaqbalmedia.net\/so\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mustaqbalmedia.net\/so\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16596"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mustaqbalmedia.net\/so\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16596\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mustaqbalmedia.net\/so\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16597"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mustaqbalmedia.net\/so\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16596"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mustaqbalmedia.net\/so\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16596"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mustaqbalmedia.net\/so\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16596"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}