{"id":2803,"date":"2020-02-23T01:34:20","date_gmt":"2020-02-22T22:34:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/yemeniamerican.com\/en\/?p=2803"},"modified":"2020-02-23T01:34:20","modified_gmt":"2020-02-22T22:34:20","slug":"thousands-demand-action-after-friendly-new-york-photographers-deportation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/yemeniamerican.com\/en\/thousands-demand-action-after-friendly-new-york-photographers-deportation\/","title":{"rendered":"Thousands Demand Action After Friendly New York Photographer\u2019s Deportation"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Simon Albaugh & Ahmed Al Aghbari -YAN<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

At a regular check-in with Immigration Authorities, Anwar Alomaisi thought it was just another routine look at his immigration status. Since coming to the United States 22 years ago, he\u2019s seen the state of his home country of Yemen change rapidly. Now, the people from Yemen who stay in the United States are able to apply for Temporary Protected Status. And until Sept. 3, 2021, people from the country can remain on TPS.
\nAlomaisi is a photographer, a volunteer firefighter and a genuinely popular guy in his home state of New York. People remember him as an extremely talented nature photographer. His subject is often the American Bald Eagle. According to a legal worker on his case, it\u2019s his favorite bird.
\nPeople know him as a person who\u2019s generous with his time. On a Facebook group, those who know him posted pictures from an act of kindness that Anwar did for them. Often, it was photo services given at a discount, or for free.
\nIn that regular check-in with immigration authorities, Anwar was taken to a jail in New Jersey before he was loaded on a plane. He was deported and heading back to Yemen. Two other deportees were forced onto the plane with him.
\n\u201cI was going to the immigration office on January 21st, as usual,\u201d Alomaisi told another Yemeni American News reporter. \u201cBut I was surprised. They told me they already had the passport from the Yemeni Embassy in Washington. Then they pulled me inside.\u201d
\nAs an outspoken critic of the conflict, a Pro-Democracy Activist and a deportee, Anwar fears for his life. Since he arrived in Yemen, he\u2019s been in hiding. And according to Ibraham Qatabi, manager of the campaign to bring him back, his situation is getting worse.
\n\u201cHe said he\u2019s really short on food and supplies,\u201d Ibraham Qatabi said. \u201cYeah, he\u2019s in a very bad condition right now.\u201d
\nPresident Donald Trump\u2019s administration have made a clear effort to deport anyone without citizenship who has a criminal record. But Anwar doesn\u2019t have this sort of record. Before the deportation, he hasn\u2019t even been arrested.
\n\u201cI don\u2019t have no criminal record and I\u2019ve never been in jail before,\u201d Anwar said. \u201cI don\u2019t know why they wanted to deport me.\u201d
\nYemen is part of the Trump Administration\u2019s controversial \u2018Muslim Ban\u2019 in which the citizens of seven countries were originally barred from traveling to the United States. Yemenis with Temporary Protected Status are protected from being sent back to the war-torn country. But in Anwar\u2019s case, he was reportedly misled into not applying.
\nTemporary Protected Status is something that all Yemenis are able to apply for, regardless of deportation status, says Qatabi.
\n\u201cThe issue is he went to an attorney a while ago and he was told that because of his deportation order, he couldn\u2019t apply,\u201d Qatabi said. \u201cBut then some other Yemenis from Michigan called and told me they had a deportation order and were able to obtain TPS.\u201d
\nBack in 2005, Immigration Authorities ordered Anwar to be removed from the United States \u2013 a deportation order. According to a Huffington Post Article, Anwar filed an appeal for his deportation order, but it was dismissed. However, as the situation worsened in Yemen, his deportation was pushed back, seemingly until it was almost forgotten.
\nWhat makes Anwar\u2019s case special is the public outcry. People who are on his case have reached out to Senators Elizabeth Warren and Chuck Schumer, along with the former Secretary of Defense under the Obama Administration, looking for any support they can get. And the high-ranking officials have responded with their support and some assistance from their own staff.
\nAs of right now, Alomaisi\u2019s attorneys have filed a case on the grounds that he was never given due process under the law.
\n\u201cIf someone says they have fears to go [to the country of deportation], they\u2019re supposed to give them two weeks to see a judge,\u201d Qatabi said. \u201cAnd then the judge will look at the case and determine the final status. They didn\u2019t give him that due process.\u201d
\nAs the thousands of people rallying online for his cause can attest, Anwar was an important part of the community. Not only in upstate New York and not only in New England. As someone put it to Ibraham Qatabi during his work on Alomaisi\u2019s case, he was an important part of America.
\n\u201cHe was bringing the best out of America as he was photographing,\u201d Qatabi said. \u201cHe would go into all these landscapes, all these estates, and so he had a lot of followers from overseas that learned about America and about different landscapes and the beauty through him. So we lost him even though he was doing the best for both worlds.\u201d<\/p>\n

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