#WeGotUs
Donation protected
UPDATE: Thanks to very concerted community support, on February 3, 2020, Governor Cuomo granted Ousman's pardon! We are now working on trying to get Ousman's immigration case reopened and Ousman out of detention. This pardon will be critical in that effort. Ousman, his family, and his legal team send their heartfelt thanks to all of you! Lashalle and Sanai are still in need of all of our support, Ousman continues to be detained at Bergen County Immigration Jail where detainees have staged a hunger strike due to conditions during the Coronavirus epidemic; so please continue donating and supporting them while we do everything we can to bring Ousman home!
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The Black Alliance for Just Immigration (BAJI) is a national, organization dedicated to addressing issues affecting the African Diaspora here in the U.S. BAJI NYC supports #WeKeepUsSafe, an initiative grounded in community support and mutual aid. We understand that the state breaks up families through various institutions aside from policing, therefore #WeKeepUsSafe is a network created to remind us what our people have always done, creating community safety and security outside of the system.
BAJI has been working to support Ousman and Lashalle Darboe ever since learning about Ousman’s deportation case in January 2019. Ousman’s story is a devastating example of the school-to-prison-to-deportation pipeline that so many U.S. residents have been cruelly funneled through and out of the country. Ousman is currently in ICE detention and can be deported any day, permanently separating him from his wife, Lashalle, their 1-year-old daughter, and the only community he has ever known. We’re now asking for your support in raising $10,000 for Lashalle and her daughter, who have been living without Ousman through the devastation that the immigration system wrecks on so many undeserving families.
The story behind the injustice this family is experiencing began in 2000 when Ousman first came to the U.S. from The Gambia at six years old. At first a shy kid, Ousman eventually came out of his shell and learned to fit in with the other kids in his neighborhood. The newfound acceptance brought with it the target that all young Black men carry on their backs as they navigate together in the over-policed neighborhoods of the Bronx. Ousman spent about two traumatizing years incarcerated before he turned 20. When he came back home on parole, he was quickly accused of a robbery that landed him right back at Rikers. Though he was adamant that he did not commit the crime, Ousman pled guilty in order to avoid reliving the trauma he experienced as a teen at Rikers.
Besides the police, Ousman’s new adult criminal record and the fact that overstayed his visa made him a prime target for another threat in his neighborhood: ICE. In 2017, ICE raided his family home under the guise of being police officers and detained Ousman. Ousman never came home. Since being detained, Ousman has lost his case in immigration court and now can be deported any day. As a Black, Muslim, and undocumented young man, Ousman is exactly who the government would want to remove from the country.
Lashalle found out she was pregnant just days after Ousman was detained. Lashalle and Ousman could never have imagined that they would be starting a family under these circumstances, but having a family was a dream they shared before Ousman was detained, so they pushed forward. Lashalle went through her whole pregnancy and the birth of their daughter without Ousman, and Ousman has only ever held his daughter twice, the last time being in early 2018.
Balancing childcare with being the sole provider for her daughter has been wearing down Lashalle to the point where she had to resort to living in a shelter with their daughter. But, very recently, Lashalle had the opportunity to move into an apartment through NYCHA. That Lashalle can fit all of her and their daughter's possessions in just two bags makes it somewhat easy for Lashalle and their daughter to move into their new home with the one day they gave her to move out of the shelter. That being said, Lashalle and her daughter are moving into their home with almost nothing.
This is why we need your help to raise the funds Lashalle needs to build her and her daughter’s first home, and to help sustain them both until Ousman’s hopeful release from ICE. Your donation will go toward the crucial necessities that all single mothers and their young children need, such as stable and reliable childcare and child-proof home essentials.
For more information on Ousman’s story, read this feature in Vox on how the school-to-prison-to-deportation system has taken him and so many others like him away from their communities and families: https://www.vox.com/identities/2019/9/30/20875821/black-immigrants-school-prison-deportation-pipeline.
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The Black Alliance for Just Immigration (BAJI) is a national, organization dedicated to addressing issues affecting the African Diaspora here in the U.S. BAJI NYC supports #WeKeepUsSafe, an initiative grounded in community support and mutual aid. We understand that the state breaks up families through various institutions aside from policing, therefore #WeKeepUsSafe is a network created to remind us what our people have always done, creating community safety and security outside of the system.
BAJI has been working to support Ousman and Lashalle Darboe ever since learning about Ousman’s deportation case in January 2019. Ousman’s story is a devastating example of the school-to-prison-to-deportation pipeline that so many U.S. residents have been cruelly funneled through and out of the country. Ousman is currently in ICE detention and can be deported any day, permanently separating him from his wife, Lashalle, their 1-year-old daughter, and the only community he has ever known. We’re now asking for your support in raising $10,000 for Lashalle and her daughter, who have been living without Ousman through the devastation that the immigration system wrecks on so many undeserving families.
The story behind the injustice this family is experiencing began in 2000 when Ousman first came to the U.S. from The Gambia at six years old. At first a shy kid, Ousman eventually came out of his shell and learned to fit in with the other kids in his neighborhood. The newfound acceptance brought with it the target that all young Black men carry on their backs as they navigate together in the over-policed neighborhoods of the Bronx. Ousman spent about two traumatizing years incarcerated before he turned 20. When he came back home on parole, he was quickly accused of a robbery that landed him right back at Rikers. Though he was adamant that he did not commit the crime, Ousman pled guilty in order to avoid reliving the trauma he experienced as a teen at Rikers.
Besides the police, Ousman’s new adult criminal record and the fact that overstayed his visa made him a prime target for another threat in his neighborhood: ICE. In 2017, ICE raided his family home under the guise of being police officers and detained Ousman. Ousman never came home. Since being detained, Ousman has lost his case in immigration court and now can be deported any day. As a Black, Muslim, and undocumented young man, Ousman is exactly who the government would want to remove from the country.
Lashalle found out she was pregnant just days after Ousman was detained. Lashalle and Ousman could never have imagined that they would be starting a family under these circumstances, but having a family was a dream they shared before Ousman was detained, so they pushed forward. Lashalle went through her whole pregnancy and the birth of their daughter without Ousman, and Ousman has only ever held his daughter twice, the last time being in early 2018.
Balancing childcare with being the sole provider for her daughter has been wearing down Lashalle to the point where she had to resort to living in a shelter with their daughter. But, very recently, Lashalle had the opportunity to move into an apartment through NYCHA. That Lashalle can fit all of her and their daughter's possessions in just two bags makes it somewhat easy for Lashalle and their daughter to move into their new home with the one day they gave her to move out of the shelter. That being said, Lashalle and her daughter are moving into their home with almost nothing.
This is why we need your help to raise the funds Lashalle needs to build her and her daughter’s first home, and to help sustain them both until Ousman’s hopeful release from ICE. Your donation will go toward the crucial necessities that all single mothers and their young children need, such as stable and reliable childcare and child-proof home essentials.
For more information on Ousman’s story, read this feature in Vox on how the school-to-prison-to-deportation system has taken him and so many others like him away from their communities and families: https://www.vox.com/identities/2019/9/30/20875821/black-immigrants-school-prison-deportation-pipeline.
Fundraising team: #WeKeepUsSafe (4)
Albert Saint Jean
Organizer
New York, NY
Lashalle Darboe
Beneficiary
Sophia Gurulé
Team member
Catherine Labiran
Team member
Abraham Paulos
Team member