Every story has at least two sides. While it may be easier for the public to swallow a “We’re focusing on deporting convicted criminals” perspective from the current administration, it’s still far from a one-sided story. The story below details the complex story of the uncle of some my former (Christian college) students that illustrates this complexity well.
No country should betray someone who has served and as a result been broken by it in this manner. Please sign and circulate this story widely and quickly.
My uncle, Nahidh Shaou, is an Iraqi Chaldean Christian and US Army veteran who faces imminent deportation to Baghdad. He is currently being held by ICE awaiting deportation. Here is a petition about his case as well as an article about ICE’s larger plan to deport Iraqis to Baghdad.
My uncle Nahidh came to the US on a green card when he was five, was deployed to Korean while serving in the military, and then committed a crime for which he served 35 years in prison. He was a model inmate and quickly reformed. We feel his deportation to Baghdad is a death sentence and that he will be targeted by ISIS for his Christian faith and for serving the US Army. He knows no one in Iraq and does not speak Arabic. Likewise, the Iraqi government has no record/documentation of him as an Iraqi citizen, meaning he wouldn’t even be able to acquire a passport to flee the country.
between worlds 