Refugees & Immigrants
The George Gund Foundation stands with those who are victims of weaponized language and political spin. We do so with our words, with our grants to agencies that work for immigrant and refugee justice and also with the powerful images presented in this annual report by acclaimed photographer Fazal Sheikh. Even when words may fail, these pictures of refugees and immigrants in Northeast Ohio make their statement in the language of photography, of art.
This photo essay lets them be seen – to the extent they wish to be seen, for some feared showing their faces. Even with that limitation, they make the simple but essential point that they are human beings with all of the emotions that any of us would feel in their circumstances. They remind us that the immigration debate is not about the politicians whose words may obscure or distort their lives.
-
Rusi, Democratic Republic of the Congo, arrived in the United States on April 12, 2016
-
Justine, genocide survivor, Democratic Republic of the Congo, arrived in the United States on May 9, 2019
-
Name withheld to protect privacy and the threat of refoulment, Latin America, arrived in the United States on March 27, 2019
-
Aline, newly arrived refugee from the Democratic Republic of the Congo holding scallion flowers harvested at the Ohio City Farm of The Refugee Response
-
Abdelrahman, before Jumu’ah (Friday Prayer) during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, Darfur, Sudan, arrived in the United States on December 3, 2015
-
The ascension of Jesus to heaven witnessed by the Saints, ceiling fresco, St. Vitus Church, Cleveland, Ohio
-
Carina, Mexico, after Sunday Mass, Sacred Heart Chapel
-
Abdelrahman, before Jumu’ah (Friday Prayer) during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, Darfur, Sudan, arrived in the United States on December 3, 2015
-
Statue of the Christ Child, St. Vitus Church, Cleveland, Ohio
-
Mohammad, Syria, arrived in the United States on June 27, 2016 and currently attending high school in Cleveland, Ohio
-
Catherine, Democratic Republic of the Congo, arrived in the United States on April 25, 2017
-
Grace, Democratic Republic of the Congo, arrived in the United States on August 31, 2016 with her husband and eight children
-
Statue of Liberty, Legal immigration wing, Migration and Refugee Services conference room, Cleveland, Ohio
-
Mulanda, Democratic Republic of the Congo, arrived in the United States on February 13, 2017
-
Beneziane, Democratic Republic of the Congo, arrived in the United States on June 27, 2016 and currently attending high school in Cleveland, Ohio
-
Mahamat, Darfur, Sudan, arrived in the United States on September 21, 2015 and currently attending high school in Cleveland, Ohio
-
Mahamat, Darfur, Sudan, arrived in the United States on September 21, 2015 and currently attending high school in Cleveland, Ohio
-
Catherine, Democratic Republic of the Congo, arrived in the United States on April 25, 2017
-
Adam, Darfur, Sudan, arrived in the United States on December 3, 2015 and granted American citizenship in 2019
-
Adam, Darfur, Sudan, arrived in the United States on December 3, 2015 and granted American citizenship in 2019
-
Geauga County Safety Center serves as county jail and detention facility for federal immigration refugees brought by the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Chardon, Ohio. ICE transfers $75 to the county for each day a detainee is incarcerated. With a capacity of 182, ICE reportedly holds between 60 to 90 detainees on any given day, which results in millions of dollars of revenue for the county each year. ICE maintains sole discretion for the length of incarceration. Ansly Damus, a Haitian asylum seeker, has remained in the Geauga County Safety Center for more than two years despite three approvals of his asylum request. In a protest at the facility in July 2019, Holocaust survivor Roman Frayman cited Albert Einstein: “The world is too dangerous to live in, not because of the people who do evil, but because of the people who sit and let it happen.”
-
United States Customs and Border Patrol, Sandusky Bay Station, Ohio. In 2015, a suit filed in court by two organizations representing migrant farmworkers alleged border patrol agents in the area targeted individuals for traffic stops, questioning, and apprehensions based upon their Hispanic appearance. In 2017, in the case of Muniz-Muniz v. United States Border Patrol, the Sixth Circuit Court determined insufficient evidence to support the claims.
-
Northeast Ohio Correctional Center, Youngstown, Ohio. A privately-owned detention facility, the center is situated down a road away from public land and surrounded by barbed wire. Security teams are tasked with evicting trespassers. Though the facility has a capacity of only 260, it recently increased the number of undocumented detainees captured along the southern Mexico-US border to 350.
-
Ana, El Salvador, two days before her husband was deported from the United States to El Salvador and banned from returning to the United States for ten years
-
Ana, holding the protective amulet her mother-in-law gave her as blessing for the journey from El Salvador northward to be reunited with her husband in the United States
-
Ana’s daughter, Kenya Vanessa, El Salvador
-
Name withheld to protect privacy. "On the morning we left our village for the journey north, my daughter went to school as usual, not realizing that she would not return to our home that day or perhaps forever. In the afternoon, when the time for recess at the school approached, I closed the door to our home behind me and went to the school to collect her, leading her to the chapel in the village rather than back home. My mother was waiting at the entrance and after greeting us she took our hands and drew us inside, drawing forth some holy water and sprinkling it on our shoes as blessing for the journey. As we stepped back onto the street, we said our goodbyes and boarded a bus, leaving our home village and my mother behind. It is my mother whom I miss most when thinking of my former life."
-
Our Lady of Guadalupe, Sacred Heart Chapel, Lorain, Ohio
-
Maua, Burundi, arrived in the United States on June 2, 2018
-
Khwater Nayef, from Iraq, arrived in the United States on August 31, 2007 and currently the Refugee Student Coordinator at the Multilingual Multicultural Education Department, Cleveland Metropolitan School District, Cleveland, Ohio
-
Chol, survivor of torture, South Sudan, arrived in the United States on January 28, 2019 and recently granted asylum
-
Chol, South Sudan, arrived in the United States on January 28, 2019 and currently in his last year of high school with dreams of playing basketball in college and using his talents to one day sponsor the rest of his family for resettlement from South Sudan to the United States
-
St. Vitus Church, Cleveland, Ohio
-
Name withheld to protect privacy, El Salvador
-
St. Vitus Church, Cleveland, Ohio
-
Marie, Democratic Republic of the Congo, arrived in the United States on November 28, 2018
-
On June 29, 2018, more than 100 agents from the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Homeland Security, and US Customs and Border Patrol (CBP), backed by helicopter air support, executed a criminal search warrant and raided the Fresh Mark packaging plant in Salem, Ohio. The raid lead to the arrest and detention of 146 individuals who were deemed to be illegal immigrants, primarily from Guatemala. The arrests impacted hundreds of families who were given refugee at the Centro San Pablo Community Center, run by St. Paul Church, which navigated the situation for and offered legal services in partnership with Catholic Charities to the children who were impacted by the unexpected detention of their parents. Those detained were held at the Northeast Ohio Correctional Center and the Geauga County Jail. In the intervening months, many of the men who were not detained moved away from the region while others took jobs on local farms.
-
On June 5, 2018, following an investigation started in 2017 and conducted by the US Department of Homeland Security, federal immigration agents arrested 114 workers at Corso’s Flower and Garden Center in Sandusky, Ohio. Part of the crackdown on undocumented workers, the raid was undertaken during the weeks in which family separations were being conducted on the US-Mexico border.
-
Masoka, Refugee Services Program, Democratic Republic of the Congo, arrived in the United States on May 1, 2018
-
Yaaroub, Iraq, arrived in the United States on August 5, 2014
-
Veronica wiping the face of Jesus at the sixth station of the cross, St. Vitus Church, Cleveland, Ohio. Tradition suggests that Veronica was moved with sympathy when she witnessed Jesus carrying his cross to Golgotha, offering him her veil to wipe his forehead. On accepting her offer, Jesus held it to his face, then handed it back, his image impressed upon it. The piece of cloth became known as the Veil of Veronica.
-
Hezekia and Grace’s daughter, Anna, Democratic Republic of the Congo, arrived in the United States on August 31, 2016
Rusi, Democratic Republic of the Congo, arrived in the United States on April 12, 2016
Justine, genocide survivor, Democratic Republic of the Congo, arrived in the United States on May 9, 2019
Name withheld to protect privacy and the threat of refoulment, Latin America, arrived in the United States on March 27, 2019
Aline, newly arrived refugee from the Democratic Republic of the Congo holding scallion flowers harvested at the Ohio City Farm of The Refugee Response
Abdelrahman, before Jumu’ah (Friday Prayer) during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, Darfur, Sudan, arrived in the United States on December 3, 2015
The ascension of Jesus to heaven witnessed by the Saints, ceiling fresco, St. Vitus Church, Cleveland, Ohio
Carina, Mexico, after Sunday Mass, Sacred Heart Chapel
Abdelrahman, before Jumu’ah (Friday Prayer) during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, Darfur, Sudan, arrived in the United States on December 3, 2015
Statue of the Christ Child, St. Vitus Church, Cleveland, Ohio
Mohammad, Syria, arrived in the United States on June 27, 2016 and currently attending high school in Cleveland, Ohio
Catherine, Democratic Republic of the Congo, arrived in the United States on April 25, 2017
Grace, Democratic Republic of the Congo, arrived in the United States on August 31, 2016 with her husband and eight children
Statue of Liberty, Legal immigration wing, Migration and Refugee Services conference room, Cleveland, Ohio
Mulanda, Democratic Republic of the Congo, arrived in the United States on February 13, 2017
Beneziane, Democratic Republic of the Congo, arrived in the United States on June 27, 2016 and currently attending high school in Cleveland, Ohio
Mahamat, Darfur, Sudan, arrived in the United States on September 21, 2015 and currently attending high school in Cleveland, Ohio
Mahamat, Darfur, Sudan, arrived in the United States on September 21, 2015 and currently attending high school in Cleveland, Ohio
Catherine, Democratic Republic of the Congo, arrived in the United States on April 25, 2017
Adam, Darfur, Sudan, arrived in the United States on December 3, 2015 and granted American citizenship in 2019
Adam, Darfur, Sudan, arrived in the United States on December 3, 2015 and granted American citizenship in 2019
Geauga County Safety Center serves as county jail and detention facility for federal immigration refugees brought by the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Chardon, Ohio. ICE transfers $75 to the county for each day a detainee is incarcerated. With a capacity of 182, ICE reportedly holds between 60 to 90 detainees on any given day, which results in millions of dollars of revenue for the county each year. ICE maintains sole discretion for the length of incarceration. Ansly Damus, a Haitian asylum seeker, has remained in the Geauga County Safety Center for more than two years despite three approvals of his asylum request. In a protest at the facility in July 2019, Holocaust survivor Roman Frayman cited Albert Einstein: “The world is too dangerous to live in, not because of the people who do evil, but because of the people who sit and let it happen.”
United States Customs and Border Patrol, Sandusky Bay Station, Ohio. In 2015, a suit filed in court by two organizations representing migrant farmworkers alleged border patrol agents in the area targeted individuals for traffic stops, questioning, and apprehensions based upon their Hispanic appearance. In 2017, in the case of Muniz-Muniz v. United States Border Patrol, the Sixth Circuit Court determined insufficient evidence to support the claims.
Northeast Ohio Correctional Center, Youngstown, Ohio. A privately-owned detention facility, the center is situated down a road away from public land and surrounded by barbed wire. Security teams are tasked with evicting trespassers. Though the facility has a capacity of only 260, it recently increased the number of undocumented detainees captured along the southern Mexico-US border to 350.
Ana, El Salvador, two days before her husband was deported from the United States to El Salvador and banned from returning to the United States for ten years
Ana, holding the protective amulet her mother-in-law gave her as blessing for the journey from El Salvador northward to be reunited with her husband in the United States
Ana’s daughter, Kenya Vanessa, El Salvador
Name withheld to protect privacy. "On the morning we left our village for the journey north, my daughter went to school as usual, not realizing that she would not return to our home that day or perhaps forever. In the afternoon, when the time for recess at the school approached, I closed the door to our home behind me and went to the school to collect her, leading her to the chapel in the village rather than back home. My mother was waiting at the entrance and after greeting us she took our hands and drew us inside, drawing forth some holy water and sprinkling it on our shoes as blessing for the journey. As we stepped back onto the street, we said our goodbyes and boarded a bus, leaving our home village and my mother behind. It is my mother whom I miss most when thinking of my former life."
Our Lady of Guadalupe, Sacred Heart Chapel, Lorain, Ohio
Maua, Burundi, arrived in the United States on June 2, 2018
Khwater Nayef, from Iraq, arrived in the United States on August 31, 2007 and currently the Refugee Student Coordinator at the Multilingual Multicultural Education Department, Cleveland Metropolitan School District, Cleveland, Ohio
Chol, survivor of torture, South Sudan, arrived in the United States on January 28, 2019 and recently granted asylum
Chol, South Sudan, arrived in the United States on January 28, 2019 and currently in his last year of high school with dreams of playing basketball in college and using his talents to one day sponsor the rest of his family for resettlement from South Sudan to the United States
St. Vitus Church, Cleveland, Ohio
Name withheld to protect privacy, El Salvador
St. Vitus Church, Cleveland, Ohio
Marie, Democratic Republic of the Congo, arrived in the United States on November 28, 2018
On June 29, 2018, more than 100 agents from the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Homeland Security, and US Customs and Border Patrol (CBP), backed by helicopter air support, executed a criminal search warrant and raided the Fresh Mark packaging plant in Salem, Ohio. The raid lead to the arrest and detention of 146 individuals who were deemed to be illegal immigrants, primarily from Guatemala. The arrests impacted hundreds of families who were given refugee at the Centro San Pablo Community Center, run by St. Paul Church, which navigated the situation for and offered legal services in partnership with Catholic Charities to the children who were impacted by the unexpected detention of their parents. Those detained were held at the Northeast Ohio Correctional Center and the Geauga County Jail. In the intervening months, many of the men who were not detained moved away from the region while others took jobs on local farms.
On June 5, 2018, following an investigation started in 2017 and conducted by the US Department of Homeland Security, federal immigration agents arrested 114 workers at Corso’s Flower and Garden Center in Sandusky, Ohio. Part of the crackdown on undocumented workers, the raid was undertaken during the weeks in which family separations were being conducted on the US-Mexico border.
Masoka, Refugee Services Program, Democratic Republic of the Congo, arrived in the United States on May 1, 2018
Yaaroub, Iraq, arrived in the United States on August 5, 2014
Veronica wiping the face of Jesus at the sixth station of the cross, St. Vitus Church, Cleveland, Ohio. Tradition suggests that Veronica was moved with sympathy when she witnessed Jesus carrying his cross to Golgotha, offering him her veil to wipe his forehead. On accepting her offer, Jesus held it to his face, then handed it back, his image impressed upon it. The piece of cloth became known as the Veil of Veronica.
Hezekia and Grace’s daughter, Anna, Democratic Republic of the Congo, arrived in the United States on August 31, 2016