Author: Holly Puza
Editor: Madison Schwartz
Fall 2022
A hopeful father purchased an eight-passenger van nearly six and a half years ago. Two years had passed since he was forced to flee his home in Somalia or since he had seen his family. Yet, he finally expected to reunite his household after filing a petition for his wife and ten children to arrive in the United States on family-based migration visas.
This father bought a minivan believing the American immigration system would reunite his separated family promptly. He expected that his children would quickly fill its seats. The eight-passenger van instead sat empty over the next five years.
This story of familial separation is not uncommon in Barron, WI. The ongoing Somali Civil War forced over 800,000 refugees to flee their homes. Millions of families were displaced in Somalia, thousands were forcefully relocated to neighboring countries, and others landed in our home of the American Midwest. Between 10,000 and 30,000 Somalis relocated to Minneapolis-Saint Paul, MN, with the promise of low-skilled manufacturing jobs and quick arrival of their separated family members.
However, the reality of their relocation was stark because low-skilled manufacturing jobs in the city were scarce. Lower crime rates, lower cost of living, and low-skilled labor shortage in small communities led many Somali migrants to make yet another move to the rural, northwestern part of our state. The Somali population increased by over 600% between 1990 and 2010 in the small town of Barron, WI. Approximately 400 Somali residents now encompass the town's total population of 3,000.
Somali migrants made a home in the small community. The Jennie-O meat processing plant in Barron offered stable work. In addition, local initiatives sprung up to accommodate Somali culture — from hosting ESL programs and literacy services to diversity training and stores stocking Somali food.
Yet, many Somali residents of Barron found themselves unable to share their experiences with their families.
At least 20 families in the Barron community are still awaiting immigration processing for family members categorized as refugees. Some visa petitions and affidavits of relationship were filed by these Somali residents as long as 2011. For years, families have received little response or concern for their separated spouses or teenage children, some of whom are in high-crime urban areas. These teenagers live alone or in sibling groups without supervision or immediate support.
The Barron County refugee crisis reflects an issue much more extensive — and structural — than a town of 3,000 can handle. The closest immigration and refugee service is nearly 2 hours away from Barron, WI. The backlogged immigration cases increasing from 1.3 to almost 1.9 million under the Biden administration only further contributes to the historic short-staffed and overworked American immigration services.
Families and community members created the "purple group" Immigrant Advocates of Barron County (IABC) due to the inaccessibility of immigration legal services, support and the systemic neglect of their familial separation. On affected families' behalf, advocacy groups and Barron families have pursued inquiries with federal agencies. As a result, they have successfully resolved short-term, more minor immigration issues, including green cards, passports, and processing nuances. Few materially significant gains, however, have been realized since the organization's creation in 2018.
Wisconsin state representatives have noticed pleas from the IABC to resolve their familial separations, though they have largely failed to take substantive action to support these families. Nancy Pike, a founder of the IABC, describes that a WI Republican representative celebrated with a Barron County study group as they prepared to take the United States naturalization exam. Support for the cause has been bi-partisan — yet WI representatives have failed to obtain lasting solutions to the underlying structural failings that have left separated families pursuing inquiry and assistance.
The federal bi-partisan lack of legislative action for suffering families within the immigration system also presents severe implications for the Barron community. Broader Notice to Appear (NTA) policies under the Trump administration permitted denying family-based green cards from consideration of the applicant's health, age, education, assets, and English fluency. Affecting Barron families, the Trump administration issued over 400 actions on immigration to limit asylum applications with attacks on family-based "chain" migration I-730 and I-130 visas — the categories Barron families apply through.
Despite promises to alleviate the overburdened immigration system — the Biden administration upheld Title 42 and expelled more migrants under the policy than the Trump administration. The Biden administration also prioritized Ukrainian and Afghan refugees in a considerably short timeframe that required extensive resource and time reallocation away from traditional refugee programs and from Barron and other Wisconsin families who have been waiting 7+ years for case decisions.
Migrants — Ukrainian, Afghan, and Somali alike — deserve refugee protection and family-based relocation. Yet federal policies arbitrarily shifting resources from certain migrant populations or targeting specific migration travel have politicized the immigration system. And, with it, families' lives.
Individual fathers and mothers have pleaded through the broken immigration system with no response other than notifications of "case pending" and bureaucratic file transfers. The IABC campaign has received little material aid or national political attention from their action, including no response from their open letters to the Biden administration. Desperate for reunification, families considered planning a trip to Capitol Square to rally attention for their crisis. COVID-19 and disillusionment delayed their last-resort call for federal help.
Nancy Pike did describe one positive development from the organization: four children relocated to Barron within the last year — all belonging to the father who purchased the van for his family many years earlier. While the seats have slowly filled since its purchase in 2016, half of the household is still separated by an ocean and a backlog of nearly 2 million other struggling families. Over 20 families in Barron still have yet to see their children and spouses.
The Barron community worked hard to attempt to accommodate their new Somali residents, despite incredible challenges along the way. But unfortunately, the United States immigration system has not. Democrat or Republican, state or federal, representatives have seemingly overlooked the call of these desperate families — contributing to the separation of households and a half-empty car still awaiting the arrival of six other family members.
The bi-partisan failure to repair the ongoing separation of refugee family members from their United States citizen sponsors requires a bi-partisan solution. You can help the Barron community locally by providing legal or English language assistance, family reunification advocacy, or joining support groups for overseas teenagers and young adults separated from their American siblings and parents.
On a state and federal level, we must pressure our politicians finally to acknowledge their constituents' disapproval in actively allowing the separation of Barron families. We must recognize the consequences of politicizing a system that families depend on for their well-being. Politically-driven changes to federal policies have lasting and inexpressible effects on people across the United States or beside us.
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