Articles by SA STAFF

(St. Paul, MN; June 8, 2018) World Without Genocide announces a new youth advocacy and action program, the Benjamin B. Ferencz Young Fellows in Human Rights and Law. Fellowships will be awarded to five Summer Institute students who have participated in the 2018 Institute, Climate Change and Genocide: Sexual Violence and Disaster. Students will work on core areas of human rights including advocacy, communications, education, and outreach to support initiatives at city and state levels in the 2018-2019 academic year. High school and college students are encouraged to apply. More information is available at www.worldwithoutgenocide.org/about-us/young-fellows or 651-695-7621. World Without Genocide promotes education and action to protect innocent people, prevent genocide, prosecute perpetrators, and remember those affected by genocide.  

Two months ago, Fardousa Jama did something no other Muslim woman in south-central Minnesota has done: she filed to run for a city council seat in Mankato. Then on the Fourth of July, Jama took to the streets with her 8-year-old niece, Mai, for a door-knocking campaign, an experience she hoped would help her better connect with area constituents and learn more about issues that are important to them. But a few minutes into the effort, one thing became apparent to Jama: going door-to-door in Mankato might be a lot more difficult for a Somali-American, hijab-wearing female candidate like her than she had imagined. More than once, Jama said, people she solicited for votes responded to her with racially charged comments — “go back to where you came from” and “we don’t support a terrorist” — before slamming the door in her face. Worse yet, she added, an elderly white man even spat on her before telling her to get off his property. After the spitting incident, Jama decided she didn’t want her niece to see the mistreatment she endured. So Jama quickly returned home to rethink her campaign strategy. Jama’s experience isn’t uncommon among Muslim American candidates seeking political…

On a recent afternoon, as Naima Dhore wandered around her organic farm in Marine on St. Croix, she recalled how far she came to find her niche three years ago as one of a handful of Somali farmers in Minnesota. Long before the breakthrough, Dhore had yearned for a space where she could grow produce with her husband and their two young sons, a space she could use to encourage a healthy lifestyle among her friends and members of the East African community. Back then, Dhore was thinking of participating in one of the community garden initiatives that provide immigrants and other underrepresented groups with opportunities to grow food in the Twin Cities with the help of nonprofit organizations. So to familiarize herself with the urban farming system, Dhore turned to YouTube to see how people — especially immigrants from Somalia — grow their gardens and what they have to say about the experience. On YouTube, Dhore came across more than she had expected. She didn’t just find someone to explain their experience at a nonprofit-funded community garden in Minneapolis or St. Paul — she found the inspiring story of Mohamed Gaabane, a Somali and proud owner of a 40-acre farm…

On a recent Friday evening, over a dozen young immigrant players from Ethiopia, Mexico and Somalia showed up in various European soccer jerseys at the East Phillips Park in Minneapolis. All of them wanted to play, but the soccer field could only hold 12 people at once. So they divided themselves into three teams — with two groups playing against each other, and the third one waiting outside to replace whichever team lost first. They had no coach to supervise them and no referee to enforce the rules of the game. Instead, the players assigned their own positions and called their own fouls. The system seemed to work well until a goalie, who asked to play forward, was left with two options: leave the field or remain a goalkeeper. (He chose the latter.) Though each player wore a random jersey, which made it difficult to differentiate between the teams, it was easy to spot Yimer Woldeyes, an Ethiopian-born teenager who dominated the midfield with his speed, near-perfect ball control and masterful passes. Even with such skills, though, Woldeyes — like many of his immigrant and refugee friends — has never really imagined playing in professional leagues in Minnesota. That isn’t…

MAAH-MAAHYO WAXA LA YIRI SOOMAALIDU BEEN WEY SHEEGTAA LAAKIIN BEEN MA MAAHMAAHDO: HALKAN HOOSE KA AGKHRISO  QAAR KA MID AH MAAHMAAHYADA SOOMAALIDA: Ummad aan dhigaal laahayni, waa dhaayo aan arag lahayn Haddii deg-degsiimo door la bido, kaadsiimana kiish lacag ah ayeey dhashaa Nin weligaaba ma gaadhid. Waa ninka kaa naaag fiican. Hadal waa mergi oo kale Tol waa tolane Rag calooshii la ciyaar iyo cill kama kore ayaw u daran, dumarna cirkeed bogato iyo casar seexato ayaw daran Male rag waa mudacyo afkood Nin yar inta uu geed ka boodo ayuu talona ka boodaa Gaalka dil, gartiisana sii Waano dhalan baa ka adag Barasho horteed ha i nicin Oodo dhacameed siday u kala sareeyaan baa loo kala guraa Rag waxa u liita ma toshe, ma tashade iyo ma tashiishe Xaqqu feeraha ayuu ka dilaacaa Gafuur cawo ninkiisa ayuu dhibaa War la qabaa xiiso male Geel rag iyo rabbi baa dhaqa Nin qoyani biyo iskama dhawro Ragow barasho, geeloow rarasho Af jooga looma adeego

News headlines these days are filled with dark stories about immigration: children separated from their migrant parents, refugees barred from entering the U.S. and undocumented residents returned to countries they barely know. But on the tennis court of Matthews Park in Minneapolis, there’s a different kind of story unfolding: half a dozen immigrants from Bosnia, India, Russia and Somalia are catching up on a missed-out childhood experience: riding a bike. Even in their 30s, 40s and 50s, the student cyclists participate in a month-long program, Learn to Ride, which teaches adults how to bike. It’s a popular program of the Twin Cities-based nonprofit Cycles for Change, which is aimed at increasing diversity among bicyclists in the Twin Cities. On a recent late morning, Nima Abdirahman, a Somali-born participating in the Learn to Ride program, walked into the training field with a helmet, adjusted the seat of a waiting bike and hopped on it as she examined how students around her biked. It was the last day of the class, but Abdirahman and some of the student cyclists weren’t exactly where they needed to be to continue biking on their own after completing the program — at least during the first 15 minutes of the…

Many of President Donald Trump’s moves since taking office could be characterized by upheaval and unpredictability, but at least one set of policies has resulted in an entirely unsurprising outcome: Members of Minnesota’s Congressional delegation who represent the Twin Cities area have seen a substantial increase in the stream of constituents seeking help with immigration cases. “We have experienced a noticeable increase in … more complex cases involving prolonged detention, deportations of long-term U.S. residents with U.S. citizen families [and] delayed applications,” Jamie Long, Rep. Keith Ellison’s deputy chief of staff, said in an email. During the first three months of 2016, for instance, Ellison’s Minneapolis office received 24 immigration-related requests from constituents. Over the same period this year, the number grew to 60. Sens. Amy Klobuchar and Tina Smith likewise have seen an increase in the number of immigrants and refugees searching for answers regarding many of the policies implemented by the Trump administration, though both offices were unable to provide specific numbers. For constituents with questions or concerns about immigration cases, congressional offices offer a range of services, include expediting pending applications and securing appointments with the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services(USCIS), the federal agency that handles immigration-related…

In 1998, when John Keller joined the St. Paul-based Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota(ILCM) as an immigration attorney, he would often drive to Worthington, where hundreds of low-income immigrants and refugees depended on the organization’s free legal services. “We would do workshops, answer a bunch of questions, do in-takes and represent whoever we could help,” said Keller. Then one day in 2006, a year after he was named ILMC’s executive director, federal immigration agents raided a meatpacking plant in the southern Minnesota city, picking up more than 200 workers — an incident that frightened foreign-born residents in the area. To effectively respond to the raids, Keller needed to hire a full-time attorney, increase staff presence in the city and take on more legal cases to help detainees and their families. But doing so without a physical location in the city proved difficult for Keller and his team. So in 2009, the organization opened its first satellite office in Worthington, a city that has rapidly diversified over the last two decades, largely because of immigrant population growth. Six years later, ILCM opened an office in Moorhead and then, in 2016, a third one in Austin — cities that have also seen an influx of…