Homeland Security and U.S. Immigration Officials Meet with Chaldean Community
Left to right: Mick Dedvukaj, Steve Francis, Martin Manna, and James C. Harris III.
By Cal Abbo
The Chaldean Community Foundation hosted officials from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on Monday for a discussion with immigration lawyers from the Chaldean community.
The discussion was led by Martin Manna, president of the Chaldean Community Foundation and featured unique perspectives from three top immigration officials: Midwest District Director of USCIS Mick Dedvukaj, Acting Executive Associate Director of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Steve Francis, and Deputy Special Agent in Charge of HSI James C. Harris III.
Dedvukaj oversees the Midwest offices that handle lawful immigration processes. His agencies are beefing up as they plan to tackle an enormous backlog of interviews and requests from immigrants that piled up throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.
Dedvukaj mentioned that with the new administration, refugee allowance has increased exponentially. The President has promised to take in 100,000 Ukrainian refugees, for example, and in Detroit, there are a number of new Afghani refugees that need to be taken care of.
The Chaldean immigration attorneys were also given time to ask questions. One key concern was the large number of Chaldeans waiting in Lebanon or Jordan to come to the U.S. Some refugees, the attorneys noted, have waited for up to seven years in these foreign countries.
Francis, who grew up in Southfield, takes inspiration for his work from his own experience as a Chaldean immigrant. Born in Beirut, he focuses on combatting transnational crime like human trafficking, drug smuggling, and other national security investigations while supporting legal immigration. As a 19-year-old, he applied for citizenship on his own without any legal help. At the meeting, Francis was reunited with some of his childhood friends.
Francis was involved in the recent return of the Gilgamesh Dream Tablet to its home country of Iraq. The 3,600-year-old clay tablet was stolen from an Iraq museum in the early 2000s during the invasion of Iraq. Francis himself was one of the officers stationed in the country to protect artifacts just like this from the pervasive looting. Less than a year ago, the tablet was returned to Iraq after an agent found it in a Hobby Lobby museum in Washington, D.C.
Those in the meeting also discussed the enormous problem of undocumented immigrants in the country. Most agreed that they deserve some kind of status that gives them the ability to live in relative comfort without fear of being caught, deported, and separated from their family. Many undocumented immigrants, Dedvukaj noted, are married to citizens and have children who are citizens.
Peter Antone, a notable Chaldean attorney with deep roots in immigration law, said that legal immigration in the U.S. is too restrictive. “The long term solution to becoming firm against illegal immigration is to open up legally,” he said. “We need more opportunities for legal ways to immigrate. Then we can really look at illegal immigrants and ask why they’re still coming illegally.”
Antone noted that the U.S. can never conduct background checks or interviews on illegal immigrants since they are never registered anywhere and largely unknown to the government. Current figures estimate as many as 12 million undocumented immigrants reside in the U.S.
For Harris, who has been in this position for fewer than two years and is originally from Ohio, this was his first visit to the Chaldean Community Foundation. He and the foundation look forward to strengthening their bond and continuing to work together as Harris cements his position in the Detroit area and Michigan at large.