Cincinnati.com

The campaign is being led by the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur, who are urging people to write letters on the family’s behalf to officials in Washington.

By Dan Horn
Cissy Lyagoba’s daughters asked her a few months ago if they could skip basketball practice so they could come straight home from school.

When she asked why, they said they were worried about her.

“I don’t want to come home and you’re not here,” one told her.

Her daughters, ages 15 and 9, have reason to be concerned. Lyagoba is nearing the end of a long legal battle with U.S. immigration officials over her pending deportation to her native Uganda, which she says she fled in 1994 after her first husband was abducted and killed because of his political activities.

She applied for asylum in the United States, married a fellow Ugandan refugee a few years later and started a family. While her new husband was granted asylum, Lyagoba’s request was rejected.

Her case now is the focus of a campaign by local nuns and Catholic organizations to convince the Department of Homeland Security to reopen it.

“We’re fearful for her if she returns,” said Tony Stieritz, director of Catholic Social Action in Cincinnati. “We’re approaching this from the moral argument of what is there to be gained by tearing this family apart.”

Lyagoba, who lives in Westwood with her husband and daughters, first came to the attention of local activists last year when she was jailed for almost six months while awaiting deportation.

She won a stay last summer that freed her from jail and delayed her deportation until her case is reviewed by the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati.

But the 6th Circuit decision will focus on the technical issue of whether she should be allowed to appeal her case at all, because her previous lawyer missed a filing deadline.

If the court rules against her, she won’t get to argue the merits of her case and will likely be sent back to Uganda.

“We argued she didn’t do anything wrong,” said her lawyer, Firooz Namei. “They played by the rules. They did everything they were supposed to do.”

He said the family hopes that help from Catholic groups will encourage the government to drop efforts to deport her because of the missed deadline and allow her to reapply for asylum – basically giving her a second chance to prove her case.

The campaign is being led by the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur, who are urging people to write letters on the family’s behalf to officials in Washington.

“This is not only an immigration issue, but a moral issue – the destruction of a family unit,” Sister Joan Krimm wrote in a recent letter seeking support.

She and others argue that Lyagoba came to the country legally on a visitor’s visa, followed the rules during the asylum process and now holds a work visa that allows her to remain legally employed.

“I’m not breaking any laws. I don’t do drugs. I pay taxes. I’m a hard-working person,” Lyagoba said. “If you separate the mother from the kids, I don’t see how helpful that could be.”

Immigration officials could not be reached Wednesday, but they have previously said Lyagoba’s case is being treated like any other: Her case is over and she should be deported.

The judge who heard her original case questioned why she did not have a marriage certificate proving the dead man was her husband, why the death certificate lacked details about his death and why she was able to sell a family business before leaving Uganda.

Judge Robert Newberry said she failed to meet the high standard set for asylum cases, which require “credible, direct and specific evidence” that persecution is likely if the person returns home.

Namei said Lyagoba sold whatever she could to raise money to help her get out of the country, and that she didn’t bother to gather paperwork that might support her story because she was running for her life.

Judges grant only about one in four asylum requests nationwide and the lack of documentation often is cited as the reason. They also are on the lookout for immigrants who are trying to take a short cut to stay in this country by lying about persecution overseas.

Namei said that’s not the case with Lyagoba’s request and that she can prove she deserves asylum if she could continue with her appeal.

If she fails and is deported, she would be barred from trying to re-enter the United States for at least 10 years.

Lyagoba said a decade away from her family would devastate her husband, Grace Mbeine, and her daughters, Gloria and Glenna. Her husband was granted asylum and cannot return to Uganda, and her daughters are U.S. citizens.

“The girls will be grown,” she said. “And there is no guarantee I would be alive.”

Action on behalf of justice is a constitutive dimension of the preaching of the gospel.
Justice in the World – 1971 Synod of Bishops