ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) – An Iraqi man from Albuquerque faces deportation, as he is currently being held in El Paso.
“How do you tell an 8-year-old they are losing the only grandfather they ever knew?” Sandi Mendoza, the daughter of Abbas Al-Sokaini, said.
When ICE agents came knocking on Al-Sokaini’s metro home door last month, he willingly went with them. But he hasn’t been home since. Instead, he’s being held in El Paso.
“He’s the backbone of our family and for him to not come home from work every day it’s just…emptiness,” Brenda Sisneros, his wife, said.
For the first time since he was taken away, Al-Sokaini’s family was able to visit him Wednesday. They worry, however, that time is running out.
“I’ll get a call one day… that he’s on the plane going to the other side of the world,” Sisneros said.
The clock is, indeed, ticking. Al-Sokaini is one of 1,400 Iraqi refugees in the U.S. who may be forced out of the country and to Iraq. President Trump took Iraq off his administration’s travel ban list and in exchange, Iraq said it would take in 1,400 Iraqi nationals.
Al-Sokaini was tapped because in 2003, he took a plea deal for drug possession and served six months probation.
His family says he’s made a 180 since then, however.
“It was a mistake 20 years ago, so let it go and put our family back together again,” Mendoza said.
On Monday, a court order to halt the deportation process expires. It’s unclear if another stay will be granted.
“He’s an American — maybe not on paper, but he is an American in his heart and [in] his mind he loves America. This is his home,” Sisneros said.
The ACLU has filed a class action lawsuit against the deportations, saying the refugees face persecution, torture or death if they return to Iraq.
The family has a Go Fund Me account set up so that they can hire a lawyer.KFOX14 out of El Paso, Texas contributed to this story.
Al-Sokaini is not the first Albuquerque man to face deportation. Kadhim Al-Bumohammed is taking sanctuary at an undisclosed church. Like Al-Sokaini, he has two misdemeanor charges from the past that flagged him.