An Inside Look at the Asylum Process

There had been an Arab spring, which my husband was very much involved with on this over here in the States, like helping with that, and so he's an activist, and at the time the government there was pretty good. So we lived there for eight years, had our children there, and a new presidency came in while we were living there, the current president Caius Sayid, and things started to change.

So my husband was doing a lot of organizing grassroots movement through local farmers unions and monitoring elections and doing democracy activities for anti corruption and he's really an activist for free speech and things like that. So he started getting harassed. He was arrested, he was beaten up by the police and things like that. So it started getting very uncomfortable. Also, I was getting harassed. I would get pulled over a lot by the police. They would impound

our car, they would take us out. Yeah, the police there carry big guns, you know, as in most Arab countries, and so it was very frightening for me. Yeah, they carry big guns. They're either on their backs or even in their hands, and they would have me and the kids get out of the car, and it was very frightening. So, yeah, the children and I, well, we were all planning on

coming back to the States. I hadn't been home in a while, and so the children and I went ahead and came, assuming that my husband would be able to get a at least a visa to you know, see us and while once we were here, he was not able to get a visa. He tried and tried and tried, and I was begging the embassy to allow him to see us here, and they just would not. So we were separated for nine months. So him being away from our children, they were about four and six at the time,

or maybe five and seven. It was devastating for all of us. So he ended up taking a very treacherous journey across South America and made his way through many countries and presented himself for asylum at the border because again, we did not feel safe living in Tunia anymore. So he presented himself for asylum at the border and they allowed him into this country with a court date. And at the time, Biden was president, So things are, you know,

have changed a lot since then. You know, the immigration system is broken. Everybody knows that. It takes years and years and years and tons and tons of money for an immigrant to you know, go through the process. You know people who say, oh, just do it the right way. It's not that simple. It takes a lot of money

and a lot of time, and it's very complicated. And when you're fleeing a country or a situation where you're in danger, there is no other option, you know, there's nowhere to go back, right, So that's what we're kind of facing now. So he had a court date. We've had five master hearings, and we've gone through a few different lawyers because we have found, for one thing, it's extremely difficult to find a lawyer these days because they're very overbooked. Most of them are not taking new cases.

People tell us, oh, just get a pro bono lawyer. It is almost impossible to get a pro bono lawyer anymore. And you know who has thousands and thousands of extra dollars to pay for legal help with the situation. We do have a lawyer now thanks to some fundraising that we've done. So since he's been here, we've had to check in at the ICE office like it was on sort of a basis of after you have a court hearing the next day or within a couple of days,

you must go check in it ICE. And it's been very fine, like the there's a very nice officer there who knows us and helped tries to he answer our questions. So it was pretty calm when Biden was president, and then now that Trump's administration has taken over. We knew that there would be a lot of changes and we were very frightened. So we went for a hearing earlier this year. You know, we're just a lot more nervous. And the hearing went fine, just kind of as normal.

We went to the ICE check in. I think our guard was kind of down because we thought, since the hearing went fine, this will go fine. Yeah, and the nice officer told us, you know, well this is going to sound a little scary, but we need you to go check in at a different place this time. And so they sent us to a company called ice App. They own, i think migrant detention centers. So we went to this place and he was there the whole day.

They were interviewing him. They put an app in his phone so that now he has to do these weekly check ins where his phone makes this loud alarm sound. He must stop everything and take a picture of himself. There's a monthly home visit where they come to our house and take his picture and ask him questions. There's we have to go check in at their office, and also he does virtual check in. So it's just a lot more and everything was kind of going as planned.

We are last hearing in July that was really stressful because we didn't have a lawyer leading up to it, and at the last second we were able to get a lawyer. And the reason it's so important to have a lawyer is because if you don't, you must appear in person, and that's very stressful and frightening. Again, we have small children. We don't even do babysitters, like, we're always just together. We're a very tight family unit, and

so we go to these things together. And we really wanted this last one in July to be virtual because if it's virtual, you know, it's just feels a lot safer. We're in the comfort of our own home and we've been hearing in the news, you know, how they're picking up people outside of their court hearings. So we got the attorney, we got a virtual here. It was a

very short hearing. It was great because she just gave us the next hearing date was September of twenty twenty eight, and the judge said, Okay, see you in twenty twenty eight, and we breathed a sigh of relief, crossed our fingers, did our necessary check ins, and we were just you know, hoping that everything would be fine. Ye, well, just here at the end of August, beginning of September, we get

out of the blue a new notice. It was very interesting too, because this iceapp company calls us and says, good news, We're gonna lessen the amount of check ins you have to do. It's going to be a lot less now. So, you know, it was interesting because she's like, this is great news for you, so like once a month, you'll still do the weekly ones and then it's just going to be once.

out of the blue. There was a mix up about the dates, but anyway, it was September eleventh or fifteenth, and then our attorney asked for an extension and the

most they could give us was nine days. So now our hearing is this coming Wednesday, September twenty fourth, and on this has never happened before, but when again, when you have an attorney, you can appear virtually, and on this hearing notice it said that the attorney can appear virtually, but the respondent must appear in person, and that is highly unusual. It's in bold at the top. So our attorney agrees with us that it's pretty clear the plan is.

What they've been doing now is when you go to court, they drop your case. So now it's dismissed, and therefore you are just here without due process. Now you don't have a right to do process. It's done, so you're just here legally, and then they're sometimes waiting for you in the hallway or outside the building to take you to iced attention. So obviously since we found this out, I mean, we've just been sleepless nights, full panic mode of figuring out like what to do, and then our

attorney doesn't even have answers for us. She does not know what to do. She says, this is all new to her, it's new to all the lawyers. She doesn't even know what to do or who to ask. And that's frightening, because that's why we have an attorney, you know, We're hoping for some support or someone who's knowledgeable about the law and what are our options, and it feels

like we don't have any. We feel extremely helpless, and I've never thought I would see this in my country, my quote unquote free country that I have lived in most of my life and grew up in. Also, about two weeks ago, they changed the law where now we are not entitled to a bar, so if he is taken into detention, we can't even get him out, because that was the first thing we thought was, well, let's just try to get some money together and we'll bail

him out. Yeah, that's not even an option anymore. So again more fear. So we're dealing with all of this and wondering what to do as far as you know. Again, we have small children. They're now seven and nine years old. We're extremely happy where we're living. We live in a small community that does lean on the conservative side, so we do feel a little uncomfortable with some of our

neighbors and their flags and everything. They're very bold, so you know, and you can't hide being brown, so it's awkward and then our children because of the way that we left before. When we left Tunisia, it was pretty sudden. We kind of took them out of school and just came to America and left their dad behind. So they've been in therapy ever since. They each have a weekly therapist just to help with if they're you know, if they're going to have any symptoms of trauma coming up

for them. And they're doing great. Actually, they're thriving here. They are so happy. They are in the best school. I actually work at their school, and my husband volunteers at the school and he's been their soccer coach for both of their teams, which is a lot to take on. He also volunteers in our community at a ranch helping with horses and at a facility for senior citizens. And he does have a work permit. They granted him a work permit, which took a long time to get.

tax payer. Wouldn't it pay more if he's home working. By the way, yes, he has no criminal record whatsoever. He has not broken any immigration laws, at least when he came over the border. It was legal to present yourself for asylum when you are coming from a country like he was. Where he was you know, being harassed, detained, and our entire family like we were being threatened and feeling very unsafe there.

two kids, and they don't care about that. It does not matter if he has an American family, it does not matter. They are taking anybody. And that also is very, very frustrating, and that's the reason that we should have due process. They should be looking at every single case individually and have a judge make a decision. That's the

whole point of it. Obviously, if we hadn't hindsight, if we had known that this could have happened, we had no idea that this could have happened in our country, we would have started this sponsorship process a long time ago.

The reason we did and is because he was married before and he went through this process with USCIS to try to get sponsorship with his first wife, and it was extremely complicated and frustrating and cost a lot of money, and he went through a bunch of lawyers and he was so traumatized by the experience that literally we had big legal files in our house that I had to hide because he couldn't even see them or he would get triggered. So he didn't want to put me through that.

And we were living in Tunisia anyway, and so we just figured we were just kind of kicking the can down the road, thinking, oh, we'll deal with it at some point. Unfortunately, we waited way too long and you know, didn't start dealing with it until he got here. And so USCIS, which is where we you know, file for this sponsorship.

as well. So the whole thing is so incredibly stressful and frightening the fact that my government, I'm in America, I'm an American citizen with two American kids, and my government is threatening to tear our family apart and take my husband away, the father of my children, and traumatize my children again to have their dad not with us,

and lord knows where they're going to send him. It is absolutely infuriating, and it feels like agony too, because like every day I wake up and I'm counting down the days to this hearing, and we have no idea what's going to happen. Right, it feels very very threatening to our safety and our livelihood, and that it's coming from our government does not make me feel like this is a great country to live in and I do not feel safe living here.

so thank you for sharing it. Yes, we should just explain for people, like there's a lot of stuff that maybe people who haven't been through the system might not not grasp within that right, So what the government has if I just break down, like the dismissal of cases, as I understand that what the government has been doing has been dismissing people's asylum case right, which they got under Title eight when they entered and added by the administration,

and then placing them in expedited removal proceedings, which is a mandatory detention as you said, right, it's not a bailout situation, and then as you say, forcing them to fight from detention, right, which in this case would obviously stop your husband from working, stop your husband from paying taxes, and instead make him a burden on the American taxpayer while he's detained in conditions which could often be very poor.

In that situation, You're only sort of claim is a credible fear of torture, right, which is something that in your case, it sounds like would be very real. But nonetheless, that is a very high bar, and we've seen the United States do all kinds of things to get around that. We've got on that all the time, so I can understand that fear and where it comes from. I think people will be shocked, but they perhaps shouldn't be to hear that, Like, yes, you can be a US citizen

married to a non US citizen. This can still happen to you. It can happen to anyone who is not a citizen in this country right now. I wonder, like it must have been pretty heartbreaking to see the election, to see the rhetoric, Like how does that line up with your lives in your community? Because I see this often even from really conservative people, right, Like I know people who voted for Trump who have also shown up to cook for asylum seekers in the desert or to

help refugees living in our community. Like it's a very strange thing. Have you felt alienated from your community since the beginning of this year, because I'm interested in, like how your lives have changed because of that change in rhetoric.

and introduces himself. And there was one gentleman wearing a T shirt that said they hate us because they ate us, and it's got a big old, you know, Trump face on it, and it was just so so awkward. So yeah, we feel uncomfortable. Also, like I said, it's a leans

conservative in this community and our school. Even like, as we're doing this fundraiser, we were very careful not to share it with anyone that we live near, just in case, you know, because we have been hearing reports of people like neighbors calling ice on their neighbors to you report them and you know, go pick up this person. You know, he looks brown or I don't know what they're what they're doing or their logic, but you know, yeah, it

feels very threatening and even Oh. My daughter even said, uh, can't Data just cover up his skin? You know, like she was just thinking like, yeah, was he gonna wear her cup?

and it's just kind of an elephant room. And honestly, as our core data is getting closer, we plan on having them over to talk about it because it feels very awkward. And I just think there's the kindest people. They're extremely religious, which we are not when we're on the spiritual side, but you know, I think they're just they're just on a team. They've chosen a team, and I don't think they're necessarily paying a lot of attention to what's actually happening to people. So we're hoping that

just a conversation will just let them know. We want to be honest with the people that are close to us, and that mean a lot to us, you know, because we don't know what's about to happen. And even there's members of my family that I feel very awkward talking to as well, where I'm kind of distanced myself because people who are still supporting this regime at this point, to me are too far gone to even kind of get them to come around, I guess. I mean, I

just don't understand. I can't understand support of Trump from the first place. So again, if people are still on that boat, I really don't relate to them, and it's very awkward. Especially Yeah, people in my family who supposedly love me and my children, you know, are still supporting that regime, and despite seeing all the things, maybe they

don't see it. I mean, I know they if they are exclusively watching Fox News, then they are only receiving that information, which is not telling the whole story, right, And it's definitely completely skewed to make them look like the good guys, and anyone on that's liberal is a bad guy. And they're very much targeting you know, Democrats now as the enemy, the enemy of the state. They

have even said. So it's I mean, it's so now I'm starting to feel even nonsafe for myself because I'm I'm not super active on Facebook, but I am outspoken because I can't resist. I mean, there is freedom of speech in this country, or at least there was, and there should be. And it's hard to be quiet at this time. And we would be a lot more outspoken if we weren't feeling unsafe.

it's gone. Yeah, for so many people. I think the idea of migrants is like an abstract one right for your Fox News viewer. Migrants are just like an abstract brown skin bad person. And I often think that if those people had known migrants in their community, they would either not vote that way or they would at least not like that policy. There are other things they liked about Trump, which it go. That's not something I can

I can find much understanding of. And those people do exist, but it's just so sad to see like people turned against anyone who wasn't born in this country. Yeah, it's simply because they were, not because of any other character trait.

Come on. It's just so blatant, you know. And and I remember when I was growing up, my mom in particular, would would complain when when we started to have to press one for English. I remember my mom complaining about that or thinking, you know, you know, if you're here, you should learn the language. Well, I got to say, I lived in Tunisia for eight years and I did

not learn the language. I tried to teach myself. It's a dialect that you know, at the time, they didn't have lessons that you could get on YouTube or duo lingo or anything. You know. If I learned French and Arabic, maybe I could piece something together. But I you know, it's not as easy as people say.

not them, I don't mean them, I mean also other ones. I mean all the bad guys.

get the gangs. But I think they're too scared of that because these are really just regular people that they're hiring to do this work for them to people, and that's why they're hiding their faces, because they are regular people who would like to probably have a normal life outside of this new job that they've been so well paid for.

and stressed and traumatized. I think, So what can people do, either for you or in their communities to show up for people who are in your situation?

thank you for being here. I'm glad you're here, because I think they must be feeling so scared right now and so unwanted and so unappreciated when they are doing some of the hardest jobs that nobody else wants to do for very little money. Yeah, these are essential workers. They should be paid the most. Everything is backwards, you know. The people who are doing the hardest, you know, cleaning the toilets and picking the fields, they should be paid

the most. It doesn't make any sense. Regardless of where they're from, they're willing to do the work, and Lord knows their background of where they came from and how the struggles that they've been through to leave their home country. Nobody wants to leave their home country. You do that because it's so bad that you must, you know, especially if you have children. You're trying to make a better life for yourself. And we've been sold on this American

dream prospect. You know that we've heard our whole lives and the whole world has heard about So they come and now we're just punishing them brutally. It's not even like, oh no, sorry, we're full, you know, we're gonna have to send you back. It's like, no, we're gonna punish you. We're gonna treat you like dogs, call you animals and

vermin and call you horrible things. Yeah, send you to places where you're unsafe and untaken care of, and maybe, if you're lucky, you'll get sent back to your home country, or you'll get sent to a random country or even a prison, like a horrible prison in another country where

who knows what's It's just this is what frightens me. Yea, you know again, if he was sent to somewhere, to a place where I could you know, we could have visits or calls or you know, and he waits it out, I guess that would be more tolerable than the unknown of his safety. He's not going to be well taken care of. That's a fact. They don't care about these people. And my husband, unfortunately, he's always been extremely strong, extremely brave, a fighter, and I feel like his fight is gone.

He's physically and mentally at the end of his rope. And I'm extremely frightened. I mean, he just feels like he's tired of fighting. He's just exhausted from this, you know again, I mean, we've been together twelve years. And again he was going through this process with his first wife who he was with for eight years, and he

never got an answer. He was never denied, but he just never got an answer, and that was enough for them for our case, just to you know, it's going to be really, really difficult to get a yes for a green card.

speech and things like that. It's changing rapidly and if people don't stand up more, and I'm sorry, but it's going to have to take more than these peaceful protests. Unfortunately, because they're not doing anything. We are being laughed at by the Maga Republicans. They do not care about our peaceful protests. They're just like, Okay, there's a protest on this day. Next day, They're just going to keep doing it harder, you know.

We actually have a consult today with someone who maybe help us with that. We sent emails out last night kind of telling our story to another lawyer, hoping that we can get some support and on that front, because

basically that's your next step. You're in detention. You raise your constitutional rights of due process of law, you know, but then again it's another fight and again it could be from detention, which is yeah, more money, I'm going to be at that point, a single mother, you know, trying to support bills here in California, which is already you know, difficult, and you know, on my own, and also paying lawyers and trying to fight to either find

my husband or get him out of there. You know, we don't want to be the country if we if we don't have to. We we love it here. I don't know where else to go. We can't go to Tunisia. I'm American. Where are we supposed to go? Yeah? And that's what people don't understand too with immigrants. You know, if they can't return to their home country because of safety reasons, which is most of the cases, that's why we have the silent cases, then what are they supposed to do? You know?

So you know, these are our options, These are literally our options. And again, small children second grade, fourth grade, you know, and they're thriving here like they don't deserve this. And my husband even said, you know, he said this the other day, like our children don't deserve this, and I said, no, children deserve the horrors of this planet. You know that. I mean, we're we're actually a lot

luckier than a lot of other children. So but at the same time, there are children, and this is the problem that we're dealing with, and unfortunately they have to deal with it too. You know, that's just what a family is. Yea. Our goal is to stay together no matter matter what. We want to keep my husband safe, and we want to keep us together. That's our number one call. So unfortunately that may mean that we need

to leave. And I will be very, very sad if that's the case, because I have always loved this country. It's always stood for greatness, and ironically, the group that thinks they're going to make America great again is failing miserably.