Man takes refuge in Ann Arbor church, says he will die if deported

[demmiblue]

Source: Detroit Free Press

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — A West African man with a genetic kidney disease has taken refuge in an Ann Arbor church to avoid deportation.

Mohamed Soumah will die without regular dialysis treatments. His native Guinea lacks adequate equipment and training for proper treatment.

The 44-year-old University of Michigan employee has lived in the U.S. for 15 years, married an American woman and has two native-born children.

But they separated. And for seven years he's had to apply for yearly work visas, which were all approved — until recently.

Read more: https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/2018/11/04/west-african-man-refuge-ann-arbor-church/1884058002/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

[iluvtennis]

1. This is so sad. I hope the church provides him sanctuary status.

[Igel]

2. Not really something churches have much legal authority to do.

Esp. with separation of church and state, right? (Could your local Safeway provide sanctuary status? How about your local library? No, the idea started from an accidental homicide needing a place of safety from his avenger; kill somebody by accident, it's serious, and you're punished by being confined to a town but otherwise free and alive.)

He mis-applied. He should have applied for humanitarian reasons, not for work. (No, bureaucracies are really either/or, not both/and.) Then it goes to somebody who has discretion for health reasons. That's another problem with bureaucracies: You need to know what the system's like, what levers to pull and when to pull them. They're flexible like a 3-manual organ is flexible. If you know how to use it, wonderful; if not, there's this horrible sound.

[iluvtennis]

3. Thanks for clarifying. Not sure I always believed there was sanctuary in houses of worship...

...but from what I just read, ICE rarely arrests at a church, so that's hopeful.

https://www.cnn.com/2017/02/17/us/immigrants-sanctuary-churches-legality-trnd/index.html

[secondwind]

6. We have churches here in San Francisco that are sanctuary houses.

[k8conant]

8. How do you know he "mis-applied"? I don't see that he did anything differently

than he had done for years, just that the House of Orange is denying it this time.

[japple]

10. Churches have been places of refuge from time immemorial, in all cultures. Of course they

aren't legal places of refuge, but the people who inhabit those houses of worship are generally more inclined to help refugees than employees of Safeway or the public library, though the librarians in my experience have been much more willing than anyone else.

Don't know a bit about 3-manual organs, but I'll bet librarians could find a lot of information that might help someone who needed to manipulate one to produce a beautiful sound.

[LanternWaste]

11. Churches are not arguing legal authority.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement regards places of worship as sensitive locations, along with schools and hospitals, and rarely makes arrests at those places. It's merely organizational policy, not law as you're inaccurately suggesting.

Have fun at Safe-way, for all its relevance.

[Bev54]

4. Access to dialysis

Can he get access to dialysis in the Church?? How will that work if he has to go out to the hospital?

[k8conant]

7. I was wondering that too:

the Friends Meeting House is one mile from the University of Michigan Medical Center.

[DesertRat]

9. Dialysis can be performed at home

Welcome to DU, Bev54!

[elocs]

5. Sad, but as is so often pointed out here, we are not a theocracy. You can't have it both ways. n/t

[MineralMan]

12. Well, he should have thought of that before he was born, see...