When: TODAY, Tuesday, October 29, 5:30PM
Where: ICE Headquarters, 500 12th St., SW, Washington, D.C.
Facebook Event Page: https://www.facebook.com/events/2192305967737276/?notif_t=plan_user_associated¬if_id=1572288061262209
Who:
(Washington, D.C. 10/29/19) – On Tuesday, October 29th, several organizations led by the Cameroon American Council will gather outside ICE headquarters to protest their silence regarding the conditions in immigrant detention and the case of a recently deceased Cameroonian asylum seeker, named Nebane Abienwi, who is believed to have been the first African migrant to die in an ICE detention center.
On October 2nd, ICE reported Abienwi’s death at Sharp Chula Vista Medical Center in San Diego County, CA, a day earlier. However, because no known member of Abienwi’s family has identified the body themselves, the Cameroon American Council believes there is cause for suspicion, especially considering the fact that there appears to be no public protocol available from ICE that details how they confirm detainees’ identities in the first place. Absent confirmation, the official report of his death details that he allegedly entered the US from California where he was detained. The Cameroonian community in Maryland – the largest in the US who have been apprised of his death (or another Cameroonian), have been shocked by this news and are looking for answers.
Like many other migrants in detention, Abienwi was seeking asylum – a fact that immigration and anti-detention advocates argue should have barred ICE from detaining him in the first place. Though ICE claims that they have notified Mr. Abienwi’s next of kin, through their advocacy, the Cameroon American Council has been in touch with his family in Cameroon – which has uncovered the fact that his known next of kin cannot sign a waiver form to authorize the disclosure of information to third parties, because ICE has no such form. Mr. Abienwi has no immediate family in the United States and ICE has no protocol for this reality. Mr. Abienwi’s family is stuck, with no official process (no appropriate waiver form) for authorizing third parties to obtain information that next of kin would normally be able to access if they were in the U.S.
Cameroonian cultural traditions of the Bafut people usually requires spouse and next-of-kin for identification and cultural rites before a casket is sealed, said Sylvie Bello of the Cameroon American Council. With the Trump Administration push on international religious freedom at the 2019 United Nations General Assembly and on U.S. trade policies with China; we hope African spirituality and culture on burial rites will be respected. Our understanding is, Mr. Abienwi’s family and community are seeking to confirm the body of our brother in Bafut cultural norms and to take his body back to Cameroon for proper Bafut burial rites, Bello concluded.
Unfortunately, as the groups coming to protest hope to uplift, Africans and Blacks are particularly vulnerable in detention – something which was detailed in a 2018 RAICES report, which cited the fact that Black migrants in detention are frequently denied cultural and religious accommodations and suffer abuses that arrive to the level of hate crimes.
Many of the Cameroonians are fleeing the country because of ongoing violence including 5 armed conflicts affecting 8 out of 10 regions in Cameroon. Many flee the violence only to end up trapped in Mexico or stuck in US detention centers. To underscore and bring context to the violence Cameroonians are often fleeing, The U.S. House of Representatives passed a resolution to address the humanitarian crisis in Cameroon, and the bi-partisan U.S. Senate resolution 292 on Cameroon was introduced in July 2019.
Local activists are continuing to organize in order to shed light on Mr.Abienwi’s death and to raise awareness about the particular crisis that Cameroonian immigrants are fleeing from before their arrival to the US. This includes the vigil that will be held on the evening of Tuesday, October 29th.
Prior to the vigil, there will be a Congressional Lobby Day on #CameroonCrisis asylum seekers, #JusticeForAbienwi, #NextOfKinWaiverFromICE campaigns, as well as a push to get Senators to pass resolution 292. Lobbying efforts will also include a special appeal for Maryland Congressional delegation to host a congressional briefing or congressional vigil on the dire situation of Cameroon’s asylum seekers at the U.S. Mexico border and to encourage Maryland to consider initiatives such as Maine’s June 2019 welcoming initiative on African asylum seekers from U.S. border.At Tuesday’s protest, activists will be available for interview.
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