Washington Post highlights Samuel Anthony’s quest to come home

Petula Devorak, a columnist at the Washington Post, published a stirring piece about Samuel Anthony’s quest to return to his life and family in DC after being deported in 2019. Anthony is part of the National Immigrant Justice Center’s “Chance To Come Home” campaign. Read more.

Sensory Summary

Ohio Immigrant Alliance hosted a webinar about “Broken Hope” with Lynn Tramonte and Maryam Sy of OHIA and Suma Setty of CLASP. Saidu Sow and Demba Jobe, deported to Mauritania and The Gambia respectively, participated via video recording. The webinar also featured a montage of photos of people who have returned to the U.S., as well as others still fighting to come home. More photos and videos are available in the digital press release, which we are calling a “sensory summary” because of all the multimedia content.

The Enduring Harm of U.S. Deportations

Ethnic Media Services reporter Selen Ozturk covers “Broken Hope,” with videos from Saidu Sow, Goura Ndiaye, and Demba Jobe.

Q&A in Columbus Dispatch

Researcher Maryam Sy and “Broken Hope” authors Suma Setty and Lynn Tramonte were interviewed about the project by the Columbus Dispatch. Read the article here (behind the paywall here).

Maryam Sy: We started with 75 people. And then at the end, we had over 255 people that I interviewed. … The interviews were 100% by phone and WhatsApp.

The majority were Muslim men, Black men, and they're not used to talking about emotions. At the beginning, it was hard for them to open up and tell me their stories. … But little by little, they opened up to me. I think it helped that I'm speaking their language and the fact my husband is Mauritanian, the fact that I'm a Black woman, and I'm an immigrant in America. (Excerpt from “New book shares experiences of over 250 Mauritanians, others deported from Ohio,” Columbus Dispatch, January 2024.)

Press Release: Broken Hope - Deportation and the Road Home

Washington, DC - What if you were forced to leave your family, friends, career, home, and life behind? Could you say good-bye to everyone and everything you love, not knowing if you will see them again? That is what deportation is: permanent banishment from your home, family, friends, and job, from a life built over years. 

A collaboration between the Ohio Immigrant Alliance (OHIA) and Suma Setty at the Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP), Broken Hope is a book and issue brief that highlight the experiences, hopes, and dreams of 255 people who were deported from the United States. They are part of OHIA's #ReuniteUS campaign, which seeks to change policy so that more people who were deported can return.

Download Broken Hope: Deportation and the Road Home as an Issue Brief and free e-book. 

Maryam Sy, an organizer with OHIA, spent hundreds of hours interviewing people for #ReuniteUS. “A lot of these people went through the hardest part of their life when they were deported,” she reflected. “Because it was like a broken hope, like the government broke their hope. They came to America to seek asylum for a better life. And they were happy working and living in America.” 

Mustapha Komeh was deported to Sierra Leone after living in the U.S. for 18 years. He is a member of the #ReuniteUS community and contributed to Broken Hope. “There is nothing in this life that is more dangerous and wicked and bad than to break a family. Thanks… [for trying] to make the world hear our crying families,” Komeh said. 

Suma Setty, a senior policy analyst on CLASP's immigration and immigrant families team, co-authored the book with OHIA director Lynn Tramonte. Setty said, “When Lynn first approached CLASP for this project, I was amazed by the number of people who entrusted Maryam with their stories. I knew immediately we needed to share their experiences with a broader audience.  We rarely get to hear the stories of people who have been deported, and their voices matter.”

Broken Hope combines research and legal and policy analysis with photos, videos, stories, and quotes from people who were deported and want to come home. It outlines actions for the Biden administration, Congress, the media, the pro-immigration movement, and funders to take.

Broken Hope: Deportation and the Road Home is available in a variety of lengths and formats. An Executive Summary is available in English and French (written and audio), as well as Fulani (audio only). The issue brief can be read at https://www.clasp.org/publications/report/brief/broken-hope-deportation-harm/. Download a free copy of the ebook at https://www.reunite.us/read, or purchase a paperback from Barnes and Noble or Amazon.

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