#BRINGELLABACK |
"Ella" is a 24 year old gay Ugandan woman. On August 25, 2017 she presented a valid student visa to Customs & Border Protection (CBP) officers at Washington-Dulles International Airport. She was denied entry. Due to her trauma, she lacked the ability to talk about what she had endured. So when a family member contacted me and told me about what had happened to her, I spoke for Ella. I demanded she be given the opportunity to seek asylum, a chance to tell her story.
CBP refused to let me talk to her, and deported her knowing she wanted to seek asylum. En route back to Uganda, her deportation flight stopped in Dubai. So traumatized she was that she ran and hid in the airport. Through generous work with an international refugee aid organization, she lived in the airport for a month before we helped transport her to Kenya where she remains in limbo. This page contains all coverage of Ella's story (read in her own words), which is still unfolding. Follow #BringEllaBack. CBP has to make this right. -Hassan Ahmad, Mariko Hirose, Humza Kazmi, Sirine Shebaya Attorneys for Ella |
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