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Portland Observer
Online
‘City of Roses’
Volume XLIV
Number 44
No Place
to Call Home
‘Peace Officer’
Documentary
A housing crisis
with no clear
answers
A former sheriff
investigates
police tactics
See Local News, page 3
See Metro, page 9
www.portlandobserver.com
Wednesday • October 14, 2015
Established in 1970
Committed to Cultural Diversity
photo by o livia o livia /t he p ortland o bserver
Elsa Mengis of Portland (left) fights to keep her adult son from being deported out of the country because of his immigration status, drawing support from a family
friend, Sonya Damtew, in front of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement building in Portland.
Mother fights for
son to stay in the
United States
by o livia o livia
t he p ortland o bserver
One Portland family is doing everything
it can to keep their adult son, a nearly life-
long Portland resident, from being deport-
ed to a war-torn country in Africa because
of his immigration status.
Thomas Amanuel, 38, was just a one
year old child when he left Eritrea with his
mother, Elsa Mengis, right before a mili-
tary coup deposed the country’s emperor.
The family lived hidden for three years
before coming to the United States, and
Detention
Limbo
when they arrived here they were not fa-
miliar with the process of fully naturaliz-
ing. Years later, Amanuel said he had no
idea he was undocumented, and today he
has spent almost four years in immigra-
tion detention, while his elderly mother
and community fight for him to stay in the
United States.
Before being locked up, Amanuel was
the main caretaker for his elderly moth-
er, who is a U.S. citizen. The caring rela-
tionship has drawn the support of Caring
Across Generations, an organization that
has gathered over 5,000 signatures in sup-
port of stopping his deportation.
On Wednesday, the group, along with
supporters from Portland’s Center for In-
tercultural Organizing, delivered their
signatures to the federal Immigration and
Customs Enforcement building, down-
town, holding signs and raising their voic-
es in hopes that they could keep him from
being deported.
If deported, Amanuel could be sent back
to a country he does not know, and which
has no record of him due to the political
instability and changing regimes.
At this point, he is housed at an immi-
gration detention center in Bakersfield,
Calif., where he awaits the next step. It
is unclear where things might go, since
the government cannot immediately de-
C ontinued on p age 8