FEBRUARY 2005

immigration bias?
Why Chaldedans can’t get
asylum in the U.S.
Ask any Chaldean who
has contact with fellow
Christians still
living in the homeland. They tell
stories of persecution at the hands of
Islamic fundamentalists, of liquor
stores and beauty parlors attacked, of
Christians kidnapped, of churches
bombed. Why then are Iraq’s
Christians having such a difficult
time receiving asylum from the U.S.
government?
Many immigration attorneys
blame both the U.S. government
and Chaldean Church leaders. Each,
they say, maintain the position that
all of Iraq’s people are suffering, and
that Christians in particular are not
being targeted.
“Our government is not going to
admit that it can’t protect these people,”
said Namir Daman, an immigration
attorney based in Oak Park.
“And the church is really hampering
our efforts in obtaining across-theboard
asylum for Christians. Church
leaders are saying the bombings
have only been isolated incidents
and that the Christian situation is
improving.”
Steven Garmo, an immigration
attorney in Farmington Hills, agrees.
“The United States wants stability
in Iraq. Without Christians, we
may not have the stability,” he said.
“The U.S. government doesn’t want
Christians to leave Iraq, and neither
does the Chaldean clergy.”
In fact, Garmo said, Mar
Emmanuel Delly, Iraq’s Chaldean
patriarch, insists to the media that
mosques are being bombed as well as
churches. He, as well as Yonadam
Kanna, the interim government’s
Chaldean representative, must always
keep politics in mind, Garmo said.
BY JOYCE WISWELL
“You have to be political in Iraq
— you can’t just say that Christians
are being persecuted,” said Garmo.
“If you talk about it too much, you
will only bring more violence, more
Christians targeted.”
Daman agreed politics plays a
role, but said church leaders are
going too far to downplay problems.
“They are going out of their way
to say these are only isolated incidents,”
he said. “They say, ‘everyone
is suffering, just give it more time.’”
Southfield Attorney Jane Shallal
said asylum is difficult for Chaldeans
to achieve because a lot of the persecution
is general in nature.
“Asylum laws require you to be
very case-specific,” she said. “They
want to hear exactly who, when,
where the persecution took place.”
But a lot of the persecution
Christians are undergoing is more
subtle, such as social ostranization or
women being pressured to cover
their head with a hijab. The kidnappings
of Christians, she said, can be
viewed as the work of thugs after
money rather than an organized persecution.
WHAT TO DO?
Shallal recommends that Chaldeans
coming from Iraq and hoping to seek
asylum bring as much collaborating
evidence as possible, including — if
they exist — medical records for
injuries from torture, psychiatric
records from treatment for post-traumatic
syndrome and affidavits of witnesses
and family members.
It’s often easier to enter the country
on a three-year employment visa,
she said, which can be extended for
another three years. After that, if
BIAS continued on page 39
36 CHALDEAN NEWS FEBRUARY 2005