Latest news with #ArtemisGhasemzadeh
New York Times
20-05-2025
- Politics
- New York Times
U.S. Bill Named for Iranian Deported to Panama Aims to Shield Asylum Seekers
Four months after the Trump administration deported Artemis Ghasemzadeh, a 27-year-old Iranian Christian convert, to Panama before she could seek asylum for fear of religious persecution, she is still living in limbo. A 90-day humanitarian visa granted by the Panamanian government will run out in two weeks. Every day, she says, she wonders which country will provide her permanent refuge. Iran considers converting from Islam to any other religion a crime punishable by death. On Tuesday, new U.S. legislation inspired by Ms. Ghasemzadeh will be introduced in Congress by Representative Yassamin Ansari, an Iranian-American Democratic lawmaker from Arizona. Called the Artemis Act, the bill seeks to prohibit the expedited removal of individuals fleeing countries that the State Department says persecute religious minorities — and ensure they have the chance to claim asylum in a U.S. immigration court. Though Ms. Ansari says she expects widespread support from Democrats and has reached out to Republican in hopes of generating bipartisan support, experts acknowledge that the bill has little chance of passing given that Republicans hold the majority of votes in the chamber. Mr. Trump campaigned on the promise to reverse the flow of migrants crossing the southern border and to carry out widespread deportations. Republican lawmakers would not be inclined to endorse any move to restrict Mr. Trump's immigration policy. Still, the symbolism is significant for Ms. Ghasemzadeh and 10 other Iranian Christians deported to Panama in February and eventually released from a detention camp on the outskirts of the Darién jungle. They said in interviews on Monday that they feel 'seen and heard' at the highest level of American politics, though still trapped in Panama. Christian advocacy groups have taken up their cause. 'I am not sure I will ever see America again, but I want to know this won't happen to anyone else,' Ms. Ghasemzadeh said in an interview on Monday from a hotel in Panama City. 'This would a bigger win for me.' Ms. Ansari said she was inspired by Ms. Ghasemzadeh's courage and story. She became the de facto face of about a hundred migrants that the United States sent to Panama this year — shackled, forced onto a military plane, held in a hotel and then detained in a jungle camp. She spoke up out about their plight in a viral social media post and to the international news media. 'Without Artemis herself being so apt with social media and sharing her story with the world and the reporting around it, this would not exist,' Ms. Ansari said in an interview on Thursday. . The bill, Ms. Ansari said, seeks to uphold laws that the Trump administration has ignored in its deportations. Ms. Ansari plans to share a video of a recent virtual conversation with Ms. Ghasemzadeh so that other lawmakers can hear directly from her. Immigration lawyers say the law requires immigration official to give migrants a 'fear interview' — a process in which they present their cases and provide evidence about why they fear being deported to their home countries. If they pass the interview, they would be referred to an immigration judge for a full asylum hearing. 'Artemis and the majority of people sent to Panama and Costa Rica were expelled without the fear interview and essentially with no process at all,' said Ian Kysel, an associate clinical professor of law at Cornell Law School and one of the lawyers representing the group for free. He said on Monday the bill was 'a refreshing pro-asylum act.' In the months since the deportation flight to Panama, the Trump administration sent Venezuelan migrants to a notorious prison in El Salvador. The Trump administration planned to fly migrants to Libya, but lawyers for some detained immigrants claimed that people from countries like Vietnam were targeted for potential deportation and asked a federal court to block the effort. The Supreme Court also ruled after one challenge that the U.S. government needed to allow migrants time to fight their deportations under the wartime law known as the Alien Enemies Act. As for those sent to Panama, Silvia Serna, a Mexican immigration lawyer involved in the case, said that about half of the hundred or so migrants had left Panama, most of them for Mexico. She said 32 were still in a gymnasium turned shelter outside Panama City; 21 — mostly families with children — were living in a hotel provided by UNICEF; and six women were housed in a church shelter. Mohammand Hanifi, an Iranian Christian convert who along with his wife, Mona, and 8-year-old son was deported to Panama on the same flight as Ms. Ghasemzadeh, said he had considered leaving for Mexico or Brazil, but that the hardest part was not knowing what would happen next. For now, their son is attending an American school on a scholarship in Panama and learning to speak English and Spanish. Ms. Ghasemzadeh said that if Panama extended the humanitarian visa for the group, with permission to work, she wanted to start building her life. Her biggest worry is being deported to Iran. One option, her lawyer told her, is to apply for asylum in Panama.
New York Times
23-02-2025
- Politics
- New York Times
No Exit
In furtive messages, sent through handmade signs, hidden phones and gestures behind glass, some of the migrants expressed a sense of constant, overwhelming fear. Most did not want their faces to be seen, fearful of repercussions for being photographed by journalists. We did as much window-to-window communication as we could. In the central room, Artemis Ghasemzadeh, a 27-year-old migrant from Iran, scrawled 'Help' on the window in lipstick. She was one of the few who did not conceal their face. Outside, my colleague, the New York Times reporter Julie Turkewitz, held up a notebook with her phone number, written for the migrants to see from their rooms — and message if they could. We learned that the 10 Iranian migrants had converted to Christianity, which according to Iran's Shariah law, is a crime punishable by death. They had illegally entered the United States in the last month, and were detained in San Diego before being deported to Panama. We learned, too, that many of the migrants had arrived at the U.S. border from such countries as Afghanistan and China, hoping to seek asylum. Now they are trapped in Panama, where the Trump administration sent them because those nations will not accept them, or for other reasons. Officials in Panama say they are adhering to international protocols in their treatment of the migrants, and that two United Nations organizations oversee the migrants. Lawyers in the country say it is illegal to detain people without a court order for more than 24 hours. In the room below Ms. Ghasemzadeh, we established contact with three Chinese nationals. One man wrote 'China' and his phone number in toothpaste on the window. He held up a Chinese-language Bible and a crucifix to the window. He gave his surname as Wang, but in an interview expressed fear about being identified, saying it could be used against him if he were forcibly returned. 'I would rather jump off a plane than go back to China,' he said. Since the above picture was taken last week, officials in Panama have said that more than half of the migrants have agreed to be deported to their countries of origin. Among them are the two Indian migrants, who entered the United States on Jan. 29 after a two-year journey, intending to seek asylum. Guards restrained them with handcuffs on their feet and hands. In an interview from the hotel, they said they had signed papers to be deported back to India, and that they would not complain. They had been given medical treatment, food and a place to sleep, they said. Migrants who did not agree to be deported would be taken to a detention camp on the outskirts of the jungle known as the Darién Gap, Panama's security minister said. He described the decision to hold the migrants as part of an accord with the United States. Nearly 100 have already been moved from the hotel to the camp. We have yet to see the migrants there, and even in downtown Panama City we could only see so much. Some people closed their curtains or stayed out of view. To the right of Mr. Wang's room, someone paced back and forth between the bed and a night stand, the lights off. We glimpsed just restless moving feet.
Boston Globe
19-02-2025
- Politics
- Boston Globe
Migrants, deported to Panama under Trump plan, detained in remote jungle camp
'It looks like a zoo; there are fenced cages,' said one deportee, Artemis Ghasemzadeh, 27, a migrant from Iran, after arriving at the camp following a four-hour drive from Panama City. 'They gave us a stale piece of bread. We are sitting on the floor.' Advertisement The group includes eight children, according to a person with knowledge of the situation who was not authorized to speak on the record. Lawyers have said it is illegal to detain people in Panama for more than 24 hours without a court order. The Panamanian government has not made an official announcement about the transfer to the jungle camp. In a broadcast interview Wednesday with the local news program Panamá En Directo, the country's security minister, Frank Ábrego, did not discuss the move. But he said that migrants were being held by Panama 'for their own protection,' and because officials 'need to verify who they are.' The transfer is the latest move in a weeklong saga for a group of about 300 migrants who arrived in the United States hoping to seek asylum. The group was sent to Panama, which has agreed to aid President Donald Trump in his plan to deport millions of migrants living in the US without legal permission. The agreement is part of a larger strategy by the Trump administration to export some of its most difficult migration challenges to other nations. The United States, for varying reasons, cannot easily deport people to countries like Afghanistan, Iran, and China, but by applying intense pressure, it has managed to persuade Panama to take some of them. Advertisement After being sent to Panama, the deported migrants are no longer subject to US law. Costa Rica is also taking some deportees, including migrants originally from Central Asia and India, and has said it plans to repatriate them. A flight from the United States is expected to arrive in Costa Rica on Thursday. Upon arrival in Panama City last week, the 300 or so migrants were taken to a downtown hotel, called the Decapolis, and barred from leaving, several of them told The New York Times in calls and text messages. A lawyer seeking to represent many of them, Jenny Soto Fernández, was blocked at least four times from visiting them in the hotel, she said. At the hotel, the United Nations International Organization for Migration has been speaking with migrants about their options, according to the government, and offering flights to their home countries to those who want them. Some, including a group of Iranian Christians and a man from China, told the Times that they risk reprisals if returned to their native countries and have refused to sign documents that would pave the way for their repatriation. Under Iranian law, converting from Islam is considered apostasy and is a crime punishable by death. On Tuesday morning, an article published by the Times attracted attention to the migrants' situation, and members of the Panamanian news media began surrounding the hotel. That night, guards at the hotel told people to pack their bags, said Ghasemzadeh, one of the Christian converts from Iran. Several buses arrived, and guards led them aboard, as witnessed by a reporter working for the Times. Then the bus traveled out of Panama City, east and then farther east, to the province of Darién. Advertisement Two migrants used their cellphones to share their real-time location with the Times, allowing reporters to track their movements. On the bus, at least one woman cried, according to a photograph sent by a person on the bus. The camp where the 100 or so migrants will stay is called San Vicente and sits at the end of a jungle, also called the Darién, which links Panama to Colombia. The camp was built years ago as a stopover point for migrants coming north from Colombia through the Darién jungle and into Panama, a harrowing part of the journey north to the United States. Now the Panamanian government is using it for deportees. On Tuesday, Ábrego told reporters at a news conference that 170 of the 300 or so migrants had volunteered to be sent back to their countries of origin, journeys that would be arranged by the International Organization for Migration. He described the decision to hold the migrants as part of an accord with the United States. 'What we agreed with the United States government is that they remain and are in our temporary custody for their protection,' he said. On Wednesday, he said that 12 people from Uzbekistan and India had been repatriated with the help of the International Organization for Migration. Officials also said Wednesday that one of the migrants in their custody, a woman from China, had escaped from the hotel. In a message posted to the social platform X, the country's migration service asked for help in finding her, saying authorities feared she would fall into the hands of human traffickers. Advertisement 'As a State security entity,' authorities wrote on X, 'our commitment is to combat illegal migration' while complying with 'national and international principles and regulations on human rights.' The Panamanian government has previously said the migrants had no criminal records. On Wednesday morning, from the Darién region, Ghasemzadeh described a sweltering encampment, overrun with cats and dogs. Then, she sent a text message saying that authorities were confiscating all phones. Her last words: 'Please try to help us.' This article originally appeared in
New York Times
19-02-2025
- Politics
- New York Times
Migrants, Deported to Panama Under Trump Plan, Detained in Remote Jungle Camp
Nearly 100 migrants, recently deported by the United States to Panama where they had been locked in a hotel, were loaded onto buses Tuesday night and moved to a detention camp on the outskirts of the jungle, several of the migrants said. It is unclear how long the group, who were deported under the Trump administration's sweeping effort to expel unauthorized migrants, will be detained at the jungle camp. Conditions at the site are primitive, the detainees said. Diseases, including dengue are endemic to the region, and the government has denied access to journalists and aid organizations. 'It looks like a zoo, there are fenced cages,' said one deportee, Artemis Ghasemzadeh, a 27-year-old migrant from Iran who said after arriving at the camp following a four-hour drive from Panama City. 'They gave us a stale piece of bread. We are sitting on the floor.' The group includes eight children, according to a person with knowledge of the situation who was not authorized to speak on the record. Lawyers have said it is illegal to detain people in Panama for more than 24 hours without a court order. The transfer is the latest move in a weeklong saga for a group of about 300 migrants who arrived in the United States hoping to to seek asylum. The group was sent to Panama, which has agreed to aid President Trump in his plan to deport millions of undocumented migrants. The agreement is part of a larger strategy by the Trump administration to export some of its most difficult migration challenges to other nations. The United States, for varying reasons, cannot easily deport people to countries like Afghanistan, Iran and China, but by applying intense pressure it has managed to convince Panama to take some of them. After being sent to Panama, the deported migrants are no longer subject to United States law. Asked for details about the transfer of migrants to the jungle camp, a spokesman for Panama's security ministry, Aurelio Martínez, said he was unaware that migrants had been moved there. Costa Rica is also taking some deportees, migrants originally from Central Asia and India and has said it plans to repatriate them. A flight from the United States was expected to arrive in Costa Rica on Wednesday. Upon arrival in Panama City last week, the 300 or so migrants were taken to a downtown hotel, called the Decapolis, and barred from leaving, several of them told The New York Times in calls and text messages. A lawyer seeking to represent many of them, Jenny Soto Fernández, was blocked at least four times from visiting them in the hotel, she said. On Tuesday morning, an article published by The Times attracted enormous attention to the migrants' situation, and members of the Panamanian news media began surrounding the hotel. On Tuesday night, guards at the hotel told people to pack their bags, said Ms. Ghasemzadeh, the migrant from Iran. Several buses arrived and guards led them aboard, as witnessed by a reporter working for The New York Times. Then the bus traveled out of Panama City, east and then farther east, to the province of Darién. On the bus, at least one woman cried, according to a photograph sent by a person on the bus. The camp where the 100 or so migrants will stay is called San Vicente, and sits at the end of a jungle, also called the Darién, which links Panama to Colombia. The camp was built years ago as a stopover point for migrants coming north from Colombia through the Darién jungle and into Panama, a harrowing part of the journey north to the United States. Now, the Panamanian government is using it for deportees. On Tuesday, Panama's security minister, Frank Ábrego, told reporters that 170 of the 300 or so migrants had volunteered to be sent back to their countries of origin, journeys that would be arranged by the United Nations International Organization for Migration. He added that the migrants were not 'detained' by the Panamanian government, but rather 'are under our protection.' 'What we agreed with the United States government is that they remain and are in our temporary custody for their protection,' he said. The Panamanian government has previously said the migrants had no criminal records. On Wednesday morning, from the Darién region, Ms. Ghasemzadeh described a sweltering encampment, overrun with cats and dogs. Then, she sent a text message saying that the authorities were confiscating all phones. Her last words: 'Please try to help us.'
