{"id":1886,"date":"2004-04-08T01:05:00","date_gmt":"2004-04-08T06:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/?p=1886"},"modified":"2004-04-08T01:05:00","modified_gmt":"2004-04-08T06:05:00","slug":"no_mercy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/2004\/04\/no_mercy\/","title":{"rendered":"Amina Silmi deportation: No mercy"},"content":{"rendered":"<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\">\n<html><head><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><\/head><body><table cellpadding=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" border=\"0\" align=\"right\">\n<tr>\n<td><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.altmuslim.com\/ee_images\/amina_silmi.jpg\" border=\"0\"><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td align=\"right\">\n<div class=\"caption\">On her way out<\/div>\n<p><\/p><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<p>Although she is originally from Venezuela, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cnn.com%2F2004%2FUS%2FMidwest%2F04%2F01%2Fus.deportation.ap%2F\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Amina Silmi<\/a> has spent the last 13 years in the US, raising her children and working on her education.  She left her husband \u2013 and her chance of obtaining residency \u2013 after suffering years of domestic abuse, not realizing that in post-9\/11 America, illegal Arab immigrants are shown <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cleveland.com%2Fnews%2Fplaindealer%2Findex.ssf%3F%2Fbase%2Fcuyahoga%2F1081423899179750.xml\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">no mercy<\/a>.   Last week, Amina was deported to Venezuela, where she has no friends or family, after a long fight with the Department of Homeland Security to stay with her three US-born children.  \u201cI\u2019m so depressed right now,\u201d she said after spending her <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ajc.com%2Fnews%2Fcontent%2Fnews%2F0404%2F06deported.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">first night<\/a> in Caracas in a park. \u201cI don\u2019t know when I\u2019ll see my kids again. I can\u2019t think. I can\u2019t do anything.\u201d   Silmi\u2019s supporters, including the Cleveland Muslim community and Representative Dennis Kucinich (D-OH), lobbied DHS Chief Tom Ridge, arguing that a \u201czealous interpretation\u201d of immigration laws was breaking a family apart.  Silmi\u2019s life began to fall apart after her second husband was <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cleveland.com%2Fnews%2Fplaindealer%2Findex.ssf%3F%2Fbase%2Fcuyahoga%2F1080820572235610.xml\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">deported<\/a> to Palestine after being convicted of trafficking in food stamps before their marriage, before her residency could be established through his green card.  \u201cA mother has a right to raise her children; an immigrant has a right to become a naturalized citizen \u2013 all these basic human rights are being <a href=\"http:\/\/www.vindy.com%2Flocal_news%2F295462029549401.php\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">called into question<\/a>,\u201d said supporter Rev. Werner Lange.  While supporters regroup after the setback, Amina <a href=\"http:\/\/www.onnnews.com%2Fstory.php%3Frecord%3D29710\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">shifts<\/a> from home to home, wondering what she\u2019ll do next.  Afraid of dragging her children into poverty, she chose to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.newsnet5.com%2Fnews%2F2966694%2Fdetail.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">leave them<\/a> in the US with her sister.   \u201cI don\u2019t want to eat,\u201d she said.  \u201cI don\u2019t even want to live.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><i><\/i><\/p>\n<p>Shahed Amanullah is editor-in-chief of altmuslim.com.\n<\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Despite appeals from friends and politicians, Amina Silmi, a mother of three, was deported to Venezuela, where she must start a new life.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":530,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1886","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-briefings"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Amina Silmi deportation: No mercy<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Despite appeals from friends and politicians, Amina Silmi, a mother of three, was deported to Venezuela, where she must start a new life.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/2004\/04\/no_mercy\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Amina Silmi deportation: No mercy\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Despite appeals from friends and politicians, Amina Silmi, a mother of three, was deported to Venezuela, where she must start a new life.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/2004\/04\/no_mercy\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"altmuslim\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2004-04-08T06:05:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.altmuslim.com\/ee_images\/amina_silmi.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Shahed Amanullah\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Shahed Amanullah\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/2004\/04\/no_mercy\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/2004\/04\/no_mercy\/\",\"name\":\"Amina Silmi deportation: No mercy\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2004-04-08T06:05:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2004-04-08T06:05:00+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/#\/schema\/person\/0e0efbb645cc461c721083358f82f945\"},\"description\":\"Despite appeals from friends and politicians, Amina Silmi, a mother of three, was deported to Venezuela, where she must start a new life.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/2004\/04\/no_mercy\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/2004\/04\/no_mercy\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/2004\/04\/no_mercy\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Amina Silmi deportation: No mercy\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/\",\"name\":\"altmuslim\",\"description\":\"Global perspectives on Muslim life, politics &amp; 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