Latest news with #SomaliAmericans
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
New travel ban sparks concerns among immigrants in metro Atlanta
The Brief The expanded travel ban affects citizens from 19 countries, with Eritrea and Somalia facing full bans, impacting immigrant communities in metro Atlanta. The ban does not cancel existing visas but denies entry to citizens from affected countries without a visa, raising concerns about family separations and community fear. Eritrea's inclusion in the ban is due to high visa overstay rates, a rationale not used in previous bans, highlighting issues with asylum claims and legal immigration processes. CLARKSTON, Ga. - The Trump administration's latest travel ban is now in effect, impacting citizens from 19 countries across the Caribbean, Africa, the Middle East, South America, and Central Asia. While some countries face partial restrictions, others, including Eritrea and Somalia, are under a full ban. SEE ALSO: Trump announces travel ban on a dozen countries: Here's what to know Local perspective The order does not cancel previously issued visas, but citizens from the affected countries who do not already have a visa will be denied entry into the United States. The White House has defended the move as a national security measure, but critics say it is sowing fear and uncertainty in immigrant communities—especially in metro Atlanta, which is home to significant populations from several of the banned nations. What they're saying Omar Shekhey, executive director of the Somali American Community Center in Clarkston and a Somali immigrant himself, recalled the last time Somalia was included on the travel ban list. "Families were separated, people were trying to see grandchildren graduate and could not make it. It was depressing," he said. Now, with Somalia once again under a full travel ban—this time designated as a "terrorist safe haven"—Shekhey said his organization is urging caution. "I'm afraid. We are advising our community not to travel anywhere," he said. "You want to see your mom, you're not coming back." Immigration attorney Jack Kuck agrees with Shekhey's advice. He spent the day fielding calls from concerned families seeking guidance. Eritrea, a country not included in previous travel bans, has now been added to the list. Federal authorities cited high visa overstay rates, particularly among students, as a key reason. "The theory was not used in the last travel ban," Kuck said. "They looked at the most egregious overstay rates for countries and said you can't come in for any reason." He added that visa overstays are often linked to asylum claims, which are legal under U.S. immigration law. Despite the administration's stated rationale, Shekhey believes the ban unfairly targets Somali Americans and separates them from their families. "Every person has a root, a connection. You can't leave your family," he said. "I tell you one thing—we condemn any act of violence." The Source FOX 5's Kevyn Stewart spoke with Omar Shekhey, executive director of the Somali American Community Center in Clarkston, for this article.
New Indian Express
25-05-2025
- Politics
- New Indian Express
Five years later, how the murder of George Floyd changed America
PANJWANI: I'm Haya Panjwani. On this episode of the Story Behind the AP Story we revisit the murder of George Floyd five years later. We'll hear from people who were on the ground in the days immediately after Floyd's death, the trial that followed and how that summer shaped sentiments around race. Noreen Nasir is a video journalist who was in Minneapolis covering the city's reaction to the death of George Floyd. Noreen Nasir, video journalist: Initially, I think there was a lot of anger, of course, and some of that anger then turned into, you know, the images of destruction that we then saw and then I think got a lot of focus and attention in the media. Sound from protests in Minneapolis in 2020: He can't breathe, he can't breathe, he can't breathe... NASIR: But I think what was also lost in some of that focus that was very palpable on the ground was a deep sense of like sadness that a lot of folks felt. There was a lot of grief, I remember, on the ground especially at the site of the memorial. Going there at various times in the days that followed, that memorial just sort of like grew and grew and grew. There were these you know reverberations around like what this meant for race and racism across the country, things that and themes that then I think people were really trying to point to in the days and months that followed. There was one night, you know, we were there, things that one of those early nights where things got really sort of tense and there were buildings that were broken into, there was looting that was happening. And I spoke to some of the business owners. A lot of them are also, you know, they're immigrants. A lot them were Somali Americans. They had come to this country. And for them, you know, I could see the sort of like conflicted feelings that they were having just in their own emotions and the way that they themselves were processing this thing. For them, they were saying, you we are Black. We are perceived as Black in this country, we are Black. And then at the same time, they're saying, we're also these business owners. We are grieving, and also, we want to protect our businesses, this is our livelihood. You would see a lot of on the boarded-up businesses, signs that said minority owned, almost as a way to say, "Hey, please don't target us, like we're in the same boat." PANJWANI: Amy Forliti was a crime and courts reporter during the time of George Floyd's killing in 2020. Amy Forliti, editor: The centerpiece was definitely the bystander video of George Floyd's final moments. Prosecutors played that footage really early in the case. They did it the first time during their opening statement and the prosecutor then told jurors to believe your eyes and that idea of believing your eyes or believing what you see on the video right before you was a theme that prosecutors came back to throughout the trial. The defense took a different approach with that whole idea of believing what you see, and said that everyone there had a different perspective and came from a different vantage point and interpreted the events of that day differently. And the defense said that Chauvin's perspective was one of a reasonable police officer. Many of the people who did testify said that they just felt helpless, that they couldn't do anything, and they saw Floyd's life being basically snuffed out, and they couldn't do anything. The teenager who recorded that video said that it seemed Chauvin just didn't care, and she testified that she stayed up at night apologizing to George Floyd because she didn't do more to help him. I also remember some very poignant words at closing arguments. When we talk about the cause of death, prosecutor Jerry Blackwell referred to how the defense was saying that this was a heart issue that killed Floyd and that he had an enlarged heart. And the prosecutor said, and I'm paraphrasing here, but he told jurors that George Floyd didn't die because his heart was too big, but because Derek Chauvin's heart was too small. In the end, a jury of six white people and six Black or multiracial people convicted Chauvin of three counts, including unintentional second-degree murder, which was the most serious count against him. After that verdict was read, a crowd gathered in the street and started cheering and rejoicing over that. He went on to later plead guilty to a federal count of violating George Floyd's civil rights.
Hindustan Times
25-05-2025
- Politics
- Hindustan Times
Five years later: How the murder of George Floyd changed America
WASHINGTON — The following episode of The Story Behind the Story contains sound and descriptions that some listeners may find graphic or violent. Listener discretion is advised. Haya Panjwani, host: In the summer of 2020, as the world was just beginning to grasp the COVID-19 pandemic, a video surfaced that would spark a movement like no other. Aaron Morrison, editor: So, on May 25, 2020, George Floyd, who was a Black man from Houston, Texas, was in Minneapolis where he'd moved to find job opportunities. PANJWANI: Aaron Morrison, the 's race and ethnicity editor. MORRISON: And on this day, in particular, a store clerk reported that Floyd had allegedly used a counterfeit $20 bill. He was restrained by at least a few officers, one in particular named Derek Chauvin, who's a white police officer, knelt on George Floyd's neck and back for over nine minutes. Floyd was handcuffed to the ground, and while a crowd of people had assembled, essentially demanding that George Floyd be released from the hold because as a now viral and famous video of the, of the encounter shows, George Floyd repeatedly said that he could not breathe. George Floyd, in a recorded video: I can't breathe! They gon' kill me, they gon' kill me, man. MORRISON: Before he took his last, last breath right there on the street. PANJWANI: I'm Haya Panjwani. On this episode of the Story Behind the Story we revisit the murder of George Floyd five years later. We'll hear from people who were on the ground in the days immediately after Floyd's death, the trial that followed and how that summer shaped sentiments around race. Noreen Nasir is a video journalist who was in Minneapolis covering the city's reaction to the death of George Floyd. Noreen Nasir, video journalist: Initially, I think there was a lot of anger, of course, and some of that anger then turned into, you know, the images of destruction that we then saw and then I think got a lot of focus and attention in the media. Sound from protests in Minneapolis in 2020: He can't breathe, he can't breathe, he can't breathe... NASIR: But I think what was also lost in some of that focus that was very palpable on the ground was a deep sense of like sadness that a lot of folks felt. There was a lot of grief, I remember, on the ground especially at the site of the memorial. Going there at various times in the days that followed, that memorial just sort of like grew and grew and grew. There were these you know reverberations around like what this meant for race and racism across the country, things that and themes that then I think people were really trying to point to in the days and months that followed. There was one night, you know, we were there, things that one of those early nights where things got really sort of tense and there were buildings that were broken into, there was looting that was happening. And I spoke to some of the business owners. A lot of them are also, you know, they're immigrants. A lot them were Somali Americans. They had come to this country. And for them, you know, I could see the sort of like conflicted feelings that they were having just in their own emotions and the way that they themselves were processing this thing. For them, they were saying, you we are Black. We are perceived as Black in this country, we are Black. And then at the same time, they're saying, we're also these business owners. We are grieving, and also, we want to protect our businesses, this is our livelihood. You would see a lot of on the boarded-up businesses, signs that said minority owned, almost as a way to say, 'Hey, please don't target us, like we're in the same boat.' PANJWANI: Amy Forliti was a crime and courts reporter during the time of George Floyd's killing in 2020. Amy Forliti, editor: The centerpiece was definitely the bystander video of George Floyd's final moments. Prosecutors played that footage really early in the case. They did it the first time during their opening statement and the prosecutor then told jurors to believe your eyes and that idea of believing your eyes or believing what you see on the video right before you was a theme that prosecutors came back to throughout the trial. The defense took a different approach with that whole idea of believing what you see, and said that everyone there had a different perspective and came from a different vantage point and interpreted the events of that day differently. And the defense said that Chauvin's perspective was one of a reasonable police officer. Many of the people who did testify said that they just felt helpless, that they couldn't do anything, and they saw Floyd's life being basically snuffed out, and they couldn't do anything. The teenager who recorded that video said that it seemed Chauvin just didn't care, and she testified that she stayed up at night apologizing to George Floyd because she didn't do more to help him. I also remember some very poignant words at closing arguments. When we talk about the cause of death, prosecutor Jerry Blackwell referred to how the defense was saying that this was a heart issue that killed Floyd and that he had an enlarged heart. And the prosecutor said, and I'm paraphrasing here, but he told jurors that George Floyd didn't die because his heart was too big, but because Derek Chauvin's heart was too small. In the end, a jury of six white people and six Black or multiracial people convicted Chauvin of three counts, including unintentional second-degree murder, which was the most serious count against him. After that verdict was read, a crowd gathered in the street and started cheering and rejoicing over that. He went on to later plead guilty to a federal count of violating George Floyd's civil rights. PANJWANI: Some right-wing politicians and social media personalities have called for Chauvin to be pardoned by President Donald Trump. FORLITI: But if he does, it's really important to note that this won't impact Chauvin's state murder conviction at all. He will still have to serve out the remainder of his state sentence on the murder charge. So, he's not going to walk out of a Texas prison and be free. He would likely have to come back to Minnesota to serve the rest of his sentence. MORRISON: Folks who maybe did not understand or support such a reckoning have increasingly dismissed everything that happened in 2020 as wokeness, so-called wokeness, gone or run amok. They are hoping and advocating for Derek Chauvin to be pardoned because, in their view, this wasn't true justice. NASIR: This happened at a time where it was, of course, it was the middle of the pandemic, and we were all in lockdown and we were all just at home. And frustration, I think, in different ways had been building up for a while for a lot of people. And so when this happened, it really just touched a nerve and then it sort of lit it all on fire. Everyone was watching this because no one was going anywhere. There was nothing to distract anyone. And a lot of people were joining protests for the first time. Particularly when it came to the issue of racism in the U.S. And then, of course, in the months also that followed his initial death, Black Lives Matter as a movement sort of really spread. And the movement itself had started years earlier after the death of Trayvon Martin, but in 2020, it really took off across the country in a way that I think we had not seen before. And then it took off around the world where then folks were looking at their own interactions with police in their countries and looking at the way that racism played out in policing interactions. PANJWANI: This has been The Story Behind the Story. For more on 's race and ethnicity coverage, visit
San Francisco Chronicle
23-05-2025
- Politics
- San Francisco Chronicle
Five years later: How the murder of George Floyd changed America
WASHINGTON (AP) — The following episode of The Story Behind the AP Story contains sound and descriptions that some listeners may find graphic or violent. Listener discretion is advised. Haya Panjwani, host: In the summer of 2020, as the world was just beginning to grasp the COVID-19 pandemic, a video surfaced that would spark a movement like no other. Aaron Morrison, editor: So, on May 25, 2020, George Floyd, who was a Black man from Houston, Texas, was in Minneapolis where he'd moved to find job opportunities. PANJWANI: Aaron Morrison, the AP's race and ethnicity editor. MORRISON: And on this day, in particular, a store clerk reported that Floyd had allegedly used a counterfeit $20 bill. He was restrained by at least a few officers, one in particular named Derek Chauvin, who's a white police officer, knelt on George Floyd's neck and back for over nine minutes. Floyd was handcuffed to the ground, and while a crowd of people had assembled, essentially demanding that George Floyd be released from the hold because as a now viral and famous video of the, of the encounter shows, George Floyd repeatedly said that he could not breathe. George Floyd, in a recorded video: I can't breathe! They gon' kill me, they gon' kill me, man. PANJWANI: I'm Haya Panjwani. On this episode of the Story Behind the AP Story we revisit the murder of George Floyd five years later. We'll hear from people who were on the ground in the days immediately after Floyd's death, the trial that followed and how that summer shaped sentiments around race. Noreen Nasir is a video journalist who was in Minneapolis covering the city's reaction to the death of George Floyd. Noreen Nasir, video journalist: Initially, I think there was a lot of anger, of course, and some of that anger then turned into, you know, the images of destruction that we then saw and then I think got a lot of focus and attention in the media. Sound from protests in Minneapolis in 2020: He can't breathe, he can't breathe, he can't breathe... NASIR: But I think what was also lost in some of that focus that was very palpable on the ground was a deep sense of like sadness that a lot of folks felt. There was a lot of grief, I remember, on the ground especially at the site of the memorial. Going there at various times in the days that followed, that memorial just sort of like grew and grew and grew. There were these you know reverberations around like what this meant for race and racism across the country, things that and themes that then I think people were really trying to point to in the days and months that followed. There was one night, you know, we were there, things that one of those early nights where things got really sort of tense and there were buildings that were broken into, there was looting that was happening. And I spoke to some of the business owners. A lot of them are also, you know, they're immigrants. A lot them were Somali Americans. They had come to this country. And for them, you know, I could see the sort of like conflicted feelings that they were having just in their own emotions and the way that they themselves were processing this thing. For them, they were saying, you we are Black. We are perceived as Black in this country, we are Black. And then at the same time, they're saying, we're also these business owners. We are grieving, and also, we want to protect our businesses, this is our livelihood. You would see a lot of on the boarded-up businesses, signs that said minority owned, almost as a way to say, 'Hey, please don't target us, like we're in the same boat.' PANJWANI: Amy Forliti was a crime and courts reporter during the time of George Floyd's killing in 2020. Amy Forliti, editor: The centerpiece was definitely the bystander video of George Floyd's final moments. Prosecutors played that footage really early in the case. They did it the first time during their opening statement and the prosecutor then told jurors to believe your eyes and that idea of believing your eyes or believing what you see on the video right before you was a theme that prosecutors came back to throughout the trial. The defense took a different approach with that whole idea of believing what you see, and said that everyone there had a different perspective and came from a different vantage point and interpreted the events of that day differently. And the defense said that Chauvin's perspective was one of a reasonable police officer. Many of the people who did testify said that they just felt helpless, that they couldn't do anything, and they saw Floyd's life being basically snuffed out, and they couldn't do anything. The teenager who recorded that video said that it seemed Chauvin just didn't care, and she testified that she stayed up at night apologizing to George Floyd because she didn't do more to help him. I also remember some very poignant words at closing arguments. When we talk about the cause of death, prosecutor Jerry Blackwell referred to how the defense was saying that this was a heart issue that killed Floyd and that he had an enlarged heart. And the prosecutor said, and I'm paraphrasing here, but he told jurors that George Floyd didn't die because his heart was too big, but because Derek Chauvin's heart was too small. In the end, a jury of six white people and six Black or multiracial people convicted Chauvin of three counts, including unintentional second-degree murder, which was the most serious count against him. After that verdict was read, a crowd gathered in the street and started cheering and rejoicing over that. He went on to later plead guilty to a federal count of violating George Floyd's civil rights. PANJWANI: Some right-wing politicians and social media personalities have called for Chauvin to be pardoned by President Donald Trump. FORLITI: But if he does, it's really important to note that this won't impact Chauvin's state murder conviction at all. He will still have to serve out the remainder of his state sentence on the murder charge. So, he's not going to walk out of a Texas prison and be free. He would likely have to come back to Minnesota to serve the rest of his sentence. MORRISON: Folks who maybe did not understand or support such a reckoning have increasingly dismissed everything that happened in 2020 as wokeness, so-called wokeness, gone or run amok. They are hoping and advocating for Derek Chauvin to be pardoned because, in their view, this wasn't true justice. NASIR: This happened at a time where it was, of course, it was the middle of the pandemic, and we were all in lockdown and we were all just at home. And frustration, I think, in different ways had been building up for a while for a lot of people. And so when this happened, it really just touched a nerve and then it sort of lit it all on fire. Everyone was watching this because no one was going anywhere. There was nothing to distract anyone. And a lot of people were joining protests for the first time. Particularly when it came to the issue of racism in the U.S. And then, of course, in the months also that followed his initial death, Black Lives Matter as a movement sort of really spread. And the movement itself had started years earlier after the death of Trayvon Martin, but in 2020, it really took off across the country in a way that I think we had not seen before. And then it took off around the world where then folks were looking at their own interactions with police in their countries and looking at the way that racism played out in policing interactions.
Fox News
23-02-2025
- Politics
- Fox News
Minnesota Muslims and Somali Americans speak out on politics, faith and being open to Trump in 2024
In Minnesota, Muslims and Somali Americans talked politics, religion and how their votes were swayed in the 2024 election. Some showed a new affinity for the Republican Party under Donald Trump. "Somalis were inherently Democrats," Salman Fiqy told Fox News Digital. Fiqy explained further that the first wave of Somali immigrants came to the U.S. in the late 90s and engaged in politics during the Obama era. "So that's why they saw themselves aligned with Democrats and then things have changed for the worse with the Democrats," Fiqy said. Fiqy is an outspoken Republican and conservative who has publicly endorsed President Donald Trump. He confidently told Fox News Digital that many Somalians voted for President Trump. The top issue was education, the Minneapolis local said. "The LGBTQ agendas pushing towards kids, where we tend to have big families, we value kids and … We see things from a conservative lens," Fiqy said. A majority of the Somali population is Muslim, government data states. Somali Americans' support for the Democratic Party has dropped since the 2020 presidential election of President Joe Biden. In Cedar-Riverside in Minnesota, the home to many Somali immigrants, support for Democratic Presidential Nominee Kamala Harris dropped 14 points. Over 25,000 Somali Americans live in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Many fled their country's civil war in the 1990s. The Cedar-Riverside neighborhood has traditionally been home to immigrants, including Swedes, Norwegians, and Danes. Currently, Somalians are the predominant group in the community, establishing several businesses and a "Somali Mall" in Cedar-Riverside. "They [Somali Americans] were very scared of how their children would be brought up in that situation, and they preferred to vote for Trump with those views, even though they knew Trump was coming with the baggage, and they preferred to take on the baggage," Fatmata told Fox News Digital. A "copy practitioner," Fatmata owns a business in Karmel Mall, located in the Whittier neighborhood in Minneapolis. Karmel is the first Somali shopping center in the U.S., hosting a plethora of Somali businesses, including barbershops, restaurants, clothing stores, electronic retail and hair salons. Fatmata is not Somalian and identifies as Black. She told Fox News Digital that she is Muslim and often engages with the Somali community. Her business provides copy that "aligns more with the Islamic view of copying." She planted her business in the Somali shopping center because it was easier to find clients. She added that Muslim values drove her counterparts and Somali Americans to vote. "I think one of the main issues with Muslims voting … specifically voting for Trump, is because of issues that align with their religious values, that they felt like things were going too much to the right, and they did not agree with those things," Fatmata said. Trump also gained Muslim voters last election, more than his opponent, former Vice President Kamala Harris, an exit poll from The Council on American-Islamic Relations states. Fatmata told Fox News Digital that many Somali Americans did not like Trump's rhetoric on deportations, yet still voted for the Republican candidate. "We knew it was coming. It was those choices we had to make knowing that these are the things he stands for, that perhaps we don't agree as the minority community." One business owner in Karmel told Fox News Digital that he voted for Trump because of his pro-business policies. "I support and I voted [for] Mr. Trump last time. A few things … [I] think it was better for the business because, since I'm a business guy and the tax break that he was giving us also. Yeah, that was the reason that I support it," a business owner who did not want to disclose his identity told Fox News Digital in an audio recording. Over in Cedar-Riverside, Fox News Digital spoke with a neighborhood pharmacist who said that Somali Americans don't have anything in common with Trump. "I don't think any Somali person, including me or my family, or even as a Somali in general, supported him. I mean, what does he have in common with the Somali community? What are you going to ask for yourself? I mean, there's no commonality," said a pharmacist who worked at Cedar Pharmacy in the Somali Mall. "I don't see any illegal immigrants here. The United States has always been a country for immigrants from the beginning," the Somalian pharmacist said. Across the street from Cedar Pharmacy, another business owner named Salah who ran a restaurant called Barakalaa Somali Cuisine shared a conflicting statement. When asked whether Somalians supported Trump, he responded "yes." "I see everybody all together in the community vote for the candidate," Salah said. Fatmata said that the choice was not easy for Muslims and Somali Americans. "Do we vote for him to protect our children's religious views, plus everything else that he has? Perhaps, last time it was the Muslim ban and those things. Do we still vote for him versus do we sell out our children's religious upbringing and take that? So, it's a lot. But, people had to weigh that," Fatmata said. "The ones who voted for him. And I think some of these things, when it comes to your children that are dear and near to us, they just had to take some really bitter pills. And I think that's why some people voted for him, not because they wanted to vote for him 100%, but he may have been just the better choice or option because they felt like it was just better for their children."
