The Columbus Arts Festival happens downtown this weekend. Ohio Immigrant Alliance is holding a concert there Saturday afternoon and a book launch called, Ohio is My Second Country.
The advocacy director of the alliance is Demba Ndiath. He is the author of a book that will soon be published, “From Welcome to Deportation, a story of West African immigrants who crossed the U.S. Mexico Border.”
WOSU’s Debbie Holmes spoke with Ndaith.
Debbie Holmes: Tell us about the books. The first one, Ohio Is My Second Country, is a coloring book, I understand, and that seems to fit the arts festival theme.
Demba Ndiath: Ohio Is My Second Country is a book, you know, written by Shema Asiwiwe. He's a high school student from, he was born in Burundi, and he was born in a refugee camp. He has friends from all over the world, and he now lives in Cincinnati.
He learned how to speak English and read and write English here. And he used to draw during COVID time and now he turned that talent into something more, you know, bigger and important for this event.
Debbie Holmes: Give us a summary of what your book is about.
Demba Ndiath: My book, as the title says, From Welcome to Deportation, it talks about West African immigrant that crossed the U.S.-Mexico border.
It's a combination of personal stories, people that I've personally met and helped and worked with and some expertise from experts like a former immigration judge, some lawyers that are working with immigrant.
So, it basically explains the system, how the system worked, the contradiction in the system. And also, it tells the story of the people that crossed the border and how they feel about the way they were welcomed and the way that they were treated later after they entered.
They thought everything was done after they went through all the hurdles, all the difficulties through their journey, and they discovered there's something else that's waiting for them, it's the U.S. Immigration system.
Debbie Holmes: And so, you wrote this book as a result of what's been happening in the last, what, five, 10 years or what?
Demba Ndiath: From 2019 to now.
Debbie Holmes: Have you been hassled at all? Or are you a citizen now?
Demba Ndiath: I am a citizen. Now. Okay.
Debbie Holmes: And when did you become a citizen?
Demba Ndiath: I became a citizen in 2020.
Debbie Holmes: Now what do you hope people reading this book will take away from the stories?
Demba Ndiath: My first hope is when people meet someone from Senegal, Mauritania, Guinea, all those countries, and the person says I crossed the U.S. Mexico border; they understand that this person, first, is not a criminal. He didn't consider that when he was entering the country he was breaking any law or he was acting as a criminal.
These are people who most of them were let in by different means, which is explained in the book, based on testimony from people that I talked to. But in addition to that, there are people who left countries where they were living in different circumstances.
Those circumstances are explained in the book, but also not only to feel compassion, but to understand where they're coming from and their struggle and why they're so resilient. And a lot of them, you meet them in the warehouses, in different factories, and they are neighbors with Americans. So, it's a way to explain to people who don't know what's the background of these people to understand where they're coming from.
And in addition to that, I hope this book clears some air for people who don't understand how the system works, how they expect to have an independent judge, but we realize that the judge is based the expert that I interviewed, the judges work for the executive branch. They are under the U.S. Administration. These are not independent judges.
And then nobody is also given a lawyer, like in the criminal system. You have to pay for your own lawyer. What we see is that people are being trapped in court. They are being arrested. And then during their detention, they're not being offered many opportunities to defend their cases.
