The Debate Continues
By Dan Murphy
The debate in Westchester over deportations of illegal, or undocumented residents, continues and will continue after a longtime Westchester resident was deported last month. Hazaea “Anwar” Alomaisi was a well-known photographer who lived in Elmsford and Peekskill during his 22 years in the United States.
Alomaisi, 42, came to the U.S. in 1998 on a tourist visa and never left. He was unable to obtain a green card but remained here, and eventually faced a deportation order from an immigration judge in 2006. Immigration and Customs Enforcement did not act on the deportation order until Jan. 28 of this year, when he was deported to Yemen on Feb. 4.
Alomaisi checked in with immigration officials for all of the years he resided in the U.S. without a green card. He paid his taxes, doesn’t have a criminal record, and was a respected member of his community, which included Peekskill for 10 years and Elmsford for 12 years.
ICE’s statement on his removal was: “Alomaisi was released on an Order of Supervision in July 2011, and on Jan. 21, 2020, the OSUP was revoked and he was taken into ICE custody. He was removed from the country on Jan. 28.”
“I love the land, the people, I made so many friendships,” said Alomaisi, who has spoken out against the Houthi rebels in Yemen and fears for his life. I was like one of the happiest guys on the planet and when they told me they were going to send me back, I feel like someone threw me from the 20th floor to the street.”
The photography of Anwar Alomaisi is well known and admired. A graduate of Westchester Community College, he is best known for his photography of birds – most notably the American Eagle. In 2016, he rescued a snowy animal in a wildlife sanctuary in Connecticut.
Alomaisi’s lawyer, Kai De Graaf, said funds are being raised to appeal his deportation, but the chances of returning him back to the US are slim. “What I tell the people in the U.S., you should be grateful to live in this country,” said Alomaisi on Facebook, from Yemen. “The land, the beauty, it just is heaven. I tell them I just got kicked out of Heaven to Hell. I love Yemen, but right now this is Hell.”
ICE’s stated policy has always been that deportations are made of persons with criminal records in the U.S. or who put the communities where they live here in the U.S. in jeopardy. But the deportation of Alomaisi has many wondering what risk he posed to the communities where he lived in Westchester.
“Anwar’s well-documented love for this country, his service to his community as a volunteer firefighter and Red Cross aide meant nothing to the cruel bureaucrats now tearing families apart with little, if any legal recourse or due process,” said State Sen. Peter Harckham. “ICE’s hustling Mr. Alomaisi back to Yemen, where war and famine now ravage the countryside, and before he could reach a lawyer or say goodbye to his family, should outrage any decent American as an unspeakable betrayal of our cherished values. His removal is another chilling example of President Trump’s misguided immigration policy.”
While some progressives have a zero-tolerance policy for deporting undocumented residents, most of us fall into the middle of the argument. We want to be safe, and for our children to be safe in our community, and if someone has committed a crime or is a member of a gang, or involved in illegal drugs, and is also undocumented, they should be deported.
But that doesn’t appear to be the case with Alomaisi.
Corey Pope made a compelling case on Facebook. “I have long been a supporter of cleaning up our immigration laws and tightening our border control… however my friend (Alomaisi) situation has changed my views and opened my eyes in a lot of ways. This is a man who tried to do it the right and legal way. He came on a travel Visa and when that expired followed all the rules set forth by us to try and gain citizenship. He shot our wedding pictures and is the happiest guy you’ll ever meet. There has to be guidelines that look after this. He was not an immigration dodger attempting to live here illegally and not assimilate and become American. This was handled terribly and it’s a shame.”
We reached out to ICE for further clarification on the Alomaisi case, but did not receive a response. Last month, ICE continued to object to, and warn the residents of New York about sanctuary policies.
“I don’t know what it will take for the representatives of New York City to see that keeping their sanctuary city policies are dangerous to the residents of this great city and, in some cases, deadly,” said Thomas Decker, field office director for ERO New York. “Their policies continue to shield criminal aliens, allowing them to seek refuge in NYC communities and allows them to continue to break the laws of this country, which threaten the lives and safety of its citizens. At some point, the lives and safety of the residents of NYC has to matter over the agendas of the politicians.”
ICE lodges detainers on individuals who have been arrested on criminal charges and who ICE has probable cause to believe are removable aliens. The detainer asks the other law enforcement agency to notify ICE in advance of release and to maintain custody of the alien for a brief period of time so that ICE can take custody of that person in a safe and secure setting upon release from that agency’s custody. When law enforcement agencies fail to honor immigration detainers and release serious criminal offenders onto the streets, it undermines ICE’s ability to protect public safety and carry out its mission, said ICE officials.
Here in Westchester, the Immigrant Protection Act was passed and signed into law in 2018. The IPA prevents Westchester County from using any of its resources to assist in federal investigations based on race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, ethnicity or national origin. In general, the act outlines what information county law enforcement will require from those with whom they interact and how this information is shared with all levels of law enforcement.
Last year, County Executive George Latimer explained to Rising newspapers, “Westchester is not a sanctuary” for those non-citizens charged with a crime.
“When a person is incarcerated in prison, a judge has issued an order that sends that person to the county jail,” said Latimer. “But if the judge sets bail and that person posts bail, he is free to leave the county jail and we will not detain him for ICE. That judge, and the assistant district attorney handling that case, have both determined that this individual is not a threat to the community at large and can be released. If someone were that dangerous to the community, they wouldn’t be getting any bail at all.”
Latimer added that if ICE gets a judicial order, Westchester law enforcement will cooperate. “If they are such a bad hombre, why doesn’t ICE ask for an order? Let’s say there are five individuals that ICE is looking for, and they are all in the county jail. If ICE went to a judge and got the order, they could pick them all up at once. Once they know they are in jail, they don’t have to go all over Westchester to look for them. Why not get the orders and finish their job? None of this would be an issue if they did that.”
It’s interesting to note that ICE continues not to cooperate and gets judicial orders for those they are seeking to deport. A recent ICE statement reads: “Congress has established no process, requirement, or expectation directing ICE to seek a judicial warrant from already overburdened federal courts before taking custody of an alien on civil immigration violations. This idea is simply a figment created by those who wish to undermine immigration enforcement and excuse the ill-conceived practices of sanctuary jurisdictions that put politics before public safety.”
