Seven months later, political asylum granted

Editor's note: Six weeks ago, we told you the story of Ahmed Fadija, a 26-year-old refugee from the Ivory Coast who had spent months in detention in the United States after arriving in the United States with a false passport. This week Ahmed got his hearing before a U.S. immigration judge.

Petra Cahill Reporter • E-mail

ELIZABETH, N.J. — After seven months of detention in this country, Ahmed Fadija*, a 26-year-old refugee from the Ivory Coast, finally got his day in court on Wednesday to explain through a French translator why his life depended on an immigration judge’s granting him political asylum to remain in this country.

After about an hour of his testimony, U.S. Immigration Judge Margaret Reichenberg, who sat under the seal of the Department of Justice in a small, blue-carpeted courtroom at the Elizabeth Detention Center, said she was “completely persuaded” of Fadija’s eligibility for asylum.

The judge said that based on Fadija’s testimony, in conjunction with a written affidavit and evidence presented by his pro-bono attorney, Shawn Friedman, she found his testimony completely consistent and found him to be a “credible witness” who was worthy of asylum in the United States.

Reichenberg said that it was regrettable that Fadija had to spend such a long time in detention, but that it was part of how the American asylum process worked.

She said that if he hadn’t spent that time in detention, things might not have worked out as well as they did — saying that perhaps he wouldn’t have found such able legal representation, such a dispassionate government attorney who acknowledged the merits of his case, or a fair judge like herself.

Eleanor Acer, director of the Asylum Program at Human Rights First, an advocacy group that provides pro-bono legal representation to refugees and helped match Fadija with his lawyer, disagreed.

“This case could have been handled in a very different way,” said Acer. “A refugee who comes here seeking asylum does not need to be held in a jail-like facility for seven months. There are much more humane ways to treat someone in that situation.”

Last resort
“Truly, it’s beautiful, it's beautiful outside here,” said Fadija regarding his new-found freedom and release from detention during a phone interview on Thursday from Christ House, a shelter where he went upon his release.

Fadija laughed happily about shedding the blue-on-blue prison-like uniform of the Elizabeth Detention Center, despite the fact that he has nothing to wear because of the circumstances under which he came to this country.

He said he fled to the United States with a false passport as a last resort after repeated threats to his life by government militiamen in the Ivory Coast because of his membership in the main opposition political party there — the Rally of the Republicans, commonly known as the RDR.

ENCARTA IVORY COAST: Maps, facts and figures

During Fadija’s testimony in his immigration hearing, he described how he was chased down, brutally beaten and imprisoned in October 2000 because of his participation in a peaceful political rally in the commercial center of Abidjan following flawed elections.

He explained how he narrowly escaped death and was released by the government militia with no apparent explanation, except for the coincidence that the international media had discovered a mass grave of 57 bodies — all of whom were also members of the political opposition — at about the same time.

Fadija described how his mother had been killed by militiamen, corroborating medical evidence submitted by his lawyer, and was in the midst of describing another narrow escape in 2004 that led to his journey to the United States when the judge cut him off, saying that he had “demonstrated his credibility,” and granted him asylum. 

Tough place to arrive
Fadija was lucky to have gained asylum, particularly given the release rates for the two states where he was detained.

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, an independent, bipartisan government agency, released a congressionally authorized report on asylum seekers in expedited removal in February of this year. 

According to the report, release rates among asylum seekers across the country vary widely, but parole rates can be as low as 8 percent in New York, where Fadija was held for five months, and are even lower in New Jersey, where he spent the last two months of his detention, which has a 3.8 percent release rate.

Acer, from Human Rights First, believes that there are “more humane” alternatives to detention that the government should use. 

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