Mohammad Abdollahi speaks

By Todd A. Heywood | 05.20.10 | 12:19 am

One of three undocumented youth facing deportation after being arrested protesting for passage of the DREAM Act at the Tucson offices of Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) is speaking out. In an interview with Michigan Messenger, Mohammad Abdollahi, a 24 year old undocumented youth from Iran, discusses what motivated him to take this action, his fears facing deportation to Iran where he could face execution for being gay, and his desire to see the DREAM Act become law.

Abdollahi is currently in Arizona. He was released early Wednesday morning by federal immigration officials, but he faces not only immigration hearings and possible deportation, but also a misdemeanor trespassing charge for his Monday sit-in at McCain’s office in Tucson.

Abdollahi came to Ann Arbor with his family when he was three so his father could pursue a Ph.D. program at the University of Michigan. When he was about 8 or 9, he says, a “credit card error” lead to his parents being denied a change in immigration status. Due to an error with an immigration attorney, Abdollahi’s parents underpaid their application fee by $20.

In a ten minute phone interview, Abdollahi answered a wide range of questions from Michigan Messenger. Here are some excerpts from that interview.

On what motivated him to risk deportation to a country where he could face execution:

“For us, we realized that we have a lot of privilege. We’ve been organizing, some of us for 9 years, some of us for four years, on the DREAM Act within communities. So we realized that if anything were ever to happen to any of us we would have thousands of supporters out there that would rally for us, and that would work for us. And so we weren’t afraid of anything negative happening because we knew that we had that support behind us, whereas other undocumented youth that we work with on a daily basis, they don’t have that same support system there. Even as I was sitting in ICE detention I was in a room with about 8 or 9 different guys and three or four of them were DREAM Act beneficiaries. And I was talking with them and we were sharing stories and you know talking to each other and at the end of the day, seven of them were deported and I was the only one that was left in the cell until about five or six o’clock. And so even that comparison, I am here with all this privilege and I am doing nothing about it when these people don’t have that same thing for them and they’re getting deported left and right. As more privileged undocumented youth that are out there, that are putting ourselves out there we have to take bigger risks at this point so that we can guarantee that the DREAM Act does pass.”

Whether he is worried he will be deported:

“Honestly, I have not given it much thought at all. It is something I should probably be worried about since my risks are pretty high. But at the same time, I would put my life any day in the hands of all of the youth I work with and I know they will be there for me. And if we can pass the DREAM Act, that won’t be an issue at all. Because we can all fix our status under the DREAM Act.”

And he has a message for U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow, who has not signed on as a sponsor of the DREAM legislation:

“She did vote for it in 2007. But at this point, essentially what I ask of her is that, you know, we know you’re going to be a supporter, but we need you to take a risk — just as we all took a risk — and put your name on the bill, and literally, co-sign the bill to prove to us that you’re willing to take that risk and be that leader for our community.”

In response to the outpouring of support by groups not traditionally focused on immigration issues, particularly the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community, Abdollahi said:

“We’ve been working for a very long time as a youth movement for the DREAM Act, a large percentage of our leaders are actually queer. And so for us it’s a big sigh of relief in terms of, for a long time we’ve been saying this is a movement that crosses many different lines, many different ages, many different ethnicities. It’s just a relief to see so many people coming out finally and supporting us. That’s kind of what the driving force behind this action was. To force people to come out of their comfort zone and really see the realities of the issue as we see it.”

In the interview, Abdollahi was asked about why he had not pursued a path to citizenship and he noted that there are really only two options for that: Get married or obtain a high degree in a desired field of education. But for Abdollahi and other gay, undocumented youth, marriage is not an option.

“Whenever we see immigration attorneys, the first thing they tell us is, ‘Why don’t you get married?’ And we tell them, we’re gay, we’re queer, we can’t get married. And they still say the same thing, ‘Well you can still try.’ So for us, there is even less option.”

For time considerations, Abdollahi’s response about his family’s response to his action has been cut from the audio. He declined to discuss how his family, who knew he was gay before these recent events, has been responding to his sexuality and to the national attention their son has received as a result of his very public protest.

Interview: Mohammad Abdollahi Part 1: