{ LINK: Stop the Deportation of Kokou, Devoted Father and Community Member [petition] }
Kokou Awlime is a devoted father and valuable community member who is facing immediate deportation. Deporting Kokou from the U.S. would devastate his children, partner, and community. It would benefit no one.
Please join me in asking DHS to consider family and community values and stop Kokou’s deportation immediately.
I have known Kokou for three years and have come to learn his humble manner, hardworking, and family and community value. Kokou has contributed to our work and community projects financially and spiritually. I believe that the removal of Kokou will be a loss to the community and create extreme hardship on his family. Kokou is a father, a brother, a husband, a worker, and a valuable community member. Kokou wants to stay and to be with his family especially his two citizen children and see them grow.
Please reach out to as many people as you can and urge them to sign the petition. We can stop this injustice.
[ via @DreamAct’s retweet of https://twitter.com/DetentionWatch/status/206135043549175809 ]
there’s some more information here (link) [although the source seems heavily biased against him]:
[….] Mr. Awlime fled from Togo in 2003 to escape persecution. He applied for asylum in the United States in 2004, claiming he had been persecuted in Togo due to his activities as a union leader for taxi drivers. His application mentioned, but did not emphasize, his membership in an opposition political party in Togo called the Union des Forces du Changement (“UFC”). The Immigration Judge (“IJ”) found that he was not credible and denied relief.[1] The BIA dismissed his appeal and we denied his petition for review, finding that the adverse credibility ruling was supported by substantial evidence; we denied panel re-hearing on March 13, 2010 and Awlime did not move to re-open until July 2010. [….]
post notes:
