FEBRUARY 2005

oushala
Gaimer
HEAVY CREAM
BY SAMIRA YAKO CHOLAGH
Ingredients
1 quart half and half milk
1 quart heavy whipping cream
5 tablespoons cornstarch
Instructions
Mix 1 cup of half and half with cornstarch
and whisk until smooth.
Place in a heavy saucepan.
Add remaining half and half and heavy
whipping cream and place on
low heat for 40 to 50 minutes, whisking
constantly until thick. Place
in a bowl, cover and refrigerate. Serve
with pastries or with bread
and honey and fruit.
Recipe from Treasured Middle
Eastern Cookbook.
BIAS
Continued from page 36
the employer is willing, such immigrants
can get labor certification
and get legal permanent residence.
This is only a viable option for people
with professional degrees, she
said, but it’s easier than going for
asylum.
Daman said Iraqi Christians who
feel they are in danger should leave
the country for Jordan, Lebanon or
another neighboring nation and
apply at its United Nations office for
refuge status. Temporary residence is
guaranteed, he said, until the person
finds a country that will allow the
person to move there permanently.
Garmo recommends that Iraqi
Chaldeans consider immigrating to
Canada.
“Many people forget that Canada
has a very flexible immigrations system
— significantly more flexible
than the U.S.,” he said.
Daman, who is currently representing
about 100 Chaldeans in Metro
Detroit and 20 in the Chicago area,
said no one has been deported back to
Iraq yet. But he worries that once the
U.S. government believes the situation
in Iraq is stabilized, that may happen.
LOOKING DOWN THE ROAD
The attorneys agree that immigration
officials have become a bit more sympathetic
to Iraqi Christians since the
coordinated church bombings in
August 2004.
“Asylum officers have not been very
knowledgable about the plight of
Christians in Iraq,” said Shallal. “Only
recently, since the church bombings, is
there really understanding. So now
Chaldeans can use religious persecution
to seek asylum rather than political
persecution.”
But, Garmo said, it’s still an uphill
battle.
“Since the church bombings it has
become a little easier,” Garmo agreed,
“but the immigration judges in Detroit
continue to believe and listen to the
U.S. government, State Department
and our own church elders in Iraq, who
say Christians are not being persecuted.”
Mar Ibrahim N. Ibrahim, bishop
of the St. Thomas Chaldean Church
Diocese, declined to comment on
the issue.
FEBRUARY 2005 CHALDEAN NEWS 39