Family, friends and supporters of Fatou Traore are holding a rally and vigil at the federal building in Cedar Rapids on Wednesday morning as they continue their efforts to secure the release of the longtime Iowa City resident from ICE detention. Traore, an immigrant from the West African county of Ivory Coast (Côte d’Ivoire), has lived in Iowa City for two decades, where she and her husband have raised their family of four boys, all of whom are American citizens.
Traore works at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, and was preparing to drive to work with her sister at approximately 6:30 a.m. on Thursday, Sept. 24, when she was seized by two plainclothes ICE agents driving unmarked vehicles. The agents did not display their credentials or identify themselves when one of them pulled Traore out of her minivan, according to her sister.
An immigration judge granted Traore an order of withholding of removal in 2011. The order prevents an immigrant from being deported to their home country, because the immigrant has demonstrated they face a risk of death, injury or persecution if they are returned to it. The order also allows an immigrant to live and work legally in the U.S. Traore’s husband, Oumar Diallo, an immigrant from Guinea, is covered by the same order of withholding of removal that she is.
Traore’s family and friends did not know what had happened to her until her eldest son, 19-year-old Esoumaila, received a phone call from her. Traore said she was in ICE custody, and an agent had told her she was scheduled to be deported to Sierra Leone, a country she’d never been to and has no connections to.
Traore’s family and friends were still puzzled. She had never been charged with or accused of a crime. ICE initially released no information about Traroe’s detention, but in a statement to the Gazette on Oct. 1, an ICE spokesperson alleged the Iowa City mother of four had used “a fake birth certificate and fake passport to enter the U.S. at an unknown time and location.” Speaking on behalf of his mother and his family, Esoumaila flatly rejected the allegation. According to the statement from ICE, an immigration judge issued a final order of removal for Traore in 2011.
ICE’s statement to the Gazette came one day after hundreds rallied at First United Methodist Church in downtown Iowa City in support of Traore. The rally was organized by Escucha Mi Voz Iowa (EMV) and the Immigrant Welcome Network of Johnson County (IWNJC). The two groups are also organizing the rally and vigil at the Cedar Rapids federal building on Wednesday.
The federal building is where Rep. Ashley Hinson has her Cedar Rapids field office. Supporters of Traroe have been asked to contact the offices of Hinson and Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks to ask the Republican lawmakers to intervene on Traore’s behalf with the Department of Homeland Security, which runs ICE. Hinson, so far, has done nothing, but Miller-Meeks sent a letter to DHS Sec. Markwayne Mullin shortly before the Oct. 1 rally at First United Methodist.
“I am writing to respectfully ask for a stay of deportation for Fatou Traore, a constituent of mine and a valued member of the University of Iowa community,” Miller-Meeks began.
After briefly summarizing the facts of Traore’s case and pointing out that she has a valid withholding of removal order, the three-term representative wrote, “Deporting Fatou would deprive a young family of their mother and would violate the withholding of removal order, which allows Fatou to work and reside in the United States legally.”
On Friday, Esoumaila and other family members, along with a couple dozen supporters and organizers with EMV and IWNJC, went to the building in downtown Davenport where Sen. Chuck Grassley, Sen. Joni Ernst and Miller-Meeks have offices, hoping to meet with staff about Traore’s case. Miller-Meeks’ office was closed, but Esoumaila and a few others were able to meet with staff members in Grassley’s and Ernst’s office.
“They said they’ll try their best,” Esoumaila, a City High graduate currently attending Kirkwood Community College, told reporters afterwards. “But we need more than that. They have the power to make those phone calls, use their power for what’s right.”
During his weekly conference call with Iowa reporters on Tuesday, Sen. Chuck Grassley was asked about Traore, and gave a vague answer about possibly helping.
“I have some of the best people working immigration. One of them, in the Des Moines office, has been doing it for 33 years,” Grassley said. “If there’s any possibility of helping in this case, we’ll be able to get the job done.”
While there may have been only slight progress with lawmakers on Friday, a different kind of leader took action on Traore’s behalf.
Bishop Dennis Walsh of the Diocese of Davenport, which includes all the Roman Catholic parishes of southeastern Iowa, wrote to Sec. Mullin, asking him to “stay Ms. Traore’s deportation and permit her return to her family in Iowa City.”
“Your intervention would prevent serious harm and uphold the principles of justice and compassion to which all of us are bound as citizens and persons created in the image and likeness of God.”
Bishop Walsh wrote, “I am deeply troubled that enforcement actions are proceeding despite the absence of any lawful or humanitarian justification. Proceeding with this deportation is a grave violation of her human dignity and the rights that are intrinsic to each one of us.”
He explained that Traore’s “removal to Sierra Leone — a country with which she has no connection and where violence and human rights violations remain serious concerns — would place her at grave risk and cause profound harm to her family.”
Prior to President Trump’s second term, deportations to third countries were extremely rare. Since Trump took office in January of last year, more than 40,000 people have been deported to countries that are not their home countries, and to which they often have little or no connection. It has been a tactic the administration has used to get around legal restrictions like withholding of removal orders or the reluctance of countries to accommodate the Trump administration’s massive increase in the number of deportations.
People deported by the Trump administration to third countries have faced poor conditions — including an Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo — as well as violence, incarceration and even deportation to their home countries, because orders of withholding of removal are not enforceable outside U.S. jurisdiction. As of the end of June, “The Trump administration has authorized or pledged at least $410 million to facilitate agreements with 31 countries, mostly in Africa and Latin America,” that are participating in its third-county deportation program, the Washington Post reported last month.
The rally and vigil to support Fatou Traore and call for her release and return is scheduled to begin at 9:30 a.m. on Wednesday at the Cedar Rapids federal building (111 7th Ave SE).
